Cone wars, an epic battle of wits and stealth, fought in good-natured jest, saw the Woodlore staff up against the students of the Junior Fundamental Bushcraft course.

It began one evening; three resourceful students were spotted acting suspiciously, doing what can only be described as a ‘naughty run’ – a bit like a cartoon burglar. Their ammo gathering foray was quickly cut short though by a pincer movement by Nick and Tom, but not before a jumper, sleeves tied to form a bag, full of pine cones had been collected.

Their planned attack in ruins, the students spent the rest of the evening around another group’s campfire looking at animal skulls from Sarah’s nature box. When they returned to their tarps however, they discovered they had been well and truly coned! Sleeping bags and rucksacks were stuffed full of the ammunition they had collected that evening.

They vowed to fight back, and so began a relentless campaign, which would by its conclusion result in the coning of a staff tarp, two rucksacks, a pair of boots and a Land Rover…

The first attack on the Woodlore Land Rover

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During the recent Junior Fundamental Bushcraft course, a number of interesting wildlife sightings were made:

While out on a nature walk one day, the group spotted a beautiful fallow doe with a young fawn; they stopped on a well-lit section of track and looked back at the group for a few seconds before carrying on. In the middle of the night, one of the students woke up to find a badger pottering about near his tarp. And, last but not least, a huge grass snake was found near the tarps which, by the look of its bulging appearance, had just eaten.

The somewhat bloated looking grass snake spotted on the Junior Fundamental

We’ve recently had a couple of cancellations on this year’s Journeyman courses, taking place at the end of August. The Journeyman is Woodlore’s advanced-level Bushcraft course that takes place in Scotland, which people can attend once they have passed the Woodlore Fundamental Bushcraft course.

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A new photo gallery is now live on our website for the Introduction to Bushcraft course, showing some of the pictures taken by staff and students over this year’s course season.

Just one of the leaf shelters built by students this year

For what seemed like the first time in years, students were lucky enough to have the sun shining over them while pitching their tarps, learning fire-lighting techniques, cooking over the campfire and building their leaf shelters.

Annemarie Hopper, a student of a number of Woodlore’s courses between 1998 – 1999, including the Introduction to Bushcraft as well as a wilderness cooking course, kindly got in touch with us recently to say she had some photos to hand that she had taken all those years back.

The resulting pictures were great to see, offering a glimpse into Woodlore’s past. After all these years, it’s amazing to see just how much has changed, while so much has stayed the same…

Ray Mears demonstrating the bow drill technique of fire lighting

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The hand drill method of fire-lighting

As you may know, Woodlore’s very first Traditional Living Skills course took place in late June – a brand new course aimed at teaching traditional living skills & classic wilderness Bushcraft.

The Course leader and office staff member Steven managed to get some photos of just some of the skills and techniques being taught on this course, and the resulting Intermediate Bushcraft photo gallery is now live for all to see.

A couple of us from the Woodlore offices took some time out to visit the Traditional Living Skills course last week to see how everyone was getting on. This is a brand new course for Woodlore which has been designed as a ‘next step’ from the Fundamental. The Traditional Living Skills course is aimed at teaching you how to live comfortably in the forest with minimal equipment.

Steve having a go at the hand drill method with some help from Dan

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Last weekend saw the very last of our Introduction to Bushcraft courses for the year. Our newest member of the office team, Harvey, went along to join in with the fun and see what happens on our courses.

The British weather did not let Harvey and the rest of the group down, staying beautifully hot for the duration of the course. Surely it’s going to chuck it down soon?!

The Hootchie – Harvey’s home for the first night

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Woodlore’s Wilderness Emergency Medic level 1 course

June was an exciting time for Woodlore, with our first ever Woodlore Emergency First Aider course taking place. It’s the first in a new range of Woodlore First Aid courses, providing a solid introduction to the application of First Aid in the outdoors.

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Preparing to tackle the rapids of the Ardeche Gorge, France

The dates for next year’s canoeing expedition in the Ardeche have now been released on our website and are available to book. Next year’s course has now been moved forward to September, in order to take advantage of the warmer water and more reliable water levels, after the monsoon seen in May this year!

To take a look at photographs from previous year’s trips to the Ardeche, please visit our Course Photo Gallery.