Category Archives: Bushcraft Courses & Expeditions

Bushcraft Courses & Expeditions

How Woodlore’s First Aid Training paid off

Recently, Woodlore field staff member Adrian Newton e-mailed us to let us know that the first aid training provided to him by Jamie and his team at Fusion Medical Limited, during Woodlore’s Training Week, had really paid off.

Luckily the incident did not occur on one of our courses, but at Adrian’s place of work.  It just goes to show, accidents can happen anywhere and you never know when you may need this life-saving training! 

This is what Adrian had to say;

“Hi everyone in the office,

Hope everyone is well. I just wanted to pass on my thanks to Woodlore and Jamie for all the first aid training you have given us. I got to use it for real yesterday when a scaffold collapsed at work with a friend, Stewart on top of it.

Stewart fell twelve feet, hitting his head on the way down. I wasn’t the first person there and Stewart had been moved to a safer place away from the scaffold. He was conscious but had blood pouring from the back of his head. I got him to remain in the position I found him, sitting upright, keeping his head still. I was worried about a neck or back injury. He complained his back hurt but there was nowhere flat to lie him down. I stopped the bleeding with every bandage in the first aid kit. Standard kits for the workplace really are rubbish. There wasn’t even any surgical gloves let alone anything to support his neck.

The paramedics arrived and gave him a thorough examination. They put a brace around his neck and were happy enough to walk him off site. He was x-rayed at the hospital and had twelve staples in the cut. He’s back at work today. Damn! He’s got a hard head.  

Thanks again to the company for organising the courses for us and if it’s at all possible, could you send my thanks to Jamie. It could have been a lot worse, but thanks to you guys I didn’t feel overwhelmed dealing with it.

See you all soon.”

If you are interested in attending a first aid training course, Woodlore, teamed with Fusion Medical Limited, have several excellent courses running, ranging from a 2-day to week long courses:

Woodlore’s Wilderness Emergency Medic Courses

All of our first aid courses are approved by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and provide you with a certificate.  We  include mainly scenario-based learning as, after many years of teaching experience, we find this is the best way to remember such vital information.

Woodlore Canoeing in the Ardeche course

At this time of year, James Bath and Di Taylor from the Woodlore offices would normally be returning from France, after running our Canoeing in the Ardeche courses with canoe instructor Blue.  However, after the major flooding of last year and the inconsistent water levels we ‘ve experienced for the past few years, we decided to run the course in September for this year.

We expect that in September the weather will still be excellent, but with lower water levels, so we’ll able to paddle every day!  Furthermore, with the school summer holidays over, the river should be much quieter too.  This year we have revamped the Ardeche course to include evening lectures to allow more time on the water.

We still have some places remaining for this year’s Canoeing in the Ardeche course in September, so please visit the website and book up if you are interested to avoid missing out on this fantastic experience.

Cleints canoeing in the Ardeche

Clients tackling rapids on the Ardeche river in France

We will be releasing the 2012 Canoeing in the Ardeche course dates later in the year.

Woodlore Announce the 2012 Winter Expedition Dates

We are pleased to announce the release of Woodlore’s 2012 winter course dates and, after the release of our new UK courses for 2012, we couldn’t let the overseas courses go by without a new one too!

We are very excited to reveal a new course developed by Brian Desmond, our long term friend and colleague in Norway.  The new course is called Nordic Intermediate Ski Touring, and to attend you need to have experience in Nordic Skiing, either with one of the existing Woodlore courses in Norway or similar.  In addition to this new course, we will also be offering two Nordic Skiing courses in January/February and a Heroes of Telemark course in March.  All of these courses will now be run Glyn Sheppard, the chief instructor at Brian’s training centre in Norway.  

The striking scenery of Norway, where our skiing expeditions take place

The striking scenery of Norway, where our skiing expeditions take place

In 2012 we will also be running our ever-popular Arctic Experience courses in February, led by Ray Mears and Lars Falt.  If you are looking to attend a course with Ray Mears in 2012, the Arctic Experience will be a fantastic opportunity. If you are interested please book quickly as these places are bound to fill fast.

Woodlore announce the 2012 UK course dates

We are pleased to announce the release of Woodlore’s UK course dates for 2012.  These long-awaited dates include our usual range of bushcraft courses, as well as some new and exciting courses that have been in development this winter.

Fallow Deer

Fallow Deer

The new courses we are now offering include:

The existing courses still on offer for 2012 include:

Please visit the Woodlore website or call the office on 01580 819668. for more details or to book. Please note that we will be releasing the 2012 overseas course dates at the end of May this year.

The Woodlore course season is underway!

The 2011 UK bushcraft course season is now underway at Woodlore.  This year’s season started off with two Fundamental Bushcraft courses, a Wilderness Navigation course and a Camp Craft course.  All of the courses so far have been a great success and the weather has been fantastic; we haven’t had a drop of rain!  So plenty of happy, tanned students around the campfire! It’s also been fantastic to see the field team back out in the woods again.

This week sees the start of the Introduction to Bushcraft courses over the Easter weekend, which is forecast for even more sun and higher temperatures.

Di and Steven from the office popped up to visit the Camp Craft course last week, where the groups were putting the finishing touches to their own shave horses, as well as working on other carving projects:

Shaping a wooden peg for a shave horse

Shaping a wooden peg for a shave horse

Continue reading

The last Woodlore course of the year

Last week saw Woodlore’s final course of the season take place – a Fundamental Bushcraft course run by Woodlore Fundamental Instructor Dan Hume:

It’s been a very busy and exciting year.  I think we all felt the bite of autumn last week, preparing us for the coming winter. – Dan Hume.

The following feedback and photo were sent in by Krzys Lender, who attended the last Fundamental course:

Hi Folks,

Please find attached a couple of group photos from last week’s course. I’d like to say again what a great week it was and that Dan, Emma, Kevin and Nick were simply brilliant instructors who were patient, encouraging, motivating and inspirational. Thank you all so much!

I have booked a navigation skills course for next year so hope to see you all again.

FAO Emma – Just as you predicted, I found my cordage when I got home. It’s rubbish so I’m off out later to collect more nettles to make something better.

Regards,

Krzys

The last Woodlore course of 2010
The last Woodlore course of 2010

Here at Woodlore, we’re already getting prepared for and looking forward to the start of next year’s UK course season, which kicks off in April 2011. Hope to see you there!

New Fundamental Bushcraft course photos

Bow drill

Tackling the bow drill method of fire lighting on the Fundamental Bushcraft course

A new photo gallery is now online showcasing just some of the goings-on from our Fundamental Bushcraft courses from 2009 to 2010, including fire lighting, shelter building and spoon carving techniques:

Fundamental Bushcraft Photo Gallery

Spaces on our 2011 Fundamental Bushcraft courses are now live on our website and available to book.

New WEM2 first aid course photo gallery

An excellent selection of staff and student photos are now available to view in the Woodlore Photo Galleries area for the first ever Woodlore Wilderness First Aid course, which took place earlier this month. Be warned though, they’re not for the squeamish…

Instructor James Bath

Woodlore instructor James Bath on the WEM2 course

Woodlore’s brand new Junior Expedition Skills course

Tom with Junior students

Field staff member Tom with students during one of the navigation tasks

Last week we ran our first ever Junior Expedition Skills course. This is an advanced course for our younger woodloreans who have already completed the Junior Fundamental Bushcraft course, and are looking for ways to advance their skills in the field. Continue reading

Woodlore’s first WEM 2 first aid course

Last week we ran our first ever Woodlore Wilderness First Aid course, the second stage in our brand new series of wildnerness first aid courses run in conjunction with Fusion Medical Limited.  The course was a great success with all of the clients getting involved with the realistic and challenging first aid scenarios they were faced with, ranging from minor cuts to severe burns and major head injuries.  All the scenarios and injuries are based on real-life situations that could occur at home, at work or in the wilderness.

WEM 2

Woodlore instructor Dan Hume plays his part in one of the first aid scenarios

We now have a biography for Jamie Cooke from Fusion Medical Limited on the Specialist Instructors page of our website.  Jamie and his team from Fusion Medical Limited provide the first aid teaching on the series of Wilderness Emergency Medic courses Woodlore offer.