Category Archives: Competitions

Ray Mears on the Legend of Grey Owl

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In 2015, Ray journeyed deep into the remote backcountry of the Temagami region of Ontario, Canada. Here he found himself immersed in Canada’s canoe culture, and the captivating legend of Archibald Belaney, better known as Grey Owl.

Grey Owl Portrait

Archibald Belaney, better known as Grey Owl

Born in the British seaside town of Hastings in 1888, Belaney would eventually become one of the most powerful spokespersons for the preservation of a pristine wilderness and a strong Native identity in Canada. From childhood he held a fascination for the Native peoples of North America, and at the age of seventeen Belaney left England for Canada. However, it was not until he was in his forties that Belaney began his career as the conservationist for which he is best known today. Continue reading →

Ontario Tourism Expedition – Winner Revealed

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Thank you to everyone who entered the recent Ontario Tourism competition to win a wilderness adventure to Ontario with Ray Mears. Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership has now revealed the winner of their UK prize draw. Congratulations to Jonathan Armstrong (pictured with his wife below) from Manchester, who was drawn at random from over 26,000 entries to the competition.

Jonathan and Joanne Armstrong

Jonathan and Joanne Armstrong, winners of the trip of a lifetime with Ray Mears to Ontario

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Win 1 of 3 Bergans Morgedal Backcountry Anoraks

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To celebrate the long-awaited return of the Bergans Morgedal Backcountry Anorak, Woodlore will be giving away three of these excellent cotton smocks in the coming weeks leading up to their release.

Bergans Morgedal Backcountry Anorak

The Bergans Morgedal Backcountry Anorak

To enter this exclusive competition, all you need to do is visit the product page here and click on the ‘Notify Me’ button; then simply enter your name and e-mail address. By doing this you will receive an automated e-mail once the product is available to purchase, but you will also be entered into our prize draw.

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Your Chance to Interview Woodlore Instructor Keith Whitehead

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Some of you dedicated Woodlore blog fans may remember an interview that took place with Dan Hume back in August 2011, that comprised of questions asked by you.  This year we are offering you the chance to put questions to our recently appointed Instructor Keith Whitehead.  Keith has very kindly offered himself up as an interviewee, and will be answering a selection of your questions on topics chosen by you.

Keith Whitehad

Woodlore Instructor Keith Whitehead

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Your chance to interview a Woodlore Instructor – Dan Hume

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Dan Hume

Woodlore instructor Dan Hume on our Arctic Experience expedition

For the dedicated Woodloreans out there who have been following our blog since its inception last year, you may remember that last summer we asked all of you for your thoughts on how we could improve our blog.

One of the ideas put forward was for an ‘Ask a Woodlore Instructor’ post, whereby we would take questions submitted by you and put them to one of our instructors. Well, it may have taken us a year to get round to it, but here we are!

Dan Hume, one of Woodlore’s Fundamental Instructors, has very kindly offered himself up as our first interviewee, and will be answering a selection of your questions on topics chosen by you.

During his career at Woodlore, Dan has led our Fundamental Bushcraft, Woodsense and Traditional Living Skills courses, as well as assisting on our Arctic Experience expeditions. Later this year, he will be leading our Wilderness Navigation and Journeyman courses for the very first time.

If you’d like to get involved, all you need to do is post your question as a comment below (we’ll keep all of the comments hidden before picking the best ones to put forward to Dan).

The person who submits the best question, as chosen by Dan himself, will win a £10.00 Woodlore Voucher.

This has the makings of a really interesting article, so we’re excited (and maybe a little worried) to see what sort of questions we get!

ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED

Win a Seeland Keeper Hunting Cap

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After receiving numerous enquiries from our customers, we recently started stocking the waterproof hunting cap which Ray wore in his Northern Wilderness series:

The Seeland Keeper Hunting Cap is a breathable, fleece-lined peaked hat designed specifically for hunting and stalking, and we’re giving one away.

The Seeland Keeper Peaked Hunting Cap

The Seeland Keeper Peaked Hunting Cap

To win one of these hats, all you have to do is answer the following question:

From our Online Shop, what is Ray’s favourite item of clothing, which he often wears when stalking?

The first person to comment with the correct answer will win a Seeland Keeper Cap in the size of their choice.

Good luck!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Ciaran Rooney! Ciaran was the first to comment with the correct answer, which is indeed the Swazi/Ray Mears Tahr Anorak. A Seeland Keeper Cap is on it’s way to you. Thanks to everyone else for all your entries as well.

Limited-edition Ray Mears Explorer Map giveaway

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At the beginning of 2011, Ray gave two talks at the ExCel Centre in London as part of The Outdoors Show. To coincide with this appearance, the Ordnance Survey group produced a limited run of Ray Mears Explorer Maps, covering an area of Britain of Ray’s choosing.

Ray chose the New Forest, a favourite area of his, and one which he visited as part of his latest Wild Britain series.

Limited-edition Ray Mears OS Explorer Map - The New Forest

Limited-edition Ray Mears OS Explorer Map - The New Forest

Nearly all of these maps were given away to attendees of The Outdoors Show; however, we were able to get our hands on the last three! If you’d like to get hold of one of these maps, we’ll be giving them away with the next three purchases of the Silva Expedition 15TDCL Compass.

If you’d like to take us up on this offer, what you’ll need to do is e-mail us with your name and address. If you are one of the first three people to get in touch, we will reply with a confirmation to say that you can now go ahead and place your compass order, and your free map will simply be included in your parcel.

Update: Congratulations to Dave, Simon and Mark, who got in there first and nabbed the three remaining maps.

Butterfly identification competition

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During the second half of summer back in 2010, Woodlore Field Staff member Sarah Day took some fantastic photos of a butterfly that she had spotted. The first person who can correctly identify the species will win a £10.00 Woodlore Voucher, which can be used against any items of kit in our Online Shop or against a Bushcraft Course of your choice. Good luck!

The butterfly, correctly identified as a Male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus)

The butterfly, correctly identified as a Male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus)

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Another animal track ID competition

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As with our last competition, the picture below shows an animal track which was photographed by Woodlore office member Steve, on a trip to East Africa. As always, the first person to correctly identify it wins a £10.00 Woodlore Voucher – good luck!

Animal print

The animal print found in East Africa, correctly identified as that of a baboon

It seems like this print threw a lot of you, and some of us as well! However, it was correctly identified by Jamie as the print of a baboon – well done Jamie.

If you’d like to brush up on your skills at tracking and identifying wildlife, we recommend taking part in the Woodlore Tracking course, or, alternatively, taking a look at the Animal Tracks & Signs book.