Bush Survival!

This afternoon Michael, our Adventure for Good guide, took us out to the back of the camp site for some lessons on bush survival.

Our group first wanted to learn about building a shelter first, so Michael began by showing us how to tie a variety of knots. We would need these to secure the tarpaulin on our shelter.

Once we had learnt to tie the knots successfully, we began to set up a shelter by tying rope between two trees and securing it to ensure that it was tight.

We then lay a tarpaulin on top of this rope and secured it to the ground using tent pegs and rope. We then had created something that would keep us dry if it rained, as the water would run off the sides of the shelter.

Following this we went to the bush to collect tinder and a collection of sticks ranging from the thickness of half of a pencil to the thickness of our thumbs.

We dug a hole in the ground which we lined with a few sticks. This would keep our fire out of the mud at the bottom of the hole. Next we made a bundle of tinder and lit a match underneath it to start the fire. To keep it going we added the sticks that we had collected earlier.

That night we ventured to the bush to sleep under this type of shelter. Miss Stone and the girls found a large spot to build their shelter and the girls secured it to ensure that the tarpaulin was tight. The boys chose an area that was slightly smaller, which made it far more difficult to set up their shelter.

Before bed we had a bonfire and ate delicious marshmallows which was great fun! We were all pretty cold overnight but most of us settled down into the shelter well. Next time the boys decided that they would choose a larger camp ground as some water came in on a couple of boys in the morning.