What You Need to Survive Outdoors
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I’ve always been a keen camper, but I’m nowhere near as tough as Bear Grylls or Ray Mears. I’m only ever interested in fair weather camping.
But some of my hardier mates were discussing the minimum needed to survive a few nights outdoors at this chilly time of year.
We concluded that the bare essentials would consist of shelter, somewhere warm to sleep and the means to create fire and find food and water. So the outcome of the beer fuelled conversation has been the challenge for us to spend two days and nights surviving and sleeping outdoors.
We will take some tents, a cosy and warm sleeping bag each, a knife and some water, as well as warm clothes and stout footwear. This is all the camping gear that we’ll be taking.
We’re not allowing ourselves to take a lighter or matches, which will make it tough to start a fire and we will not be taking any food. So we’ll be trying to snare a rabbit or two, or maybe scraping some road-kill for a road-kill cook off.
This reminds me of a similar challenge that I undertook way back when I was a boy scout. On that occasion we were allowed to take a little food, but no shelter and no means of starting a fire. We started a fire using the friction method and built bivouacs using branches, leaves and straw. I remember that this was a lot of fun, but hard work.
The most useful thing that each of us took with us that time was our knives. You may have noticed how this is the key survival essential that Bear Grylls always has with him when he parachutes into a wilderness somewhere. Armed with a good quality knife you’re able to cut wood for fire or a shelter. You can skin and prepare a rabbit for cooking and make the snare needed to trap the rabbit in the first place.
So I hope that you will wish me luck on my forthcoming survival challenge weekend. But I shall definitely be taking my mobile phone so if we don’t have any luck with rabbits or road kill I’ll be able to call for a pizza!
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