OVERVIEW
Course Duration: 6 Weekends between 18th May 2024 and 6th October 2024
Course Timings: 10:00 Saturday - 15:00 Sunday
Group Size: Family Units
Age Range: 8+ Contact us with any questions
Spread over a 6 month period, the 6 individual weekends introduce the whole family to the basics of survival and wilderness living then gradually builds on these to increase confidence and improve personal skills. Our picturesque 250 acre Oxfordshire woodland offers the perfect backdrop to cover a wide variety of habitats, flora and fauna. As the seasons change over the duration of the course your family unit will start to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to survive and thrive in wilderness style camps. Our experienced instructors will ensure everyone is challenged with appropriate skills and knowledge expanded during every task and activity. Although the content is comprehensive there's still plenty of personal time set aside to focus on your own projects or needs as a family, always with the full back up of your instructors to offer guidance and advice if needed.
£550pp or book with a £110 Deposit
Make the Woodland your weekend escape
After the initial welcome and introductions at the meeting point it will be time to load up with bags and make the 15 minute walk through the woods to main camp. Here you'll get acquainted with key bits of kit and resources before heading out on a tour of the woodland to orientate yourselves. Your instructor will open your eyes to points of interest and resources to help you site your permanent camp for the duration of the course.
We will go into great depths throughout this course, and you and your family will be getting hands on with all aspects. From firelighting to shelter building, and using sharp tools safely and responsibly, and that's just the first weekend!
Embrace new experiences and forge lasting memories
Once you're all settled into your new woodland environment, we'll open the option to arrive on Friday evenings from weekend two. This means you can enjoy the peace and tranquility of the woods, and get yourselves immersed in the serenity that it offers. The teaching will continue on the Saturday morning, where we'll introduce you to more and more skills as the course progresses.
You'll soon notice the change to the young people that is offered by the woods, as they become used to the routine and the responsibility offered in our sessions. You'll carve your own projects to take away, but that's secondary to the incredible life long memories that you'll create.
What is there to learn?
During this course you will learn how we can live comfortably in a natural environment, making efficient use of the wealth of resources available to us. You'll build your own shelter at your own family camp, site a fire your family will manage as a cohesive unit, and use it to prepare delicious wild food. Your shelter will house a raised bed, insulating you from the elements offering you the chance to relinquish your modern day sleeping system.
As the course progresses, we'll hand the cooking role over to the family unit to draw on the knowledge that's been given to prepare, cook and supplement a provided meat source with natural greens that you can forage. We're firm believers in teaching where our food really comes from, and how we can get that meat from the animal in a respectful way. We'll take a look at means of catching our prey - though for moral, ethical and legal reasons we won't be capturing the game we prepare, but we will be harvesting invasive Signal Crayfish.
We will of course cater for any widely recognised dietary needs. Some meals will be catered by our staff, others will be prepared by yourselves, and some will need to be bought in with you, we'll let you know with plenty of time when this is the case. For those parents looking to make this an educational experience, we'll use game preparation sessions to look at the biology and anatomy of the animals we use, so the young people (and adults!) can gain a better understanding of the world around them.
The rhythm of the woods will become very familiar. Your eyes will be opened to a huge array of wildlife that we're lucky to occupy the woods with, often resulting in precious experiences.
We'll take an in depth look at making wild water safe to drink. There are several ways we can use man made or natural filters to remove any contaminants, before boiling to make it safe to consume. While we don't rely on wild water when we're in the woods, it's an incredibly useful skillset to hold for taking your family on other trips in the future, wherever that may be in the world.
Safe use of cutting tools is fundamental to Bushcraft skills, and we certainly don't shy away from getting the kids hands on with them. We will show everyone the safe ways we can use knives and saws to accomplish various tasks, including food preparation, carving and other crafts. You'll have plenty of opportunity to carve your own projects, but we'll also show you how to make your own kitchen utensils. You'll be able to take these home and use them in the kitchen to keep the atmosphere of the woods close to mind. You will also create your own cooking set up, to suspend a dutch oven over your fire.
Fire has always been close to our hearts as a species. It's vitally important for everything we do, even in this modern era. We'll have a very detailed look into how we can light the camp fire you'll have at your own shelters. Using sparks, friction, sun light and more we will get the whole family to be hands on and creating this encapsulating camp feature. It's a skill to last a life time, and a session that will be remembered. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be lighting your own camp fires to really gain the experience of making your camp whole.
Now you've covered animals from air, land and water, our attention is turned to looking closer at the plants and trees that are of use with a foraging game. By the end of the afternoon the woods should be a little less green and brown by becoming an abundant resource for food, medicine and fibres.
We receive great feedback from this course year on year, from families that have gained so much more than an awesome series of weekends. Why not treat your family to what could be the most memorable getaway yet?
Weekend One: 18th & 19th May 2024
Weekend Two: 15th & 16th June 2024
Weekend Three: 20th & 21st July 2024
Weekend Four: 17th & 18th August 2024
Weekend Five: 14th & 15th September 2024
Weekend Six: 5th & 6th October 2024