Now the family have all grown and flown the nest he decided to pick up the passion for an outdoors life and first explored woodland management by spending time with renowned woodsman and timber frame house builder Ben Law to qualify in sustainable woodland management. Next up was a return to fitness after years of sedentary work and the challenge of completing the London Marathon in 2010 but something didn't feel right so he researched a different approach and took up barefoot running to connect fully with nature and appreciate the way our ancestors would have moved. This sparked a whole new outlook on life for Barry and a search for a simpler approach to everything in his life but a framework was required to do it sensibly. Permaculture was the answer - in its simplest form it is a design tool with its roots in food production but ultimately can be applied to anything in life. The new life design led him to achieving the Superhome energy efficiency status for his house and a change to working in the charitable sector where he drew on his marketing background to raise money through trust applications for a regional autism charity before switching roles to work directly with children affected by autism.

During this time Barry was approached by a small charity that uses Bushcraft as a means of engaging with adults with mental health issues and main stream schools to help individuals boost their self-esteem, well-being and confidence. The proposal was for him to use his educational experience to help deliver structured sessions to over 2,000 clients in a 6 month period. With challenge accepted he proceeded to boost his knowledge of the natural world and explore new skills. It was via this search that Barry came to courses and qualifications in Forest School teaching; Adult Education Sector teaching; flint knapping and bronze casting (with Will Lord); knife making (with Dave Budd); and ultimately to Woodland Ways via a fantastic trip to the Sahara Desert in 2014.

Barry was so impressed with the desert survival experience, the ethos and professionalism of Woodland Ways that he signed up to the 2 year Woodland Wayer course on his return. This journey gave him a firm foundation of knowledge which also enabled him to gain his IOL Bushcraft Competency qualification and ultimately led to the hard-earned Instructors shirt. Since then he has seen the beauty of Sweden from a canoe, lived with the Maasai in Kenya, witnessed the wildlife and mountains of Croatia and seen the impact our modernlives have on the wildlife of South Africa and gained his CyberTracker Level 2 qualification. He continues to look for more adventures and skills to add to his repertoire so that he can inspire others. To read more about Barry's journey to a simple life read his blog post which gives an insight into what was involved - https://www.woodland-ways.co.uk/blog/inspiration/oh-for-a-simple-life/