Leo Chilcott
APPRENTICE INSTRUCTOR
Leo grew up in London and came to bushcraft later than some, having spent much of his working life in scientific animation.
This often meant getting to grips with complex subjects and finding simple ways to explain them, a habit which has followed him, for better or worse, into the woods.
His interest in bushcraft began after his first Woodland Ways course, where a passing curiosity rather quickly got out of hand.
He soon signed up for the two-year Woodland Wayer and has been trying to catch up ever since.
For Leo, bushcraft brings together many of the things he has always been drawn to: understanding how things work, why they matter, where they come from, and how they fit into the bigger picture.
It has helped him see these skills not just as useful things to learn, but as a way of understanding where humans have come from, how we once related to the natural world, and how much of that connection modern life has managed to misplace.
He has since joined Woodland Ways expeditions to the Amazon and Kenya, both of which gave him a broader perspective on different landscapes, cultures, and ways of living with the natural world.
For someone who grew up in the city, time in the woods has become a welcome antidote to modern life and a reminder that the more we understand our environment, the more we feel at home in it.