Bushcraft and survival skills at the Ultimate Activity Company, near Hereford
by Angus, 28 March, 2019, 3 comments
I’ve never opened a tampon before, so my newfound friend Tamsin showed me how. Then I started unpeeling it to find it’s really just compacted cotton wool. Tampons turn out to be ideal for lighting a fire if you don’t have matches because they are really compressed cotton wool and can be lit with a small spark. I did have a fire steel in my survival kit box and just like our friendships, we were soon creating sparks and warming up. We were at the Ultimate Activity Company’s short course on what to do in the wild when things go awry.
Andy, our trainer, with his background as a marine, explained the imaginary position we were in: on a sailing trip eight of us had moored our boat in a sheltered sea loch on the west coast of Scotland and during the night the wind riled up causing the boat to hit a rock. It sank, leaving us just enough time to get off with little more than what we stood up in (along with my survival kit in a watertight tin). Two of the crew had gone off to get help - leaving six of us to survive outdoors, perhaps for several days. Read more...
