Category: Bushcraft / Wild Camping

UK Bushcraft & Wild Camping Blog / Vlog 2020 UPDATE!

~ Bushman All-OutDoors ~ 2 Comments

Hi all, This is just a very quick update on what’s been going on and also time for me to throw down my excuses as to why the online presense has been low …

uco bushcraft wild camping candle and hultafors axe
Great Bushcraft Candle Lantern with Hultafors Bruks Trekker Axe (Bushcraft Day Camp, Breakfast and Spoon Carving) Circa October 2018

So, Despite the Covid … thing, we have been super busy at work despite uncertainty in my line of work, but the Main factor for being away on youtube is a huge operating error with the ”good computer” this is the one I use for video editing and video / image storing etc. at the moment it is just inoperable so until it’s sorted there will probably be no videos online or if any, they will be short.

The 4×4 … As you know (if following the channel and previous posts on the blog) I am busy modifying a Suzuki Grand Vitara 4WD as an Overlanding 4×4 – this is taking up some of my time too mainly due to researching etc.
The Car hasn’t been on any trips yet other than the few days after purchase but I will most definitely be sure to video the first off roading or family trip for uploading and sharing with you all!

The Youtube Channel … Things took off very nicely maybe about a month or so after initiating the 250 subscriber give away (at time of writing, I am at 1,200+ Subcribers) – although the views and subscribers didn’t come around from the give away but mainly because of this one very lucky video upload (I took my Canvas French Army 2 man tent out for a first try during the week, for some reason it became very popular and at the time of writing it is somewhere above the 130,000 view mark).
As for the give away, only one winner actually followed the channel and claimed their prize ( Druthian Outdoors ) who was the first place winner and shall be recieving his package shortly.
I will try make the effort to contact the other two winners, but this is testament to the fact that subscriber pushes (the give away ones) only gain you one time subscribers and not actual followers who are interested in your content!

Morakniv Mora Heavy Duty Companion MG
My Original Bushcraft Knife – the Mora ”clipper” Heavy Duty Companion MG – Still taken out on some trips to this day

Losing Followers … Sadly the channel lost a hand full of subscribers, these would have been the ”bell notification” types – so real followers, this was in reponse to uploading a short video of myself doing an Engine Guard Installation on my 4×4.
I am truly sad to see these people go, even though I never knew them … but still, the main issue is that they either didn’t understand the purpose of my channel – or perhaps they are people who walk / hike or journey by other means through the countryside on Green Lanes and just don’t like the 4×4 / 4WD culture, for whatever reason.
My channel is ”Bushman AOD” the AOD stands for ”All-Out-Doors” so in essence, anything to do with the outdoors, not only Bushcraft and Wild Camping but also Hiking, Kayaking, Overseas Trips and yes, 4×4 Overlanding too as this will inevitably take me further into the countryside to discover new places!

Wild Camping with other Friends / Youtube Buddies … This is something I have been trying to organise for more than a year now! Long story short, I will be meeting up at some point with a YT friend but want to keep this quiet before we both upload the video/s – it all depends now on their own belief about this Covid thing and whether or not they are cool to camp with others, I do know the person in question will most likely be very busy once they are back at work!

Gear … I have attained quite a lot of new gear over the last year or so and most have been seen on some videos however some of it hasn’t really been featured or spoken about in any detail – I might make the effort to post about them here and briefly explain all of it. Things include Shelters, Rucksacks, Sleeping Gear and Clothing.

lixada wild camping bushcraft bush box stick stove
Lixada Stick / Twig Stove – great Wild Camping companion! Folding on hinges, weighs a fraction of the weight of the famous BushBox range and 4 times less cost!

Oversea Trips … I went to the Philippines in 2019, I did spend time in the mountains of Cebu and did some hiking / wild swimming, I even almost ran into a Rebel Group called the NPA (New Peoples Army) – don’t worry, we got out safe!
So loads of good footage of our travels is upcoming and perhaps also some photos and blog posts here too (once the computer is back online).

Interesting Upcoming Content ? … YES indeed! but when time allows, I have great plans mainly in the ”bushcraft” part of things with little and bigger projects planned, but things are quite hectic at the moment so .. literally only when time allows.
– One Very interesting event happened in the Philippines, I discovered a very unknown Fire Tinder and managed to create fire with it, whilst I am not claiming to be the only person in human history to have done so, I do think this is something very unknown and definitely not seen on any social media especially Youtube .. I will edit the video and upload once the time is right.

Wild Camping when everyone else wasn’t … did I camp in my garden? Did I ”wild camp” on a balcony? HELL NO! 😉

4×4 Again … As a reminder, the car will make me mobile, I can now reach places accross the UK and even farther, once the Bothies reopen (Hiking stop-over cottages in the UK), I will be travelling around and vising quite a few per year which will inevitably take me into Scotland – I got interested in Bothy culture through Funsized Earthling on youtube who spent a very interesting night in Cadderlie Bothy in Scotland near Glencoe.

I think that’s it, thanks for surviving this far, I do hope you take a look at the Youtube channel as I have spent many many hours editing videos for online viewing – it’s all free, if you don’t want to follow I am always grateful even just to see you in the comments just to say hi or even to give critical feedback!

Cheers
Bushman-AOD

Wild Camping Under a Storm-Felled Tree (Wild Camping England)

~ Bushman All-OutDoors ~ Leave a comment

I recce’d this woodland a good few months prior to this trip, about three spots were Identified as good for camping (this woodland has public access and many dog walkers including dog walking professionals come here).

I just needed a camp, things at work got busy and stressful so I needed some time away from society, even if only for 18 or so hours!

wild camping uk, camping under fallen tree
Fallen Beech Tree made a simple natural shelter option for the Rain to come – Wild Camping UK

My first option was a fallen Beech Tree which was still living, it created a nice shelter like structure which is suitable for a small tarp to be supported as a roof / shelter. There was a second option only if things were a little too busy in the woods – woodlands change a LOT especially ones which have many paths through them, luckily this time, spot #1 was good to go!

British Army Basha shelter and Bivvy Bag over my Snugopak Sleeping bag was the full Sleep-Shelter-System for the night
British Army BASHA Tarp shelter

Above (L to R):
(L): We have the Bivvy bag over the sleeping bag, some gear on the sides and the Basha tarp overhead.
(R): The view of the BASHA from a few meters back, it blends in relatively well and from a distance it was admittedly hard to spot.

Below: The full shelter setup was finished around 9:30 / 10pm after only being able to leave for the trip after 7pm and arriving on site just before 9pm – important items left at home? Yup, the Head Torch!!! Arghhh

Basha tarp over fallen tree wildcamping shelter
BASHA (British Army Standard Hotel Accommodation) Shelter fully set up with candle lantern

Dinner was supposed to be a nice lamb and veg stew but the time was just so late and honestly after cracking into the awesome Berliner Weiss by Stone Brewery I was reasonably content, I definitely just didn’t have the energy and will to slow cook a stew until 12 midnight! So I hit the sack early and decided to film everything the next day…

Usng mother nature to aid in gear storage – hehe
Northern Monk (UK) vs Stone Brewery (Germany) – sorry Lads and Lasses, the Germans won this round!
A visitor – smelled my brekkie!

Above: The next day I pretty much wanted to get the stew going early, here’s the two beers (Northern Monk – Hazy Pale Ale vs Stone Brewery – Berliner Weiss) I drank the Stone that evening and had the N.Monk the following morning – Stone won this contest with a very lemony / tangy beer which was very delicious and welcoming – BUT, The Haze Pale Ale was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I ususally hate beer in the morning.
I had a rogue visitor as well, the stew smelled THAT good!

zebra billy can cooking wild camp food uk
Lamb Stew cooking in the Zebra Billy can over the Trangia Alcohol (Meths) Burner – UK Woodland Wild Camp

Below: Just look at the juices! It takes good practice to make and enjoy stews in Billy Cans, it is so easy to burn the bottom if the levels of water are not maintained – cabbage was a welcome new addition and will likely be present on many future wild camp stews …

Blog Flix (11)
Lamb & Veg Wild Camp Stew – UK Woodland Bushcraft and Wild Camping

I brought a few nostalgic items along to show the youtube channel followers but remembered to take a flick too, I recently found my original first Ferrocerium (Fire Steel) which is more of an EDC (Every-Day Carry) tool used by prepper types, it is attached to a lanyard (Paracord of course)  and is cylindrical in form, breaks into 3 pieces which build into the rod and handle with seperate striker.
On the left is my Philippine Tirador (or Catty, Slingshot / Catapault) – I upgraded it with Theraband Rubber and it works very well despite the look.
Attached to the lanyard are the following; an emergency whislte bought earlier this year for a ”Virus” interrupted family hiking trip to Wales then finally a Swedish Army surplus can opener (All Below):

PHilippine Tirrador Catty Kettie Sling Shot Catapault with emergency whistle ferrocerium rod bushcraft wild camping
L to R: Tirador (Catapault / Slingshot) I bought last year in the Philippines, EDC Mini Ferrocerium Rod, Emergency Whistle and Swedish Surplus military can opener

The camp overall went well, I slept very well indeed and enjoyed the trip, amazingly I still managed to get my head down depite being awoken in the morning after 4am by the birds, I probably finally got up after 7:30 onwards – some filming was undertaken randomly between 4am when the rain first started and perhaps around 6 / 6:30am till I got down for another hours snoozing.

Bushcraft wild camp under tree leave no trace
Bushcraft Wild Camping – All Packed up and soon to head out! LNT (Leave No Trace) is an important aspect of Wild Camping, Always leave the site as you found it

Thanks so much for stopping by, if you are a WordPress blogger please do follow and let me know, I will swing by and follow your blog too!
PS: For non bloggers, you can comment below without an account! I would love to hear from you – comments are open to all

Wild Camping and Bushcraft Videos / Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channe/UCfZlsJViwitwPG3qiMIlZOA

Cheers
BushmanAOD

 

 

 

 

 

4x Natural Seed Heads Tinders – Bushcraft Firelighting Test (randomly collected)

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Here I field test four random natural tinders (dry seed heads from native plants) – I desperately needed to practice my Bushcraft Fire Lighting skills and what better way than to just randonly pick up anything you can find in the wild (Urban and Rural) to test out?

Note: I stongly advise the use and reliance on ones own natural intuition and being more observant – When I travelled to S.E Asia in 2019, I observed a certain fruit which had rotted below it’s tree, something said to me that day, this husk if you will, would make a good tinder – so I placed it aside to dry out better and managed to get the material to light and crate a fire! So far all my searches have brought nothing when looking whether anyone else has managed to do the same with the same fruit …
That event was documented both on video and images and will be uploaded in the future.

I will endure to constantly practice these skills whenever I find useable natural materials which strike me as good for tinder – whenever possible I will be sure to post here or on my youtube / facebook as well.

Lets find out how these four tinders fared in this field test …

Enjoy the video:

Bushcraft Wild Camping – Summer 2019 -MIDDLESEX United Kingdom

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I enjoyed a long overnight wild camping session in a Wildlife Trust managed woodland outside of London UK, late summer 2019.
During this session I pretty much just enjoy the serenity of the outdoors, I craft the simplest Pot Hanger possible so that I can adjust my cooking pots and drinking cup (for coffee / tea) over the open fire. The woodland is an Ancient Oak and Hazel (which is coppiced routinely) and to date I have camped here three times in the Polish Army Lavvu Palatka (a 40 year old Cold-War canvas tent), The British Army BASHA tarp and the French Army F1 Canvas two man tent.

polish lavvu suspension setup no poles
Polish Army Lavvu Palatka Canvas Tent – Bushcraft Wild Camping – No Poles Suspension setup

28 hours away from home, 4x fire cooked meals and I even experimented by making Blackberry Glazed Nordic Style Bacon!!!

Enjoy all 28 hours Crammed into this video:

My First National Park Wild Camp (Peak District – UK)

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Eyup! Here is the full installment of my Peak District (United Kingdom) wild camp session I had a few days before the UK Corona lockdown was announced – what a beautiful place! If I had the time I would have definitely stayed another night at least and, if I am somehow able to convince my wife, I would seriously want to go on a week long trip there and camp everynight at a new location!

In this video I set up the French Army surplus F1 Canvas 2man tent, as the rain was quite persistant I decided to whack on the British Army BASHA shelter as a rain fly – we had driving winds all night, quite moist and reasonably cold (although this was very mild for the midlands area at that time of year …

Wind, Rain, Views of Howden Resevoir, Mountain Rescue Chopper almost buzzed me, some rivers etc etc…. Good food, good drink.

Enjoy the viddy!

 

WildCamp Session Fire Nostalgia (Session #5: Polish Lavvu 5th Wild Camp) & Stick Stove Fuel Experiment

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Here is the Fifth installment of my #WildCampFireNostalgia moments / memories! But this is a special edition, in that I experimented with a new fueling concept that I thought of in the hopes of making the #Lixada Stick Stove more efficient in burn time …

So I got bored with spending so much time fueling the stick stoves I own, I was thinking of the #SwedishFireLog or #SwedishLogTorch method and wanted to bring the same / similar concept to the stick stove.

Below: The fire from the evening and cooking my dinner (I forgot what else there was but meat was Polish Sausages).

polish sausages polish army palatka tent wild camping
Polish Sausages over the Lixada folding stick stove

The next day I got the cut branches together and went ahead with the experiment:

Above: Packing the stove with thick cut branches and ensuring there is a center cavity to drop your lit tinder in to ignite the main fuel

Fire Starting – lixada stick stove
Fuel taking – lixada bushcraft stove

Above: (Left): Center taken and spreading over the rest of the fuel in the Lixads Bushcraft stick stove then (Right) much of the fuel is ignited and efficiently burning.

Conclusion: Longer fuel processing time but this is mitigated by relaxing and just concentrating on cooking your food, boiling your hot drink water etc and overall enjoying the fire more … so this is the better option when time or resources allow!

Cheers, Bushman

My Typical Food Supplies ( Wild Camping in the Peak District – United Kingdom )

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I just thought I would share this photo of my food supplies for 24 hours Wild Camping session I did a couple weeks ago in the Peak District.
Off Camera was the meat which was 4x Cumberland Style chipolata suasages and a pre-marinaded Pork steak.

camping food, freeze dried meals wild camping
24 hours Wild Camping dried food and wet

I brought pre-mixed coffees and a home made Mocha mix, the breakfast was mixed organic oats from morn flake which were so creamy, chia seeds and pumpkin seed with a little milk powder – No Sweeteners … you will find that organic oats do not need sweeteners. The above was lunch and breakfast with some for dinner, the main at dinner was The chipolata sausages cut into pieces with the pork steak and slightly stewed in the Zebra 12cm Billy can as an All Meat Stew – this turned out pretty good!

The mackerel fillets in the tin can was Thai Green Curry flavour, I do highly recommend this if you can find it!

Here is a sneak peek of the trip (5min video – no talking just nature, and me):

WildCamp Session Fire Nostalgia (Session #4: Polish Lavvu Fourth Wild Camp)

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Here is the 4th installment of my Wild Camp fires, this was circa late 2018 or early 2019 Winter, I went out again in the Lavvu (Polish Army Palatka poncho tent) as it was still my one and only Shelter at that time.

This was a nice open ground fire which was cleaned up easily the next day (LNT style).

I have had another 20+ wild camp sessions after this one so keep an eye out or follow the blog or facebook page for the future posts!

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WildCamp Session Fire Nostalgia (Session #3: Polish Lavvu Third Wild Camp)

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Okay this time around I am in a new location, playing around with OS (Ordanance Survey) Maps I found an Ancient Woodland which has a section which is hard to access …
Despite many a dog-walker or just nature lover walking the Ancient Wood less than a hundred meters away, I have a nice little Urban Wildcamping spot, very close to suburbs but just … hardly has any human activity, which is Great!

bushcraft fire
Bushcraft Wild Camping | Fire for breakfast

This location is quite far to walk so this ended up as a Bike Packing trip, and this time around the stick stove was not needed and I had a true proper camp fire in the evening and the following day for Breakfast etc.

bushcraft dinner in the polish lavvu tent
My wildcamping dinner Autumn 2018 in the Polish Army Palatka ”Lavvu” tipi tent

Dinner was Sweet corn, mushrooms and peas cooked up in the Pathfinder canteeen with some spices and salt etc, together with a nicely cooked pre-marinated Lamb Chop and all washed down with a couple UK Ales …

Hows the below feather stick? It was probably my third attempt since discovering Bushcraft ….

bushcraft feather sticking skills
Bushcraft Feather Stick curls

 

Military Ration Field Test: the NEW British Army (Halal) Single Meal ORP Ration

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I went out to try this British Army MRE Ration, having previously bought and enjoyed a 24 hour ORP (Operational Ration Pack) – which was Menu #1 (Vegetarain), this included three meals with 4000 kcals serving one soldier their day’s worth of nutrition.

This ration however, (Halal ”Chicken & Dhal – menu #3) serves as one meal which covers 8 hours and provides 1500 kcals – whilst still offering very similar items and accessories which appear in the 24 hour standard ration!

The main difference between the SMR (Single Meal Ration) and the 24 hour one is that the SMR Comes with a Flameless Ration Heater (FRH) whilst the 24 hour ORP’s do not include such.

british army ration smr orp
British Army SMR ORP 8 hour Halal Ration 2019

I thoroughly enjoyed this ration and have started a new ”MRE / Ration rating system” which features in the below video …so why not see how it scored?