Cooking outdoors doesn’t always require a metal pot, a camping stove or a kettle over a fire. One traditional technique, known as stone boiling, uses heated stones to warm water in a separate container. It takes patience and careful preparation, but it’s a fascinating way to explore how people could heat water and prepare food…
Getting a fire going isn’t always about adding more tinder or piling on extra kindling. Sometimes, a small amount of carefully directed air is all that’s needed to help an established bed of embers burn more strongly. A traditional fire blowpipe is a simple tube that lets you direct your breath towards a particular spot…
After a spell of heavy rain, some parts of the ground dry quickly while others remain muddy for days. You can often predict where the water will collect before the rain even starts, simply by looking at the shape of the land, the soil and the way the surrounding ground drains. This is a useful…
Cooking outdoors is part of the enjoyment of camping, but using a stove in the wrong place can turn an ordinary meal into a life-threatening situation. Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas produced when fuels such as gas, petrol, charcoal, wood and other carbon-based materials burn without enough oxygen. It has no colour, smell or…
Sleeping on the ground outdoors can be uncomfortable, even when the weather is mild. Cold ground draws heat away from your body, while roots, stones and uneven surfaces can make it difficult to settle down. A traditional bough bed tackles some of these problems by creating a raised or thickly insulated sleeping platform from natural…
A woodland floor, hedgerow or patch of grass can look quiet until you start noticing the signs of life around you. A hole beneath a tree root, a nest tucked into a hedge or a web stretched between two branches can tell you that an animal has been using that spot for shelter, raising young…
Water can look calm from the bank and still be moving with surprising force beneath the surface. A smooth patch might indicate deeper water, a line of bubbles may reveal the direction of a current, and a patch of swirling water can show where the flow of the water meets an obstacle. Learning to notice…
There’s a useful difference between walking a route someone else has marked and being able to mark a route for somebody to follow. The second takes a little more thought. You need to decide where a marker belongs, make its meaning clear and check that the next person can follow it without having to guess….
Knowing how to take a pulse is a useful skill to have outdoors. If someone feels unwell during a walk, struggles during a strenuous climb or needs a moment to recover after exertion, being able to measure a heart rate gives you another piece of information about how they’re doing. It’s also a straightforward way…
Falling into water unexpectedly can be frightening, even if you’re a strong swimmer. You might slip from a riverbank, fall off a paddleboard, get caught by a wave or enter the water while walking beside a reservoir. Your first instinct may be to thrash about or swim immediately towards the nearest bank, but cold water…
