Badger Bushcraft Open Day
Written by Phil Brown, Badger Bushcraft Monday, 18 October 2010 17:00
The Badger Bushcraft Open Day was a great success!
Attending were Julia Humphreys – PSA, Tanya Fisher - East Borough, Karen Wilson – Yalding, Sharon Forghani – MNS, Tracey Shell – PSA, Alison Beck – MPI, Juillette Boniface – MPI, Helen Bradley – Bell Wood, Viv Swain – Greenfields, Tracey Gooding – ABC, Gill Morris – Oaktrees, Sarah Drury - Sutton Valence, Debbie Stone – Harrietsham, Matthew Mallett – ESCO, Helen Devlin – ESCO and Niall Leyden - Outdoor Education Advisor for Kent County Council.
I met the group at Egerton village hall and travelled to our farm site in convoy where hot drinks and bacon butties were prepared and served by Jason and John both of whom slept out under the parachute teaching area the night before.
After breakfast I conducted a short nature walk looking at some of the stunning trees on the site and we discussed some of the traditional and bushcraft uses. There was abundant squirrel and small mammal feeding sign under the hazels, we ate some of the berries from the many hawthorns and tried our hand at nettle cordage.
John delivered a fire master class to the group and the Swedish Army firesteels went down a storm – some of the group were reluctant to give them back at the end of his session!
Jason demonstrated fire by friction and I’m sure that Sarah Drury will soon become a master of this ancient method of fire lighting!
Despite a cool start to the day we were blessed with some beautiful autumn sunshine and the day seemed to whizz by.
Many thanks to Jason and John for their support and those that took time out of their busy schedules to attend and we look forward to working with both you and your schools in the near future.