Last Saturday, on a very sunny but slightly chilly morning, a group made up of our members and youth workers wrapped up warm and ventured out to the deep, dense, wild wilderness of Owermoigne. When they arrived they were greeted by Chey and the rest of the Owermoigne Bushcraft team (including Robin the dog!) and got ready for a fun packed day testing their survival skills.
First on the list was tree identification, followed by shelter building where they made Charity a very swanky rustic lodge with skylight and optional side entrance
Next up they learned how to build and light a fire with basic tools. This was absolutely crucial for the next (and most important!) part of the day - lunch! Everybody made their own bread roll and cooked them on hot trays over the fire. While the bread baked, they took a well deserved rest in hammocks and enjoyed the sunshine and the beautiful forest surroundings. It was so comfy that our team found it hard to drag them all out for their lunch, but they were tempted by the smell of soup - also cooked over the fire - which they ate with their handmade rolls. Finally, dessert was toasted marshmallows and s’mores - it’s not like we could have a campfire and NOT involve marshmallows in some way, that would just be very cruel!
In the afternoon our teams took part in the ‘Hobo Challenge’ in which they had to make small fires and tend to them to keep them lit while they boiled some water. To round off the day everyone learned how to make bracelets out of paracord, and ended up taking home some very cool new jewelry as a souvenir along with a lot of photos and fond memories of their experience. All the young people were fully immersed in the experiences, with lots of fun and laughter and multiple new skills learnt. One of our team members said: “This should be on our list of preferred activities, as it really brought the young people out of their comfort zones” and the young people agreed that they “had a really good time and would definitely want it to happen again!”
