Getting back to nature

Published on Thu Jul 24 11:06:12 BST 2008

All men love woods. Give a man a wood to mess around in and he'll be happy for life. He'll sharpen sticks, make fires, look for things to make a den with – but why?

All men love woods. Give a man a wood to mess around in and he'll be happy for life. He'll sharpen sticks, make fires, look for things to make a den with – but why?Jemma Walton meets Andrew Shaw who has just set up a business teaching people 'bushcraft' skills.

ET photographer Paul Franks is a bit of a bloke, and likes blokey things. Like a lot of blokes, he likes Roy Mears and Bear Grylls a lot.

"Ray Mears is more your every day survival in the wild," said Paul. "Whereas Bear Grylls is into the extreme stuff. I saw him once on telly, he came across a deer killed in an avalanche. I thought he was going to cut himself a joint of meat. But he didn't.

"He dived straight into the guts and grabbed a handful of maggots. They're full of protein, which is what you need in extreme survival situations."

And would Paul breakfast on maggots if he needed to? "If I needed to, why not?"

Paul is a big fan of the great outdoors, and once went on a extreme survival weekend with a group of mates and had a fine old time.

And with the popularity of shows such as Mears' and Grylls', the demand for those kind of weekend-long adventures in the wild is growing.

With this in mind, Andrew Shaw, a 52-year old from Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, has just set up his own Mears 'n' Grylls-style bushcraft and wilderness living skills course.

I hoped he wouldn't be munching on maggots throughout the interview. And he wasn't.

He had set up a small camp at Thorpe Meadows to talk about his new business venture, and what survival techniques I will need to know if I ever find myself stranded in a wood. Thankfully, there wasn't a maggot in sight.

"I have always been interested in nature," explained Andrew. "I grew up in Sheffield, and as a lad living on the edge of a massive city, I loved wandering off into the countryside.

"My friends and I would often grab a tent and some kit and go and spend the night on the Yorkshire Dales. I want people to experience that thrill, to get back to nature even now, when times have changed and we are so conscious of security.

"Because my courses aren't just for adults, I want families to come along to, so that kids learn more about nature, learn how to live among it and treat it with respect."

Andrew left school and was faced with either going down the mines or taking up a useful trade: he chose pest control, which he has practised for 34 years. His full-time job, though, is as a caretaker at St John Fisher School.

But now he is offering school and youth groups, individuals, families and corporate groups the chance to take a walk on the wild side.

He will take you out for a day-long course at Fineshade Woods, near Corby, and talk you through the basics, and he also offers Friday night to Sunday evening courses.

Food will be provided, and although you won't be asked to kill anything, you will be asked to skin a rabbit and gut and prepare fish.

"I run people through what the army calls the rule of threes," he said. "Basically, you will live for three minutes without air, and three hours in extreme hot or cold without shelter.

"You can last for three days without water, three weeks with no food and three months with no human contact – after that you will lose the will to go on.

"And so we go through those things in order.

Thistles and nettles prove tasty snacks

YOU can forget your roasted soya beans, your dried apricots and your Tracker bars, my favourite healthy snack is now the middle of a thistle.

That's right – they might look all spiky, but once you've carved them up, you'll find they hide a nice tasty nut inside. It tastes a little bit like a hazlenut . . . but more "planty".

Andrew Shaw is an expert in wild food, and took me on a walk around Thorpe Meadows to hunt for my lunch.

Luckily for me there aren't any witchetty grubs hanging around the Peterborough beauty spot, and so, unlike contestants in I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, I didn't have to chow down on anything too stomach churning.

I did have to pick a stinging nettle with my bare hands, though. And eat it.

"Stinging nettles are very high in iron and vitamin C," said Andrew. "Although, like a lot of food you eat in survival situations, you eat it because of its nutritional value rather than its taste.

"If you brush by a stinging nettle little bits like mini hypodermic needles come off and stick into your skin. But if you grab them you damage the rest of the leaf you crush the rest of the leaf, which holds an antidote to the sting, meaning the sting doesn't hurt you."

You can also make very strong string out of stinging nettles, and that fact wasn't lost on me as I tried to nosh my way through one. Not too bad, though – like spinach.

Dog Roses can be useful, and from October onwards they start to produce Rosehip syrup. "They start to look red and wrinkly, and people begin to wonder if they're rotten," said Andrew.

"But they are actually 'bletting' – just right. If you squeeze them you'll get a lovely drop of syrup."

Dandelion root can be toasted and ground and treated like coffee, and dandelion sap can be dabbed on warts and verrucas, to make them disappear.

We all know that some mushrooms can be eaten – but there are so many types and so many of them can make you ill that you're best off giving these a swerve altogether unless you're with someone who really knows what they're doing.

Mallow leaves can be cooked and eaten, as can goosegrass. But beware – tucked in next to all these kind of things is the likes of nightshade, which might look harmless enough but can seriously harm you.

Walking by a cherry tree, Andrew grabs a handful of ripely red fruit and shows them to me. I go to eat them, but he pulls his hand away. "They've got pigeon muck on," he said.

"That's the thing about eating food in the wild – you've got to make sure that it hasn't been pooed on."

Sounds like good advice to me. I think I'll be sticking to the thistle nuts.

"And, of course, we obviously make a fire."If you ever need to start a fire, silver birch is the best wood to make one with, and a Swedish Army fire steel will give you the sparks to kick a fire off. But if you don't happen to have one of those on you, a cola can and some chocolate will do.

According to Andrew, you can polish the bottom the the cola tin with the chocolate, and then use the sun's rays bouncing off the can bottom to start a fire. It might take a while, but you might just get there in the end.

"I hope people will come away from my courses with an improved knowledge of and respect for nature," said Andrew.

But some people might say that camping, making fires and eating food from the wild might not be the best way to look after the natural environment?

"If you know what you're doing, you don't have a negative impact," he replied. "You burn branches that you can tell are rotting on the tree. You don't just hack branches off a tree – you trim them so that others grow in their place.

"You clean up after yourself, and you make sure you don't build a fire flat on the ground and scorch the earth beneath it."

Andrew is clearly passionate about what he does, and loves Mother Nature, which is understandable. But just what it is about camping out in the wild that appeals to so many people? Why are so many of us intrigued by the likes of Ray Mears?

"It's that Robin Hood, outlaw thing isn't it?" he said. "Or you could just say I'm a big kid who's never grown up. I don't necessarily think it's a man thing – I am running a women-only course, and my wife doesn't mind camping out. Although she would probably enjoy it even more if we had an electricity supply."

After Andrew has taken us for a walk around the site and talked us through the various wild plants and berries you can eat, he lights a fire and boils some water to make myself and Paul the photographer a hot drink.

"What would you like a cup of tea, coffee? A fruit tea?"

"Oh! Did you make the fruit tea?" A drink made from the fruits of Thorpe Meadows seemed like a very nice idea.

"Er, no. Morrison's did." Andrew grins, and offers me a biscuit, also from Morrison's. Some things you just can't get in the wild. I plumped for coffee, and very nice it was, too.

"It always tastes better when you've lit the fire and watched the water boil on it," said Andrew – and he was right.

Next page: Thistles and nettles prove tasty snacksThistles and nettles prove tasty snacks

You can forget your roasted soya beans, your dried apricots and your Tracker bars, my favourite healthy snack is now the middle of a thistle.