18 years ago when I first started down bushcrafts dusty trail I bought a book in a small book shop on Padstow Harbours front - the Author a chap called Raymond Mears captured my imagination with his almost unbridled love of the subject he was writing about - get out there build nature shelters, light fires and live like a native it cried from every page ..............
A few years later same guy was doing 3 minute clips on a programme called Tracks ............here the same theme, armed with a blanket, a billy and a cutting tool he showed us how to go bush .........
And inspired we copied him, we went bush - for several years I only took a us army poncho liner, a mess tin and a knife and would go out and over night camp in all sorts of places all over the world for this is what bushcraft was all about - I was living like a native, when it was cold at night I built a bigger fire or changed the lay! When I was hungry I looked for food but didnt mind the empty stomach if I found nothing that day ....................
A few years later same guy was doing 3 minute clips on a programme called Tracks ............here the same theme, armed with a blanket, a billy and a cutting tool he showed us how to go bush .........
And inspired we copied him, we went bush - for several years I only took a us army poncho liner, a mess tin and a knife and would go out and over night camp in all sorts of places all over the world for this is what bushcraft was all about - I was living like a native, when it was cold at night I built a bigger fire or changed the lay! When I was hungry I looked for food but didnt mind the empty stomach if I found nothing that day ....................
Then bushcraft became a hobby ..................................BECAME POPULAR .......................was twisted and changed beyond recognition...................didnt it??
Now most, if not all, self professed bushcrafters go camping in the woods! The desire to live the simple life, like a native, has been replaced with a commercial franzy that tells us we need the latest hammock and designer techno tarp - your not a shrafter without the must have (or one of the many copies of) a woodlore style knife! The average shrafter needs a 125 litre plus bergen to carry his kit which is OK as the car parked at a safe walking distance from the expedition style camp so he'll not even break sweat!! He needs food - and lots of it - he needs his kitchen set up and his folding chairs and his ..................the list is endless!!
Bushcraft has become camping ................camping without the showers and the camp shop for sure but camping none the less
You think I'm being over dramatic, maybe but think on this - there are now 50 or 60 schools in UK - some good, some bad - some teaching to the highest standards others appaulingly lacking but ALL teach the same skills, shelter building, fire lighting, carving, foragng ect ect - these subjects ARE what bushcraft is..........no school to my knowledge teaches "How to put up a tent" "how to fry a full english over a camp fire" "how to put the batteries in your shiny GPS"
The term Bushcraft suggests the use of crafts - crafts require the application of skills - today you dont need skills to go bushcrafting, pah why bother, when you can buy everything you need, if you lack the knowledge you just buy more kit to replace it ..............................
So if the subjects and skills taught are bushcraft why is it that so few people who pretend to be bushcrafting actually build and sleep in shelters? How many so called bushcrafters forage their meals (and no a trip to the local supermarket isnt foraging!)
Bushcraft has become camping, it is what I as a kid we called camping, its what families did when they went camping! What we called bushcraft skills when I first started out are now called Survival Skills ...............
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