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Join me in a beautiful valley of ancient woodland situated in County Durham to explore the skills of our ancestors!
Join me in a beautiful valley of ancient woodland situated in County Durham to explore the skills of our ancestors!
The series aired on Monday 23rd January to Friday 10th February, the programme was airing every weeknight on BBC2 at 6:30pm. Alternatively, all episodes will be made available on IPlayer from the 23rd January.
🔥🔥🔥The episode that I'm on aired on Tuesday 31st January 2023.🔥🔥🔥
This is a little bit about me and my story.
First off My grandad got me into coastal foraging at a very young age. Taking me rock pooling for winkles and different types of Seaweed with my brother and cousins. My dad also used to take me and my brother fishing and crabbing on the north east coast. I pretty much grew up in the outdoors,
This is a little bit about me and my story.
First off My grandad got me into coastal foraging at a very young age. Taking me rock pooling for winkles and different types of Seaweed with my brother and cousins. My dad also used to take me and my brother fishing and crabbing on the north east coast. I pretty much grew up in the outdoors, making dens in the woods with my friends, then onto wild camping in my local area after i bought my first hammock and i was hooked into the hammock life.
I got the climbing bug in school as we were lucky enough to have a climbing wall and then progressed to climbing every night after work, then on weekends i would be away to the lakes, wild camping with my hammock and bivi, looking for the perfect climbing location. Hidden waterfalls and valleys, secret caves etc.
I have also done solos in caves for 3 nights, lots of hiking in the lakes generally over 2/3 days. but unfortunately about 12 years ago (2008), my health started to get bad and they couldn't work out what it was.
They thought it was a hernia, but 4 years later i snapped my ligaments and tendons in both groins. i lost use of both legs and had to go in for urgent surgery.
"9 major surgeries later, I am still recovering from my last major surgery in may (2017) but will more than likely need more -(update: I have recently found out that I need to undergo another 2 procedures). one of those was in February (2019) now awaiting further scans. The battle continues!
Update : 2020, waiting to see a previous surgeon about current ongoing issues with pain and lack of mobility.
I've still got the climbing bug. So hopefully one day I'll be able to get back to it!
So with my hips being bad, I had to start trying to lighten the load after my 1st surgery. That's where the bushcraft and foraging started to play a bigger role in my life, after all Knowledge weighs nothing. (My hips liked that idea). I've been using crutches/walking sticks for the last 6/7 year now. Hopefully one day I'll be able to get rid of them for good!
Anyway. So that started my journey into bushcraft and foraging. All self taught/studied and went on to do my advanced level 3 in plant identification for wild food and medicine, with John Ryder at the woodcraft school. I have since then started the journey into opening my own bushcraft and foraging school, to allow me to do what i love and to work around my ill health. I opened the doors in 2018, but lost the land, but now Im re opening this year in a new beautiful ancient woodland! After spending most of 2019 building up the site, putting up a roundhouse/tipi parachute groupshelter, and a long drop on site aswell. A few finishing touches to make before the doors open again back end of March.
So far I've been teaching private bushcraft and foraging sessions, on and off site. teaching schools, I've been doing some work at my local community center, for Durham activity day unit helping people recover from strokes and brain injurys. I've also do work with the scout leaders of county durham teaching them a whole range of skills for them to pass on to the scouts, cubs, beavers of county durham.
Here's some links to my business page, website, social media so yous can see what I get up to! And hopefully see yous at an event/course!
What to expect on a Bushcraft course here at Andy's Outings Bushcraft and foraging. Depending on the Bushcraft course attended, you will gain a good understanding of axe, knife and saw safety. NO FOLDING & LOCKING KNIVES ALLOWED ON SITE!!
We will take a look at a some of the hazards in and around the woodland, so you can be safe in this t
What to expect on a Bushcraft course here at Andy's Outings Bushcraft and foraging. Depending on the Bushcraft course attended, you will gain a good understanding of axe, knife and saw safety. NO FOLDING & LOCKING KNIVES ALLOWED ON SITE!!
We will take a look at a some of the hazards in and around the woodland, so you can be safe in this type of environment. We will also cover selection of safe water sources, filtration and purification methods.
Moving on to fire lighting methods. Depending on the type of bushcraft course, we will cover modern and primitive fire lightning methods with natural and man made Tinders. (Advanced bushcraft course will contain more primitive methods)
You will also learn the fundamentals of a survival shelter to help keep you alive in any situation you may find yourself in!
We will also cover basic plant identification for wild food and medicine. Learn how to safely identify wild plants that will provide you with food and/or medicine!
On the more advanced Bushcraft course we will cover the above but use more primitive methods for fire lighting and water filtration. We will delve a little deeper into plant and tree identification for edible, medicinal and practical uses! Also taking a look at woodcraft. Making pot hangers, cooking utensils, chairs ,etc.
(Content of courses may vary depending on season but any subject can be taught on a private one on one course.
Bushcraft courses are for ages 8+
For any more information please e-mail andysoutings@gmail.com
What to expect on a foraging course here at Andy's outings bushcraft and foraging.
For a wild tea walk. We will take a stroll along the banks of the river Wear and into a lovely plot of ancient woodland to learn how to identify wild plants and flowers to be used in wild teas. Also learn about some of the edible and medicinal side of the pl
What to expect on a foraging course here at Andy's outings bushcraft and foraging.
For a wild tea walk. We will take a stroll along the banks of the river Wear and into a lovely plot of ancient woodland to learn how to identify wild plants and flowers to be used in wild teas. Also learn about some of the edible and medicinal side of the plants we come across. While out on the walk we will also gather some of the plants we come across and take them back to base camp to brew up some lovely wild tea's!!
A plant identification walk for food and medicine course based at the school. We will take a stroll through some beautiful ancient woodland looking at a variety of different key identification features of plants and trees. Leading characteristics of wild plant families, of which can be used for food and a variety of different medicines!!
Foraging courses are for ages 8+
For anymore information please email me at andysoutings@gmail.com
This is a wonderful tree to get to know! click the image to get the full write up.