Bushcraft: An Inspirational Guide to Surviving the Wilderness Book

TV's extreme survival expert Ray Mears has lived off the land in the world's most inhospitable places, and Bushcraft is a coffee table-style encapsulation of that hard-won knowledge and experience. Aspiring travellers will find hundreds of life-saving tips here, and even if you plan to stick pretty closely to the beaten track (say, your garden), the specialist information contained in chapters on survival essentials like finding and purifying water, establishing fires and shelter, cordage (the joys of making your own string), and living off the land (grubs and the like), is fascinating in itself--in the tradition of TV's finest "natural history" output. Elsewhere, Mears establishes some basic principles about equipment--with brief guides to the right sort of knives, axes, rucksacks etc--and runs through his own kit for the various climates of the world. But be warned, it's doubtful whether this information will do more than arm you with the ability to make semi-informed choices in the shop. Will this book prepare you for the world's wildernesses? Yes and no. It is an entertaining, informative introduction to the survival mindset which will have even the sofa-bound thirsting for adventure, but aside from the solid core knowledge--which regular wanderers will find pitched at roughly intermediate level--the region-specific practical information looks sketchy. "Knowledge is invisible and weighs not at all", Mears suggests. This large-format glossy hardback book, however, packed with illustrations and colour photographs, is not designed to be a field guide. Travellers looking to pack knowledge in their rucksacks would be better served by either the Collins Gem SAS Survival Guide or Mears' own paperback Outdoor Survival Handbook, which contains much of the same basic information. These shortcomings aside, it's undeniable that something magical happens when you tap into a survival expert's ways of thinking about food, water, shelter and healthcare (feet first)--and Bushcraft is an intriguing blend of life-over-death practicality and pared-down philosophy that will shine a new light on most readers' urbanised, consumption-driven lifestyles. --Alex HankinRead More