Respecting nature

Last weekend I had the privilege to attend Bob Cooper's Wilderness Survival Course at the Anglesea Recreation Camp here in Victoria, Australia. One of the key things Bob and his offsider talked about was respect for the bush.

This was in the context of walking gently on the earth and taking only what you need and also respecting nature enough to understand the potential consequences of being unprepared and making poor decisions whilst in the bush.

We heard many stories of people who perished in the harsh Australian outback because they did not show enough respect for environment they were travelling in.

On the course I learned and had the opportunity to practice some basic bushcraft skills such as navigating - with and without a compass - finding and collecting water and I even learned to start a fire from materials found in nature (yes including sticks).

In fact what I really learned was how little I knew and how unprepared I was previously.

But the main thing I learned was respect for the environment and even though I have some new found bush survival skills this does not mean that I will be blundering off into the bush Bear Grylls style eager to demonstrate my new skills - quite the opposite. I do plan to spend more time in the bush but I will actually be more cautious, respectful and prepared because the best approach is to avoid the need to use my new survival skills in the first place.