I was lucky enough to join the UKTV competition winners at Base Camp Eden in The Forest of Dean; a weekend that celebrated Eden's British Wild Life season with an array of activities, luxury camping and encounters with locals and wild life experts. One of these experts was Bushcraft genius Alan Cree, who has over 20 years of outdoor experience. Inspired by living and working in Africa, he has been studying Bushcraft and outdoor leadership for the last 10 years and holds over 10 relevant qualifications. I managed to tear Alan away from the forest for a quick interview and here's what I found...RPM: Tell me a little about yourself and how you became the Bushcraft ‘guru’ you are today.
ALAN: I used to work in London, and to release myself from the pressure I was under, I used to do some wild camping. I spent a lot of my time designing buildings around the world-I realised I had designed all different types of architectural buildings- yet knew very little about the natural world. So about 12 years ago I started going on some courses in Bushcraft with some very well known names and those courses gave me the confidence to study nature in much more detail. So after that I moved down to the Forest Of Dean and I’ve been studying bush craft and wilderness skills here for 12 years.
RPM: So you were an architect before? That must seem very different to what you’re doing now?
ALAN: Funnily enough I don’t think it is different, I teach people about the design of furniture and shelter outdoors and architecture is a form of shelter. The tepees you see around here (he points to the yurts our competition winners are staying in) they are still some of the most elegant shelters that have ever been designed. So I think I’ve learnt quite a lot about architecture from working in the woods because the ergonomics, the design of everything has to be the appropriate size of human beings. It’s actually a very similar skill, just going back about 40,000 years!
RPM: How did you become such an expert? Did you have to live in the woods surviving off water and berries for a year....?
ALAN:You can get courses now, but they’re quite simplistic. They teach people some skills, but the only way to really learn is through experience. For five years, I spent every single day going out and trying to learn 2 new things about nature: one wild flower, one plant one medicinal herb whatever it was, and if you add that up, then you end up with about 30,000 things you know. Again, for one year, I would spend every single day going out and making a fire, without matches, every single day.
RPM: And were you successful every day?
ALAN:I reckon I’ve made 3,000 fires now and I think only about 3 times it’s not worked. That took a lot of practise and preparation though. It’s not obvious to people for example when they come to my woods that there is actually preparation that’s been done. There are groups of young people I’ve had for 24 hours who have never even been out of a city and it just rains for that entire 24 hours and you’ve got to keep them warm. Fire is one of the most basic forms of shelter; it’s something that you can’t live for long without in the outdoors as people get hyperthermia and die.
RPM: So you’re interested in showing people how to survive?
ALAN: You know humans have some physiological requirements and some psychological requirements and that’s what I’m interested in showing people; how nature provides for them, in abundance. It provides for all our physiological requirements: food, shelter and water.
RPM: I’ve lived in London all my life, so it’s really interesting meeting people like you and the rest of locals at The Forest of Dean who can take me back to basics. I really wouldn’t have a clue how to survive in the forest!
ALAN: Deep down in the back of your head, you actually do know these things. I do try to prompt people to think about what the priorities in life are. There are lots of things in life that are unnecessary and only a few things that are necessary and it’s quite amazing how necessary these few things are. You actually do know; all humans know instinctively. You might not know how to go about getting it in an elegant and good way, but you do know what’s important. So I think it’s a good thing to reconnect people with nature, and I think bush craft and wilderness skills are the best way of doing that. It’s about what we need as humans and it is a very human experience. When you spend a lot of time out on your own in the woods, you come to appreciate the value of human company, so it teaches you that as well, it teaches you humanity I think.
RPM: I saw you earlier sniffing the firewood we’ve got ready for our bonfire later. What exactly were you doing there?
ALAN:I was trying to tell how long ago it’s been cut, because it’s not been cut as long as I would have like it to have been cut. It’s only been cut in the Spring so it’s not completely seasoned. That’s one of the few fire-woods in the world; it’s the best firewood in the world as it has the highest calorific value. Ash will burn when its green and no other wood will burn when it’s green. So looks like you’ve arranged a fire here that has the best combination of firewoods possible, ash, which is the heat, and I’ve bought in five year old seasoned beach from a forest. That provides a very clear white light, so more light than heat and the combination of those two woods gives the best combination.
RPM: Is fire-making one of things you enjoy teaching the most?
ALAN: Fire, yes, we’ve been doing it for the last thousand years and there’s a lot more to it then lighting some matches you know? You get to learn lots of things. I stay away from the brutal aspect of ‘survival’. I’m much more interested in talking to people about life and things that are really helpful.
RPM: What are you going to be teaching the competition winners today and tomorrow?
ALAN: Well I have a two hour session, a bit like a TV programme, with some scratch and sniff elements where people can get involved. But I’ll teach a couple of the most fundamental skills for living outdoors and show them how nature provides for it. I’ll let them see it through my eyes. I’ve bought along some examples from nature, for instance I’m going to teach people about shelters, so I’ve bought a long a Green Finches nest, a Wren’s nest and a solitary Bee’s nest to show you how nature solves those problems. You’ll see that nature has set a very high bar for us to jump to. A wren makes its nest with a beak and a couple of claws so architecture and shelter is inspired by nature. The competition winners can learn from that and I want to really inspire them, to show them what we can come up with, some fundamental life skills
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