Red Dragon Bushcraft offers courses and bespoke tuition in Bushcraft, Primitive Living Skills and Survival Techniques. Customers are guaranteed a bespoke service tailored to meet their specific requirements.

Guidelines for campfires

Fire is both life and death; well maintained it can save your life, but out of control it can lead to death and destruction.

1. Have permission to light the fire from whoever owns the land.
2. Site your fire where it will do the least damage to other plants/trees etc.
3. Scrape any ground cover back to bare earth before laying the fire.
4. Keep your fire small and under control.
5. Collect only as much fuel as you are likely to use.
6. Try to completely burn any fuel you add to the fire.
7. If you can, plant a few saplings to replace the wood for your fire.
8. Do not burn plastic or manmade materials.
9. When you have finished, be sure that the fire is out, by dousing with plenty of water.
10. Scatter the wet ash by hand.
11. Re-cover the area with debris swept aside earlier.
12. Take any rubbish back home for proper disposal.

If you can make the area look as though no-one has been there, other people can enjoy the same place as you, when you are not there!

This page is intended as a general guide to some of the outdoor activities that we all enjoy.

Water

The average person requires around 3 to 5 litres of water per day to avoid dehydration, sometimes a lot more.

As an indication of dehydration, you can press a fingernail and the pink colour should return within 3 seconds when released - if it does not, or if your urine is dark - you are becoming dehydrated and should drink water.

1. If possible, carry your water with you.
2. If you have to rely on "wild" water, find the freshest source you can.
3. Always treat "Wild" water as contaminated, it requires filtering and purification before consumption.
4. Use your water wisely, do not waste it.

Getting Lost

It is all too easy to become disorientated and lost when walking in the wilderness, sat nav devices can run out of batteries and buried metal or close proximity of metallic parts of clothes can disrupt a compass bearing.

1. Once you realise that you have strayed from your intended path, try not to panic.
2. If time allows, stop for a break, have a brew of tea and mentally retrace your path to where you went wrong. Doing something simple that requires straightforwrd steps often allows any confusion to figure itself out!
3. Slowly and carefully recover back to your intended route.
4. Try to use the situation as a lesson, and try to learn from it.
5. If you really think that you are beyond self recovery, use your escape routes or summon help by whatever means you have available.
6. If you are relying on natural navigation techniques - look for as many indicators as you can get - some may contradict or conflict with others.

The international distress call for mountains and wilderness is six blasts on a whistle or flashes of a torch, repeated every minute. The answer will be three blasts or flashes as a reply.

Maintain the signal for rescue teams to follow.

Staying Alive

1. Do all that you can to maintain your body temperature.
2. In cold climates try to avoid sweating
3. In hot climates try to avoid overheating
4. Work hard to improve your situation without becoming exhausted
5. Carry a "Survival Kit" and know how to use all its contents to maximum effect
6. Ensure your equipment meets the following "FRAMED" conditions;
   1. Functional
   2. Reliable
   3. Accessible
   4. Maintainable
   5. Ecologically sound
   6. Durable