A
WEEK AFTER THE first search and rescue summit of Cebu Province, I
began to receive requests from local government units to have their
emergency responders undergo training in bushcraft and survival.
This training is quite expensive if you look it at from an
international perspective since the skills acquired are highly-valued
by Europeans and Americans. We have one survival school in Subic but
it only showcases the primitive-living ways of the Aeta. What I
teach is entirely different.
Disasters
are now more intense and unpredictable, aggravated by climate change
and by man. More people now visit places, as in adventure tourism,
where, a decade ago, nobody would and vulnerability to accidents
increase as well. Against these conditions, LGUs need to be well
prepared, as defined and mandated by Republic Act 102020. The recent
SAR summit initiated by the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction
Management Office provided the stimulus for LGUs to provide their
respective DRRMOs with great importance and provide them equipment,
funding and training.
The
Municipality of Lilo-an requested that I teach their emergency
responders in bushcraft and survival on August 28-30, 2015. I
recently had taught volunteer responders of the Capiz Archdiocese
Disaster Action Center last month at Ivisan, Capiz and, before that,
in June, to nineteen individuals during the Philippine Independence
Bushcraft Camp which was hosted by Lilo-an. The PIBC is an
alternative learning medium created solely to answer the needs for
more education of outdoorsmen and active individuals.
I
arrived at the Lilo-an Municipal Hall at 05:00 of August 28, 2015.
Joining me soon to assist me are five members from the Camp Red
Bushcraft and Survival Guild: Jhurds Neo, Ernie Salomon, Dominik
Sepe, Mark Lepon and Nelson Tan. I would be expecting the full force
of the Lilo-an Public Safety and Emergency Management Office lead by
its chief, Hammurabi Bugtai. Thirteen are available and a skeleton
crew remained to man the post in their absence.
From
the municipal hall we were whisked towards the village of Mulao by
the town's workhorse called the “Dukevan”. After touching base
with village officials, we proceed to the Mulao Elementary School
before proceeding down for Cotcot River. I am leading the party and
follow a trail, whose unfamiliarity will be lessened with Ernie's
knowledge of having taken this same trail during the PIBC. Ernie
failed to remember the exact route but we reach the Cotcot River on a
different campsite.
Nevertheless,
it is a good camping site which we used in our earlier dirt times.
It has a wide open ground good for eight tents and some trees to prop
hammocks. It is beside a stream and limitless firewood.
Immediately, improvised shelters are erected by the participants
using laminated nylon sheets, used advertisement tarp sheets, wooden
poles, bamboos, ropes, natural cordage and buri palm leaves.
When
all have settled down, I start the training at 13:00 tackling first
about Introduction to Bushcraft. Except for a few, the term
bushcraft is so alien to them but they could relate it better instead
with the use of the closest Cebuano equivalent available -
“panikaysikay”. It would also good to note that bushcraft
is not totally synonymous with the word survival, since the latter is
immediate while the former is the practice of skills in a day-to-day
basis or the preparation hereof in survival situations.
One
of the new topics that I have introduced lately is Ethical Bushcraft.
It is taken as an excerpt from my future e-book which bears the same
title. Considering that bushcraft is beginning to unfold as a
leisure weekend activity, thanks to survival TV, the unabated
enjoyment of it would take a toll on the forest resources like those
happening in Western countries where many private lands and parks are
now off-limits to bushcraft activities.
In
Ethical Bushcraft, the participants are taught to be part of the
landscape, judiciously use forest resources, even firewood, and to
increase safety, particularly the management of campfires. It is a
lengthy topic which takes most of the afternoon and, should be, for
educating individuals into responsible outdoorsmen is what this is
all about, especially when everybody are now interested in bushcraft
and survival.
The
last topic for the day is Knife Care and Safety. It aims to correct
the usual ways we carry and use the knife and to change the common
notion of the knife as a mere weapon into a very useful tool. In
bushcraft, the knife lay supreme for, without it, tasks would be
downright difficult to accomplish. As every tool, you have to spend
considerable attention that it functions well by maintaining its
sharpness and keep it from rust.
Bushcraft
is a lawful activity and it easily fits in that description under
Batas Pambansa Bilang Anim (BP 6), the only law in the
Philippines governing the carrying and possession of knives. This
topic increases your responsibility in the use of blades and its
carrying, including travelling. It also teaches you the different
shapes of blades, knowing the different parts of a knife and how to
sharpen these.
When
dusk begins to be felt, the participants disperse to prepare their
dinner. They cook their food and rice in large pots which they
brought along. Ernie prepared for the camp staff. Campfire Yarns
and Storytelling unfolds when supper had been taken and everyone take
their respective spots around a small campfire, just like the Boy
Scout days. The campfire is the social center of early camp life
since time immemorial. Taps at 22:00 is extended by two hours.
The
second day – August 29 – begins with a light breakfast for,
today, everyone would be fasting, including the camp staff. The
participants would feel being miserable in an environment where they
have almost no control of and then fighting off hunger and drowsiness
in the middle of the lectures. When responding to calamitous
situations, you are almost in this state and you have to stretch
yourself for a few more mileage to be effective.
First
topic for the day is Survival Tool-Making. When you lack gears or
what you have is inadequate, you have to improvise by making tools.
Tool-making is simply extending your existence during a survival
situation. You make different tools for different situations like
cordage, for foraging, for trapping and hunting, for dining and
cooking, and for other special uses. What they learned yesterday in
knife-handling safety would be applied on this topic.
Essentially,
knives and tool-making go together. Making a tool exercises your
dexterity with a knife. I demonstrate to them how to make a foraging
stick and then a bamboo cooking pot employing the Trailhawk System.
I designate them into three groups of four and require them to make a
spoon, a drinking jug and a cooking pot. Those that do not have
knives with them, choose the knives that me and my camp staff put on
display.
The
morning progresses into something positive for the participants and
the training staff when a strong rain came. It stayed for 30 minutes
and unleashes again another torrent after an hour but it stayed
longer. In the dry comforts of their shelters, the participants
persevered and continue on the making of their dining tools as well
as the pot that would be used later for cooking and all three groups
showed me their results thereafter.
Second
topic would have been Firecraft but we just had a downpour and so not
conducive to discuss about fire or heat. I jump to the next,
instead, which is about Shelters. Before setting up a shelter, you
should choose a good campsite. It should not be on the stream banks.
It should not be on flat terrain. It should not be along trails.
It should not be near a water source. It should not be under a
forest of pines, cedar, pulpwood, eucalyptus and rubber trees.
The
campsite should be away from all of these and do not alter the
aesthetic of the place just so it could suit your tastes. Keep it as
it is and then blend your man-made shelter with it. If you cannot
make one, use a small cave or a rock overhang and make yourself
comfortable by building a small fire. Use the rocks as reflector of
heat. Simple shelters can be made from natural materials or a
combination of man-made ones. Some shelters employ this setup in
this bushcraft camp which is not difficult to explain.
Then
I proceed to the topic about Foraging and Plant ID. Foraging works
better with good bushcraft ethics unless there is a need where your
existence would be at stake. I discourage the use of rifles when
hunting for food and resort instead to trapping. I demonstrate how a
simple trap looks like and how it is placed. Likewise, I show a
snare employed to catch monkeys and big lizards and another one that
closes a loop when moved. Not to be outdone, the participants made a
trap made to catch fowls and birds.
Part
of foraging is identifying plants. It could be edible, herbal or
harmful. Just as long you suspect each plant that you do not know,
it would never be a problem. To guide them how harmful plants look
like, I showed them pictures of these plants, starting from the
thorny ones to one that is so toxic that there is no antidote to cure
people affected by this.
The
last lecture for the day is about Outdoor Cooking. This topic also
includes how you preserve meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. The
processes are discussed thoroughly as possible given the light of day
beginning to go dim. Then there are ways how you cook your food:
open hearth, semi-closed and the closed style; and where you cook:
campsite, trailside and bushcraft.
The
open style is very popular as it is very simple. Semi-closed works
like you would with a clay hearth where there is a hole to feed the
fire with wood and another hole where the pot is placed or where the
food is cooked. A good example would be the Dakota fire hole. The
closed type is a different kind as it does not use direct fire in
cooking your food but would use that fire instead to heat the stones
to cook your food instead like a crude oven.
The
three groups are now ready with their bamboo cooking vessels. The
Trailhawk System of cooking is not complete without employing the
unusual way of how it cooks rice, which is quite different from a
standpoint of conventional cooking of rice. It is now almost dark
and the guys are hungry because of the whole day without food.
Whoever cooks his rice first, can start immediately their Nocturnal
Hunting.
One
by one, group after another group, leave in search of their own food.
For me, it is time to relax by taking a bath in the middle of Cotcot
River where the current is swift. The water is warm yet refreshing
to a warmed up body that have not had rest for two days and a bath
for a day. I never felt so better after that, given that the night
is warm and humid. I can see lights that walk up on one hill and
another group on a hill across it.
Ernie
starts his own cooking, ably helped by Jhurds while Nelson makes
another fire to smoke the mosquitoes away. The first group arrive
and they caught five edible tree snails (Local: taklong), just
enough for the four of them. A second group arrive to show a more
miserable result – a heart of a young coconut tree (ubod).
The last group whose lights glowed at the farthest hill returned with
a live chicken and some horse radish. Very well, so far so good.
All cook their food. Those with less, supplement it with canned
goods.
The
second night begets a second dinner found the hard way. When all had
their fill, another Campfire Yarns and Storytelling turned up. Since
I do not have enough time for tomorrow, I decide to talk about the
Everyday Carry around the campfire circle. The night went on after
that but I am tired and I hit the deck of my shelter early.
The
third day – August 30 – is reserved for Firecraft. It is a very
warm morning. After a good breakfast, I start the topic immediately.
Firecraft is not just about making fire by modern conveniences or by
primitive means, but it is understanding how a fire would work and
how it may be used. Elementary understanding of a fire should start
from the so-called fire triangle, which is now substituted with the
tetrahedron. (A tongue twister. Why not a diamond?)
Then
you have to identify good fire tinder. Tinder absorb heat which
makes fire possible and it could also absorb moisture quickly to test
your patience in making fire. Tinder are natural dry material which
are so light and, sometimes, so fluffy but you could manufacture your
own tinder like I did with cotton jeans which result to charred
clothe. Charclothe could catch the flimsiest of sparks and can be
used as medium to receive heat from concentrated light passing by
water inside a bottle.
There
are four ways to make fire. First is by the conventional manner
which could be done with a lighter, a box of matches or by a ferro
rod. Second is by solar magnification which can be created with a
magnifying lens or other material which could imitate the lens like
bottled water or even ice. The third is by pressure which is only
possible with an internal combustion engine and by the fire piston.
The
last is the most popular, which is by friction. The whole idea of
survival is anchored on this. Actually, it is not. Friction methods
are many and it is done with wood or by bamboo or the combination of
both. Most popular here is the bamboo-saw method because it is
considered our own and is extensively used in Boy Scout activities.
Beginning to get attention in local bushcraft is the bowdrill method.
Other methods like the hand drill, the fire plow and the fire thong
are as good as the others. It takes a good amount of practice and
the right conditions to make fire with these.
After
successfully making fire in some methods, I believed I have taught
all what is needed to be taught and decide that the training has ran
its course. Then it rained heavily. We pack our things back inside
our bags under this deluge and break camp. I fear that the river
would rise. As I had feared, a tributary has risen and we have to
cross it three times under a strong current. We take another route
back to Mulao and found refuge under their covered basketball court.
While
waiting for the rain to subside, Jhurds decide to raffle off the free
giveaways: ten pieces paracord of 10 meters length each, two
Seseblades NCO Straight knife and a modified Seseblades Sinalung.
All these courtesy of Jhurds, who have been very supportive of my
endeavours. A Hyundai Starex of the Municipality of Lilo-an arrive
to pick us all, down to the new seaside store of Titay's Rosquillos
and Native Delicacies.
Upon
arriving, I distribute the training certificates to the participants,
after which Aljew Frasco whisk us off to his farm and treated me,
Jhurds, Ernie, Mark, Doms and Nelson to a well-cooked mixed-vegetable
stew. Gone are the fatigue and the bone weariness that have hounded
me for as long as I can remember. The soup is just superb and would
have been perfect if paired with cold beer but we all need an early
rest. There would be a next time, I am sure.
The
Municipality of Lilo-an have taken extraordinary steps to
professionalize their emergency responders with the addition of this
training. They are the first municipality to extend their DRRM
operators to learn bushcraft and, likewise, it equipped them in their
work, especially when responding to places where they have no total
control of the environment. This training taught them how to adapt,
blend and improvise in any given situation where resources are
limited and pursue their goals without impediments.
As
for me, I have now come to the conclusion that I will focus my
attention on sharing what I know about bushcraft and wilderness
survival. I have been in private employment for sometime now and I
think I may have to choose the best master: the corporate owners or
my passion. I will arrive at that bridge and when I do I will cross
the river and burn the bridge behind.
Document
done in LibreOffice 4.3 Writer
No comments:
Post a Comment