NAPO TO BABAG TALES CV: Woodlore

WHEN YOU ARE WITH the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild, everything is interesting on any given Sunday.  Their saga continues on and they could go anywhere they wished to and indulge in their favorite past time, which they called as “dirt time”. They love to work with their blades to make survival tools, to prepare their meals and to talk about its qualities which is just about infinite.  Then they cook feasts, which is the best part of their day.

Coming with them for the fourth time straight is the Colonel himself – Thomas Moore. Pathfinder Tom is one of the stars of the high-rating Discovery Channel survival TV show, Dude You’re Screwed, which was shown in Asia as Survive That. He is in Cebu to organize the team for Expedition Philippines, another survival reality show that he is planning to direct and participate in in one of the eight episodes.

I am with them today, October 11, 2015.  We all wished to spend the day at Camp Xi, a nice piece of flat land beside the meandering Sapangdaku Creek, which is perfect for big outdoor activities. After securing our food ingredients at Guadalupe, we proceed to Napo and walk the short distance to Camp Xi.  Jhurds Neo is leading the guys, totally comfortable on the idea of a happy walk and a very enjoyable day.

Coming along are Ernie Salomon, Aljew Frasco, Bona Canga, Jonathan Apurado, Justin Apurado, Locel Navarro, Christopher Ngosiok, Angel Villaganas, Niño Paul Beriales, Nelson Tan, Cleos Navarro and the Quijano Family of Richie, Francelyn and 7-year old Legend. With us, as guests, are Peter Tortusa and his Japanese lady friend, Kaoru. They all would be glad to spend the day with Pathfinder Tom.

We will spend another Sunday cooking up another feast.  All unsheathed their blades and begins the process of extracting useful firewood from debris.  A spark from a ferro rod gives life to a fire and water is boiled, presumably for coffee. Coffee. Oh, coffee. Where art thou? It came in a short while.  Why would people disdain coffee? Do they not know what it gives to a thirsty bushman?  A ton of inspiration.

With my William Rodgers bushcraft knife, I go down the river bank and look for bananas. No, I am not looking for the fruit or its blooming heart but I need the trunk for food. I rejoin the rest when I have a banana trunk with me, all quite perplexed when they learned that I am going to cook it.  They watch and they ask a lot of questions which is good because bushcraft cannot progress if your curiosity is confined to your eyes only.

Meanwhile, others proceed on to what they do best. Ernie has his grub wagon open and Jonathan is a willing subaltern. Angel and Locel blow some life into a fledgling flame for what I believe a grill session.  Aljew kept those coffee in good stead with his improvised billy can suspended by a tripod.  Francelyn just fried an amorous mix of spices on a small pot.  Christopher is everywhere, clicking on the shutter of his camera as if it is an assault rifle. Click click...click click.

Tom and Jhurds joins Aljew and Bona in a little chit chat.  Somebody just got mentioned and laughter roared as if a gang of hyena suddenly got transported from the Okuvango and wandered here. Peter watch the separate actions and unleashed his knife to make the best of the moment while Kaoru is in a daze, witnessing a new experience. A little while she begins to blend in by throwing a few pebbles to a faraway target with a slingshot.

Oh, I forgot about little Legend. He is watching his dad making a bamboo bow and arrow. Cleos and Justin are also in that observation platform.  When it was done, Legend begins to shoot at imaginary targets.  Her mother, meanwhile, is cooking soup from a dehydrated kelp which immediately got Kaoru’s attention.  Cultural gaps are better bridged by food and, once the connection is established, understanding and pleasant conversations follow.

Lunchtime ultimately came and the food is served. Ernie had cooked a local pasta (Local: pansit bihon) which he paired with pickled raw cucumber. The rice is neatly spread on frayed banana leaves to imitate a popular military style of meal, the “boodle fight”. Grilled pork are placed above the rice.  Seaweed soup is in its pot while my banana core adobo is in another. Game time!

After the meal, I organize all the ladies into one group and tour them around Camp Xi for a lecture of plant identification. This is in response to Tom who sees a need to involve a contemporary Filipina in one of the episodes of EP.  There will be auditions for that slot and, before that, I will train prospective lady applicants into advanced wilderness skills and that includes a plant ID tour.

What I am doing is just an eye opener since not all qualify as an applicant for they lacked the basic training in bushcraft and survival which is a prerequisite.  The show do not need actors but real bushcraft and survival practitioners.  We approach a colony of taros. There are purple taros, white taros, giant taros and giant wild taros. From among these, there are edibles and there are the toxic ones.  Identifying which from which is mind boggling since they almost look the same.

We transfer to a bunch of bananas.  I point to them the edible parts like the blossom and the fruit. I also reminded them of the trunk which I just cooked which came from here. On a stump of banana which I just cut, I carved a hole in the middle and, a few minutes after, water slowly filled the cavity.  They looked at the blade of my AJF Gahum which have stained after contact with the banana.  Do not worry. It is called a patina. It is good for the blade.

We cross the stream and climb up a path to another level ground.  I look around and I tow them to a tree which bear several strings of round green fruits.  That is a lanzones. Unbelief. I pluck a yellowish one and opened the skin.  Lanzones.  I eat a part and pass the rest to the ladies.  LANZONES! And they wanted more. I climb the tree and found a few half-ripe fruit which the ladies gorge among themselves.

I move to a thick growth of birds-of-paradise.  Too dangerous to be near.  We do not know what is behind that thick curtain of stems which have grown so close to each other, but I know there is water and, where there is water, there could be a predator or there could be food.  I stood on a rock and gaze down below.  Some ferns grow and another smaller fern variety which is very familiar because it is edible (Local name: paku) is also in this mix-up.

We cross the stream again and the guys are waiting for us.  It is now 14:10 and just about right to pack our things and go back the way we have started in the morning. Just about right, is it? How about the part that ends all activities?  The knife porn? Indeed, all the blades has its 15 minutes of fame.  A log becomes home to some of the blades but it ran out of space, necessitating for another log to accept more blades. Very impressive!

At 15:00, we leave Camp Xi for Napo and, from there, for Guadalupe and to Red Hours. Tom and I opt for big bottles of the coldest San Miguel Pale Pilsen to ourselves without drinking glasses. The rest choose to drink it with glasses. It was a fine occassion to toast good health and fortune to little Woodlore, the newly-born son of Nelson, who arrive with her mother.  Tom carried Woody in his arms and the little guy did not let out a whimper.

To good health and fortune Woodlore!

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COMPLEAT BUSHCRAFT XXIII: Flashes of Steel and a Fire Piston

AFTER A ROWDY DIRT time at the Babag Mountain Range last September 20, 2015, the Expedition Philippines camaraderie transfer to the Municipality of Lilo-an, which is north of Cebu City, today, October 4, 2015. The place will be by the banks of the Cotcot River, the same place where the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp was held last June, and on almost the same place where I trained the municipal government’s emergency responders in the art of bushcraft in August.

There will be more of the dear Col. Thomas Moore and, of course, more dirt time. Unfortunately, Wil Davies and Ernie Salomon could not come but they will be with us in spirit.  Also, this time, there will be less than the last time, which is okay since it can now be easily managed. It had rained very hard early in the morning and, for sure, the trails will be muddy and the river swollen.

I believe blades will be thrown, not on the river, but on makeshift target boards. First, we must have to go to the campsite and that is all we did by meeting up together near the San Miguel Brewery in Mandaue City and then taking a public utility midget to Lilo-an.  Inside the tiny multicab are Tom, me, Jhurds, Glenn, Eli, Jonathan, Justin, Faith, Bogs, Richie and Dominik. Aljew and Bona join us as we transfer to the hilly village of Mulao.

From the school, we utilize the services of a helpful local, Epang, who led us down to the campsite.  There are spots on the trail where it is soft and there are stretches where it is uncomfortably steep.  All made it, including the bulkier guys. Folding trivets are set and the fires roared to life. Dirty pots gets balanced over the fires and the first order of the day is coffee!

Firewood are split and blades get to work with the hands.  Even the ladies are into it with Faith shaving a bamboo featherstick with her Seseblade NCO. Dominik tried to make up for the absence of Ernie by cooking pork adobao without the usual cooking oil but oil seeped instead from its fat on a heated dry pot.  That was the easy part.  Now, how do you make your pork adobao palatable if you happen to have forgotten an important ingredient like garlic?

Tom and Glenn are in a serious talk.  Could it be that Glenn is scheming of another mismatched trade or the other way around?  But I eavesdrop on them and they were talking about this unpopular guy on Dual Survival. It so happened that I was not the only one who has a discrete listening post. Jhurds and the rest joined in the conversation and it navigated from Dual Survival to Dude You’re Screwed to Snake Blocker to food when it is unacceptable for a tummy to go on empty forever.

The sky is dour but we were optimistic that it would not rain even as the stream is swollen and brown.  We did have that lunch of pork adobao sans garlic but it is as if it had it or thought to be with it. Anyway, it is sumptuous beyond our expectations. It is laid on green banana leaves with two chunks of rice formed by the very shape of the pots that held it during cooking and the appetite is coaxed further by a generous serving of raw sea urchin meat, still warm from its origins in the waters off Mactan Island.

The meal had ended the way it should be: a wipeout!  Me and Bogs goes to the edge of the stream and wash all the blackened pots with fine sand and water for the lack of soap.  It is a time-tested method which had been practiced long before when laundry soap and Scotchbrites became available. Anyway, the water from the stream is light brown and I may have to re-wash mine with tap water once I reach home.

I got back in time to see Jhurds pass on to Glenn a fire piston.  Wow! A fire piston! Glenn pushed hard the plunger once with his palm and everybody waited with baited breath to see the result.  The plunger is removed and on its tip is a glowing ember of what used to be tinder.  I never saw an actual fire piston much less of how it worked.  It is a very useful gadget for bushcraft which every bushman should have to add to his preoccupation of redundancies of fire tools.

It is said that the fire piston has its origins from the tribal peoples in the Philippines and was copied by the Westerners to make quick fire just a short time before the safety match was invented.  I doubt that.  If ever that would be true, we would have made another festival of the fire piston just like a thousand other festivals ranging from masks to witches. An opened bottle of Matador brandy retrieved from its special earthly cask becomes the stimulus of more conversations.

People wanted to let fly their blades and have requested for this dirt-time. Knife throwing is a skill that I learned so many years ago and which I used later with considerable proficiency during my warrior pilgrimage years, with which the last days of it waned some twelve years ago. I had not practiced it anymore and this skill is rusting.  My throws are not that crisp anymore nor it is consistent.

Since it is a “black art”, more likely, the other side of me would not be comfortable with an audience. Mine is an older method which is difficult to master. I will try but I cannot assure of a perfect throw.  As always, I would miss. Like three of my throws. I let Glenn do the honors of demonstrating the throwing of a knife.  The technique he is using is the more popular one which is very easy to do and can be seen in many video tutorials.

The thud of the blunt point of the pommel is disconcerting to the ears as well as to the eyes at first but people adjust their reflex and their distance to the target board made of a piece of an abandoned coconut trunk. Slowly the result becomes better as the flash of steel flies through air and a more agreeable thud elicits a smile from Glenn, Eli, Bogs, Justin and Dom. The afternoon is punctuated by either affirmative shouts of a true and loud jeers of a fail.

When everyone got tired of punching the target board with slit holes, we begin packing our things. Rain is imminent! I am the last to leave the camp to see to it that there are no more glowing embers nor garbage left behind. I put on my knife belt and stared hard at the target board for the last time.  Why not throw my big AJF Gahum? Aljew would not mind if it finds the target true. TSAAK!

The spin was perfect this time without anybody watching.  The thud of a true throw is ominous in the silence and every head craned back to see the heavy blade embedded on the target board.  I could see the biggest smile on Aljew’s face for he gifted the AJF Gahum tailored-fit for me and throwing it was not on his mind when he made that on his forge.

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NAPO TO BABAG TALES CIII: Jungle Wil and Pathfinder Tom

BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2009, I met two grizzled veterans of the outdoors at the Gustavian, a high-end restaurant in Banilad, Cebu City. We talked in the noisy and smoky part of the Gustav – The Taproom - where expats gathered, talking about women and football in the same length and breadth with beer-laced breaths reaching you from a mile away. I did not know, at that time, that both have been following my blog and have arranged for this meeting.

That was long time ago and both have gone on separate ways afterwards. The American, Tom Moore, went back to Etats Unis to embark on his high-profile adventures and even got cast in Discovery Channel’s “Dude You’re Screwed”, a high-rating survival reality show which debuted in 2013 and which went into its second season in 2014. Wil Davies – as Welshman as rugby – hopped to and fro Hong Kong and Cebu and, ultimately, settled here chasing that elusive sunset. He is a highly-experienced outdoors educator.

I worked under Wil in Jungle Wild Adventures and, later, teamed up with him to establish the Snakehawk Wilderness School in 2013. It was with Snakehawk that we both got cast in “Native Instinct”, which brought both of us to Guintarcan Island for a “desert island” scene in Cebu and to the Pastolan Aeta village of Hermosa, Bataan for a jungle shoot. The production staff encountered severe technical problems and the show never went on the air.

Except for a brief moment in 2012, we three met again at the Sandtrap in Banilad but that was not the outdoors. That time, Tom was riding on the euphoria of his casting in DYS. Anyway, back in 2009, both were eager to spend the outdoors of Cebu together and they contacted me on the possibility of leading them to our mountains. It did not materialize as extreme weather conditions would not permit it although Wil had, for many times, gone with me.

Today, September 20, 2015, however, things changed favorably for both. Tom and Wil are on the forefront, leading me and the rest of the guys of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild into our favorite playground of the Babag Mountain Range. Yes, Tom, Wil and I are finally in the outdoors after six long years when they had first suggested that to me in that smoky and noisy room. That long. Listen then to the values of old men telling tales.

Tom would be showing us how to prepare and cook desert fare and the older Wil, now beginning to reveal feebleness of body, is ecstatic over this rare chance to rub elbows again with his old buddy in their hallowed place and, for both of them, on their much younger counterparts at Camp Red. Camp Red is really anchored on their idea of how the outdoors ought to be enjoyed and it is, in a way, their descendants. I am just the conduit of that idea and nurtured it to what it is now.

For the bush-crazy Camp Red people, it is also a rare chance to shake hands with and engage in conversations on the DYS celebrity - Tom aka Col. Tomahawk and Pathfinder Tom - and, for those who have not seen Wil in person, another culture shock. Wil or Jungle Wil, by the way, have appeared together with me in the only surviving video clips of NI posted on its Facebook page and on its Vimeo account. According to producer Matt Everett, it is sort of a “Ray Mears-meets-Bear Grylls” show. Guess who plays “Bear Grylls”?

Tom’s coming is grounded on a survival-reality show which he is planning to produce, direct and participate in and which he intended to shoot entirely in the Philippines for its first season. Tom, Wil and I would each have our own episodes for this show called “Expedition Philippines”. It would have a total of 7-8 episodes which would be participated in by other international survival celebrities as well.

EP would be a real expedition, as what its name suggest, and Tom would be leading this while I would be his second. We are starting our groundwork today to identify and meet the very people who would compose part of the team, based upon my recommendations. Cebu will be our base and possible locations where the team, along with the production crew, would be are the jungles of Bataan and Palawan, islands off Cebu and Samar, and the highlands of the Cordilleras.

After transferring from Guadalupe to Napo, we walk the trail in a long line to the Lower Kahugan Spring, our first rallying point. Everyone got there, including Glenn Pestaño and another heavy guy. Tom, who have grown fat, got there without any problem but that is the better part. The other half of our route would end at the abandoned Roble Homestead and it would be a bit steep for comfort but it is shady. In the tropics and deserts, shade is your ally.

In spite of that, people got there earlier than expected. Tom had already kneaded the flour for the tamale that he intended to cook when I got there. A fire is born and so is water warmed up for coffee. I never start my work in the outdoors without coffee and coffee tastes better there, be it brewed, in 3-in-1 sachets or anything that tastes like one. The empty homestead got peopled in due time, including the bulkier guys.

Ernie Salomon gets to work in his kitchen without walls. His outdoors experience, his expertise and his resourcefulness to get food fixed in time gets him a slot for EP as the camp fixer. Tom had seen that in photos and now he sees Ernie this close. So is Jhurds Neo, as the expedition officer in charge of logistics acquisition; through his experience with ships, by his integrity and leadership qualities. Both he and Tom got a talk and it is a cinch for Jhurds.

The distaff side among us like Mirasol Lepon, Faith Gomez, Locel Navarro and Francelyn Quijano helped in the meal preparation, together with the guys. By the way, Tom is eyeing a conventional Filipina to work with an international female TV celebrity and an Aeta woman in one episode. There will be auditions for this part and I have many possible candidates who learned from me in the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp and similar trainings.

Big cauldrons are used, provided by Zene Roble, for cooking the pork adobao and the mixed-vegetable soup. Tom had already cooked the bread in cooking oil and looked more like fat pancakes instead. Me, I rather slurp my warm coffee and choose a spot to talk with both Tom and Wil. Zene offered them native cigarettes made from dried leaves of the Java plum tree (Local name: lomboy, duhat) and the duo smoked it like it is a Chesterfield.

The best part of the activity are the tales which circle around blades. Glenn, as always, is the celebrity when it comes to this. His collections and even his present possessions are the envy of everybody’s. There is no one, when comparing knives with matching history to tell, can match his except, perhaps, Aljew Frasco, but he is hot here. So Glenn claims that honor today. Around him are Jhurds, Dominik Sepe, Johnas Obinas, Justin Abella, Justin Apurado, Jonathan Apurado, Mark Lepon, Nelson Tan, Richie Quijano and a couple of the new guys enjoying the repartee.

The fire is supplied by abundant firewood that are sourced from dried branches and bamboos which the guys efficiently cut to pieces with their blades. Tending the fires are Ernie, Fritz Bustamante and Nyor Pino and an initial shower that did not last for more than five minutes visited the cooking. Fly sheets are hastily cast overhead the hearth and over a table. Cooking is ongoing on a soup of Lima beans which took Ernie longer than usual. Tom helped in the softening of the steaming beans by crushing it with a stainless bucket.

Another torrent of rain visited us, this time it is stronger and it stayed longer. We brave the shock of cold and eat the hot meals at 12:45 under the protection of fly sheets, tarpaulins and the roof of an unfinished house. I always love the rain and embrace it by completely going wet. Why make life difficult by going half-wet and half-dry and, just the same, get drenched when the wind blows in another direction?

It seems Tom has an appointment and he has to go sooner than we expected him to be. We have to fill up then of a ritual which now is standard fare in all Camp Red activities: the blade porn. One by one, a wooden bench becomes a porcupine as all blades are pierced standing up on its point. This is the exclamation point that ends dirt time at Camp Red to the astonishment of Tom and Wil and the new guys with us. They never expected that many!

Tom and Wil went downhill which nobody noticed during the time we were busy packing all our things back to our bags. I follow their wake and sees one set of deep footprints that is pronounced at the heel tips. It belonged to Tom and he is in a hurry. Another set of footprints which imitate the characteristics of a ninja belongs to the much lighter Wil. Both has a five minute headstart. I overtake them on a bend before the path goes down to a depression some meters the footbridge at Napo.

We all transfer to Guadalupe and, from there, to our watering hole in Red Hours. Wil had to go to take his medications which he failed to carry and Tom got hold of a cold glass of the coldest Red Horse beer that we could possibly purchase. Tom eventually says goodbye to that appointment of his and made love with his Red Horse instead. Welcome to the Philippines, colonel!

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THE ULTIMATE PIMP IN CEBU

THE KENTUCKY COLONEL and the High Priest of Pimpdom is in town. Yeah, one of the co-stars of Discovery Channel's “Dude You're Screwed” is here. Along with Jake Zweig, John Hudson, Terry Schappert and Matt Graham, Thomas D. Moore made survival reality show more exciting by competing with the elements as they each find their way to civilization in under 100 hours after being left in the middle of nowhere. DYS debuted in 2013, made it to its second season in 2014 and was shown in Asia as “Survive That”.

Tom, better known by his Internet handles of Tomahawk and Pathfinder Tom, is a regular visitor in the Philippines, particularly here in Cebu, where I first met him in 2009. His recent coming has got to be connected with another survival TV project which he aims to promote, produce and direct. It would be called “Expedition Philippines” and, in a sense, is a real expedition in itself. Scenes would be shot in the jungles of Bataan and in Palawan, islands off Cebu and Samar, and the highlands of the Cordilleras.

During the expedition, I will be his second and, during the actual shooting, I will have my own episode. Six other international survival TV celebrities will each have their own episodes upon the invitation of the Colonel. Some of the guys at Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild are already being chosen to compose the expedition team, based upon my recommendations, and the rest will get to see their idol in the flesh today, September 13, 2015.

We are going to the town of San Fernando, for a fiesta celebration in the mountain village of Tonggo. Jhurds Neo brought a Hyundai Starex for this occasion. Crowding out behind are the Tomahawk, me, Ernie Salomon, Richie Quijano, Mark and Mirasol Lepon, Jingaling Campomanes, Nelson Tan and our host Nelson Orozco with his relatives. On a new Yamaha DT motorcycle, is Glenn Pestaño, riding escort. The following are photo montage of our Sunday activity:

After the merrymaking, we hop back to the Starex and do sightseeing at the Singli Mountain Resort. It has a good-sized swimming pool in the middle of the resort with another smaller one across the road to a low hill. It is far from a community and would give some peace of mind to a traveller and is good for a family and company outing too. After that, we proceed back to Cebu City and see to it that the Colonel is in his hotel safe and sound.

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WHY I SHIFT TO BUSHCRAFT & SURVIVAL?

ONCE UPON A TIME in Banilad, Cebu City in September 2009, I meet two foreigners inside the Gustavian Restaurant. Both were very amiable and they look like veterans of sleeping more than a thousand nights under the stars. One is an American who goes by the name of Thomas Moore and the other is Welsh, William Rhys-Davies. Both are old-school outdoorsmen in the purest sense of the word.

Over swigs of beer, we were talking about Cochise's stronghold in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. Tom has a famous blog, I suppose, and it is titled Tomahawks Adventure and Travel. The “Pathfinder” and “Tomahawk” are his handles in the 'net. On the other hand, Wil is into adventure tours and outdoor-sport education and he prefers to be known as “Jungle Wil” and has a nasty former nom de guerre - “Cochiserattlesnake”. Ouch!

Without farther much ado, they have read my personal blog and arranged for this meeting in the Tap Room of the Gustav. They were interested into spending some time in our local mountains and we set a schedule after that but, Super-Typhoon Ondoy came and washed away our day. It was the only time I saw Tom in person before he embarked on his never-ending adventures in the States and elsewhere which are well-documented. Wil, he stayed long enough and climbed with me to Mount Babag in early October 2009 before going up to southern China.

These two middle-aged guys love what they're doing and that gave me some hope and a ton of inspiration. They are bushcrafters and they ache to practice their survival skills in the tropics. I live in the tropics and why can't I be like them? Too bad, I spend too much time on a hobby that teaches you nothing but gain high elevations and acquire expensive gears! These two guys convinced me right then and there to shift to bushcraft and survival and it is so familiar. Skills I neglected for so many years. Oh, Jesus, I hope I am not late.

I commenced by convincing my backpacking buddies Boy Toledo and Ernie Salomon and they were able to grasp the full meaning of this new hobby only after three trips into a trail I discovered, explored and designed for this kind of activity. It is a path less travelled and quite unknown to the backpacking community of Cebu. After that, they dictated to me of the most desirable name for a group to anchor behind local bushcrafting and so, Camp Red was born on January 24, 2010 complete with their idea of the group emblem.

The idea of bushcraft and survival is of a different level compared with other outdoor hobbies like backpacking and/or mountain climbing which are very popular here in the Philippines. The latter are quite bitchy about the environment and are more of sophistication and style whereas bushcraft and survival is more of knowledge, improvisation and plain common sense. However, bushcraft and survival is not very gung-ho about Leave No Trace. Bushcraft people find this very impractical, cumbersome and quite amusing.

Anyway, Tom and I exchange comments in between our blogs and in our Facebook accounts from time to time; while Wil come to Cebu every often and engage backbreaking bush hikes with the younger ones and down bottles of beer with the rest of the Camp Red circle. Ultimately, Camp Red became an identity of its own chosen craft and hobby; a trailblazer for bushcraft and survival here in Cebu and the rest of the Philippines south of Subic Bay. Thanks, in part, to Tom and Wil.

Tom travelled all over the states on a shoestring budget and it is so common for him to stand by a roadside and hitch rides to his chosen destination or do “dumpster diving” in the desert. He tried to hike his way to the tip of South America but his gears were stolen in transit. He loves Mexican food and drink gallons of coffee. Last heard of him, he was in Thailand; but, lately, he is now back in the States. He would have crossed over to Cebu from the Malay Peninsula, North Borneo and Mindanao when he ran out of greenbacks and decide to try his chance for a TV show in Discovery Channel.

Wil, meanwhile, does a dribble between Hong Kong and Cebu. Wil is a teacher and he uses his wide outdoor experience to teach people about wilderness first aid, camp management, trail preservation, ropesmanship, rock climbing, etc. He used to be part-owner of a Sri Lankan resto in Hong Kong and then with Jungle Wild Adventure Tours but now he concentrates his work on Bushcraft Asia(.com). Wil loves to sit at a sari-sari¹ store and greets everyone as if they are long-lost relatives.

By the way, Tom and Wil added some more of their survival skills from our very own Aeta brothers in the jungles of Pampanga. They spent a rainy week in the Pastolan Aeta village of Tata Kasoy and they have endeared themselves to the natives and their culture and have spent time, effort and blog space to put up funds for the Pastolan Aetas. Wil also have shown support for Camp Red by bringing in people to learn bushcraft and survival in Cebu.

Camp Red is not only a bushcraft and survival guild but it is a social group dedicated to preserving the environment through sustained photo documentation and reporting of illegal logging; and a proponent of practical tree planting activities. It is also a hub for budget backpackers and is an adventure partner to Green*Point/Circle of Friends, EWIT Mountaineers, Tribu Dumagsa, Cebu Mountaineering Society, Tribu Lapukon and Zubu Eco-Tourism Society. Camp Red is the fruit of my aspirations without being wrenched inutile by worthless rules.

After a year, Camp Red have stoked the fires of interest over many individuals but Camp Red is not keen about quantity unlike most outdoor clubs. To be honest, bushcraft and survival anchor its philosophy on a single person's common sense that would aid on that individual's (or a group's) survival. Camp Red's activities are tailored for a single individual instead of as a group. So, don't be surprised if I walk the trails on my own and never ever label it as extreme. That is bushcraft and survival and you don't need a group to practice it. Camp Red is just a means for these kind of skills and like-minded individuals.

There were many many skills I gained in the course of my life's journey; I used what is relevant in practical situations and took the rest for granted. Never have I known that the majority of these crafts which have lain idle would be worth a dozen-fold in bushcraft and survival. I have finally found what's really in my heart and I enjoyed all the things I do outdoors. This is also a worthwhile attempt to teach people how to use their wits while in the wild outdoors.

Oh, before I go, don't be fooled by those popular survival videos aired on cable TV. They are all scripted and are money-making productions. I have not watched one segment; the Tomahawk disdained it; and Jungle Wil doesn't care a bit. The best way to learn bushcraft and survival is to be by yourself in the bush. You are your own teacher.

“Chance favors the prepared mind”.

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1Local small convenience stores.