Toxic Pines, Fire Plough, Navigating At Night, Paramo Clothing | #AskPaulKirtley 57

Description

Welcome to Episode 57 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about bad-tasting pine needle tea and toxic needled species of tree, working on bushcraft skills and knowledge indoors or at home, fire plough in the northern temperate zone, required fitness for my wilderness expeditions, easily identifiable plants for wild teas beyond nettles, how to learn to navigate at night and my opinion on Paramo clothing….

TIMESTAMPS:

06:06 Toxic pines and bad-tasting pine needle tea?

13:30 Working on bushcraft skills and knowledge without being outdoors

21:29 Fire plough in the northern temperate?

31:28 Fitness for wilderness expeditions?

41:20 Wild teas beyond nettles?

45:36 Learning to navigate at night

52:00 Paramo clothing?

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Ask Paul Kirtley is a regular Q&A show (also available as a podcast) with leading bushcraft instructor Paul Kirtley, founder of Frontier Bushcraft and author of Paul Kirtley's Blog.

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Tags: bushcraft,survival,wilderness,camping,hiking,outdoors,question and answer,advice,questions,answers,bushcrafting,nature,self reliance,self sufficiency,outdoor skills,outdoor knowledge,Paul Kirtley,askpaulkirtley,pine,pinus,pine needle tea,wild teas,wild beverage

Video Transcription

in this episode of a sport curtly we are going to be talking about ID of pine forties working on bushcraft knowledge and skills in doors it's fire plow realistic in the northern temperate fitness for wilderness expeditions wild teas learning to navigate at night and a question about Parham Oh close [Music]

welcome welcome to episode 57 of asphalt curtly where I answer your questions on wilderness bushcraft survival skills and outdoor life and another good bunch of questions today keep those questions coming in and I've had a few questions recently about how do I ask a question and I haven't mentioned it for a while and I know the old hands and the people that have gone right back to the early a sport correctly certainly know how to ask a question that basically you've got a number of different ways and it makes it easy

regardless of whether or not you've got some social media accounts or not and basically there are four ways one is you just email me by my blog and there's a contact form on my blog click on contact put a question in there put ask pour curtly in the question or the title of that somewhere because then what that email does when it gets to me and if it's got asked for curtly into it automatically goes into the ask for curtly folder in my inbox and then I've got all the questions there ready to go if you don't put a sport curtly in there I don't know if you're happy for it to be on the show it could sit in my inbox for quite some time until I work through all my emails so make sure you put a sport correctly via email and it goes into that stack of questions waiting for me to answer so that's one way the other way that you can do it is you can send a tweet it has to be a public tweet don't direct message me public tweet again with your question clearly it has to be short if it's on Twitter and the hashtag hashtag ask for curtly so then I can search on the hashtag and I will find it in the public search not a direct message do not direct message me with questions other than email and the other way is via Instagram and again public post on Instagram you're going to have to have some sort of image there it can be related to your question or previous episode somebody done a lovely little sketch and colored it in and that's that's fantastic as well not necess Terry and for everyone to do that but there needs to be some sort of image again use the hashtag ask for curtly then I can search and find the questions and then I can pull the questions into my notes and then I can answer the question not a direct message and I had somebody a while ago saying that I was being RC and a jerk because I was being specific about how I wanted the questions and asked if you want the answer it's got to get to me and I've got to be able to find it when I'm making these shows you can send it by carrier pigeon to the moon for all I care but I'm not going to answer it if you do that you have to send it to me in a way that makes it easy for me to answer because I've got the answers I've got the questions there when I'm making these shows if it's sitting somewhere that I don't know about I'm not going to see it so sorry if I'm being prescriptive about how to get in touch with me but I'm trying to make things easy and clear for people so that I will actually see the question okay so you've got email

you've got public tweet with hashtag a sport curtly Instagram public post with a sport curtly and then the other way is that on my blog under the a sport Kirtley tab it explains all of those methods that I've just told you and then also there is the facility to press record and leave me a voicemail using your phone using your laptop just record the question as an audio file and then I get an email that says a sport curtly in it with your with your voice question and again that goes into my question bank okay

that's the way don't put don't semi direct Facebook messages don't send me direct tweet messages I cannot the problem is that I won't find them at the time some of the questions I don't get answered for months and I'm not going to remember that you sent me a direct message on my facebook page in February and I'm just too busy and again that might sound a bit arrogant at you know I'm trying to answer as many of these questions as possible if you can't get the question to me in one of those four ways email tweet hash Instagram or a voicemail I'm sorry it's not going to get answered that's the way it has to get to me makes my life easy so I can actually then spend the time answering the questions not trying to find them and that's aimed at that idiot who gave me a hard time recently for being arrogant limey as we put it for being specific about how people ask me questions fine there's loads of other stuff on the internet go and have a look at that

okay so great example of an Instagram question here from Luke in woodland nice picture of what he's asking the question about and good clear use of the hashtag ask Paul curtly I found it and I'm answering it and it is from February this question yep and but I found it because he's done what I've asked so anyway thank you Luke his question is hi Paul

recently I made some tea with what I thought were okay to use pine needles I've tried it before and had a very nice tasting tea the tea from the needles in this picture was very unpleasant and made me think was it actually toxic my question is can you ID these needles from the picture and is it toxic also are there toxic Pines out there how best to learn of them many thanks Luke well I can safely say that you've got a pine there Luke and that you haven't poisoned yourself you'll be glad to know and even if it is a few months after you ask a question so all Pines with one exception - ma no filler which has single needles MA no filler all the other pines have needles that emanate from the twig the stem in at least pairs think of it like hairs coming out of a hair follicle and and all of the pines have - at least coming out of each follicle some have three some a57 and some have other numbers but it is largely like this one here if you're watching the video there's a couple of Scotch pines just over there we had a windy night last night some bits have come off and these needles are

arranged in a little bundle called a fascicle and they are in a a pair like so yep and if you're listening to on the podcast think of like a pair of chopsticks if you like bundle together at one end like a pair of tongs if you like and many of the pines have two needles so here we Native Eurasian species Scotch pine pinus sylvestris too and go across to North America similar sort of ecological niche and in some ways and you've got - banksy anna jack pine two needles and and then you've got others as well across North America like - contorta etc etc and they've all got at least two white pines and Weymouth Pines etc more yet but they've all got at least two needles and needles varying lengths but there are none of them apart from - mono filler which is is not relevant really to this discussion where there's only one needle coming out so if you find a species which you think is pine and it's got needles coming out in multiples out of the same fascicle out of the say in the in bundle a little bundle of and two or more then then you've got the right thing and of course you've got the the larches and the tamaracks where you've got a lot of you've got a little bundle of needles and maybe about 25 or 30 needles coming out on a little on a little peg we're not talking about those we're talking about we're talking about the pine so you need to be able to different differentiate between those but you're not going to poison yourself with larches and tamaracks the larix but they're they look like the little splayed kids paintbrushes where they've been painting a little bit too vigorously on the paper and the ends become all splayed other than that your your spruces your furs less fares your hemlock spruces if you like the Western hemlock ease Eastern hemlock the sugars the pseudo sugars the Pickers the ABS all of those single needles coming singly from the stem and importantly you taxes genus they all have single needles as well so they're most of the ones I mentioned that are not toxic you is toxic but all of them have single needles so if you're making pine needle tea as long as it's got needles at least two in a pair or three or five together then you've got a pine and none of them are toxic and all of them are able to make by mule tea now some of them do taste better than others and some of them are more resinous than others of course and some of them at different times of the year may be somewhat sharper more astringent and then than others and that's a matter of taste but in terms of toxicity you've got no issues there so hopefully that's helpful in terms of identifying them and I do run a tree implant ID course and it's quite involved but if you are interested in lots of tree and plant ID that's a course to get onto I only open it once a year and the next time it will be open is over the winter of 2017 and 2018 the course gets going in the beginning of the year there are 12 modules which take you through the year and there are live tutorials there's a Facebook group community around it as well and it works very well we have people who go from zero to being very good with their ID for bushcraft and survival and during that program and that's what it's for it's not a it's not a course for botanists as such as a course for people who want a practical bushcraft and survival level of eat ID knowledge so that they know how to identify common widespread and useful plants and Pines are definitely one of them and be able to positively identify your Pines and amongst others is is very very useful so if that's something of interest you can go to online bushcraft courses which is one of my sites that I use to deliver all of my online training and and you can get more info on the or at least register to get more info when it's available on the tree and plant ID masterclass and there and online bushcraft courses dot-com which brings us on to the next question and this question is from Andrew and Andrew asks hello really enjoy your videos and blog they've helped to reignite my interest in bushcraft and outdoor skills my question is are there any ways to work on skills and/or knowledge without being outdoors I know nothing is going to replace actually getting out into nature and I wouldn't want it to but I often find myself in a position where I have an hour or two to spare between work and other commitments which isn't enough time for me to get into the forest or similar but I wonder if there's anything I could use that time to practice or work on well that's a very good question and I'm sure that is a question that's relevant to many people Andrew so yes I would agree that time out in the woods is the most important thing time out efficiently applying things working on the right things in the woods of course because of course you can go out to the woods and faff around a lot you can just sort of walked around and not really chew very much and and not and I don't mean that in the sense that you should always be achieving things when you're in the woods but what I mean is yes of course go out and enjoy nature and just go for a walk or what have you but if you want to go to the woods to practice you want to be practicing and then some sort of structured meaningful way and that's that's important as well to get your skills at the curve and I would thoroughly

and I would say that there isn't any way to get around that in a lot of ways but what you can do I mentioned online you know a lot of you and get a lot of value for my blog and articles and then of course we've got videos got podcasts you can learn and think thinking mindset approach and technical knowledge in terms of everything from knowing what the major contaminants that you might encounter in water are to knowing at least theoretically the protocols you've got for dealing with water purification and you can start to learn tree and plant ID although again you need to go out and even my online programs require you to go out and do some homework where you're in your local area looking at the trees and the plants that are in your local area so you've actually got some practical application of what we're doing on the online course so melding those two is good one really underestimated thing that you can be doing and and a lot of people don't do these days is reading it just read a book read a book that the practical books in terms of you know wood crafts and camping literature accounts of expeditions particularly if the historical and they're using traditional skills and books on anthropology books on archaea botany there's loads of stuff around the subject which is going to infill and but get the basics right first otherwise you might lose the context but lots of not significant listened to you can listen to read and then you can listen to podcasts etc as well and so those those things you can do in you know you can pick have a book in your backpack and your day pack when you're to inform work or what have you and if you're on the bus or waiting or in between work and going to collect the kids or collecting the kids and an evening Club or whatever it is whatever your situation and you can be reading you can be listening you can be watching these days although again we've talked about before there's there's some good stuff out there on the internet and there's like any subject there's some good stuff Anderson tripe and you have to learn the difference between the two but reading certainly reading accounts of trips and expeditions and hardship and survival stories and all those things feed into your outdoor mindset and I think they're they're good I think they're good to do and what else can you do practically and if you're interested in learning not switch I suggest you should be because they have many many applications learning your basic knots and having a couple of pieces of string in your pocket and just practicing you know tying a bowline tying sheet Bend tying a sheepshank

tying a you know an Alpine butterfly tying a constrictor knot around your thumb all of these things you could do just having a bit you can practice that on your own time just have that in your pocket and daily you can look at what's the Sun doing you know where is its setting is there a new moon is that coming up and just after sunset you can be making observations that help you with your natural navigation knowledge getting familiar with all of those sorts of things and carving pens where you are of course cuz you know you have to have a cutting tool for carving but if you're at home and rather than out in the woods I have friends who carve at home and they just put a big sheet to put an old bed sheet down on the ground on the kitchen floor or the living room floor and they'll carve they'll carve spoons and butter knives and make bow drill sets and all sorts of things you can do that at home you've got a bit of a backyard you could do that at home as well and that sense outdoors and you can if you're at home and you have some bow drill sets you can practice your bow drilling and hand drilling and all of those things can be done at home you don't necessarily need to be in the woods you might need to source some of the materials when you're in the woods but then you can have those things at home and practice keep your hand in particularly things like hand drill you know if your hands are in good condition and both in terms of the toughness of your skin and just the just the ability to press onto something hard your hands get tender when you're first doing hand drill unless you keep them in condition they'll go back to being like that every time so there are some things which are worth keeping ticking over on a on a fairly regular basis anyway and lots and lots of things knowledge-based of course anything knowledge-based you can work on at home and then there's there's plenty of practical stuff that you can that you can do if you've got a little bit of room and a lot of that a lot of that stuff can be done at home even things like if you want to practice filling fish and you can go to your fishmonger and this is often a way of saving money as well rather than buying little salmon Phillips from from the local store and go to the fishmonger and buy a whole salmon and then you can practice it you can practice filling it in a way that you could then cook over the campfire where you outdoors but then you can cut those Phillips that fill it up some of it can go in the freezer some of it can be for dinner and and you'll save yourself quite a few pounds or dollars depending on where you are don't know where you are actually Andrew and wherever you are you'll save some money doing that because you're doing the work of cutting up the fish and you're learning how to do it and lots of cooking you could think about recipes that you might like to try in the woods and you can work on them at home so you're familiar with the ingredients you familiar with preparation times and that can all be done at home so that when you get into the woods with your billy can or your your frying pan or your Dutch oven or whatever it is that you can apply it well you're not having to worry about anything other than managing the heat that you need you you're familiar with it with the methods and the recipe all that stuff can be done at home all of that lots and lots and lots and lots and the more you think about it actually the more there is so hopefully that gives you a few good ideas and and if you want any more specific advice on anything always happy to to try and help this is from Vince fitzlee ride nice to hear from the events came on a on a one day course a while ago made a nice little video of that actually and and you'll find that somewhere on YouTube I am sure and Vince says firstly I just want to thank you for the available knowledge you impart is very much appreciated my question is regarding fire plow I have seen this technique get a concise mention in survival books but it seems to be overlooked in favor of bow drill I realize bow drill is the best technique but I'm thinking if giving the fire thinking of giving the fire player go could you give me some pros and cons regarding this technique is it practical in the northern hemisphere and what materials should I consider many thanks for your time regards Vince good question good question and okay so a couple of things in terms of assumptions and let's distinguish between the tropics and northern temperate and boreal and for starters because obviously northern hemisphere southern hemisphere you've got quite a wide range of latitudes there which are tropical and it it's largely that area that the fire plough comes into its own and although it goes further south towards Australia and then into New Zealand and it's a Polynesian technique and it's it's found everywhere from Hawaii to New Zealand in terms of indigenous use and interestingly where it was used historically it doesn't seem that there was any other means of fire lighting and so if you look at anthropological accounts of First Nations in North America often they had multiple means but they they could use they could use bow drill or a version of and they could use or they could use hand drill and or and and some would also use it seems fire plough and there would be a the lap it wouldn't just be one or the other they'd have multiple means at their disposal just like we do you know I can do bow drill hand drill fire plough fire saw and some of them work better in different environments but you've got those different techniques at your at your disposal so the question then is what's the most plick able appropriate technique for the environment and you're right bow drill here in the somewhat cold somewhat damn northern temperate works very well you've got a lot of mechanical advantage with bow drill we've talked about bow drill a lot before on previous a sport currently shows but and you've got lots of mechanical advantage you've got the string you're rotating that and spindle rapidly by using a bow and and it's as powerful motion coming from the coming from the shoulder and the arm and it doesn't require much in the way of specific physical conditioning long as you've got some upper-body strength unlike hand drill for example where you do need your hands in the right condition otherwise you're going to trash your hands the rotational movement is powerful with bow drill and the other thing is the downward pressure that requires that is required for friction is independent it's independently applied from the rotational movement so you can vary those two things for for whatever material you're using and you can get that balance right and get the get the smoke flowing and the ember forming and there therefore there are a wide range of different materials you can use excuse me and there are wide range so you've got the widest range of materials it of any in the northern temperate can be sourced to use with bow drill long as you've got a decent quality piece of cordage piece of paracord or a piece of rawhide and some rudimentary cutting tool you can make a bow drill set and you can make fire and you can make fire pretty soon after you've sourced the materials

that's one of the reasons we we teach it as a elementary skill on my elementary wilderness bushcraft course that's the friction fire lighting skill that we teach because it is that foundational technique and you can use it in many many places inside northern temperate and boreal and outside of that zone as well so it's really important hand drill is harder to apply in this environment partly due to material selection partly due to the fact that you need to often process the material in order for it to be ready to use to make a fire and the best way to to do that as straighten their hand drill for example is but you've got some heat and therefore you need a fire in the first place so it's a little bit further down the line I teach that technique on my intermediate wilderness skills bushcraft that's why it sits above like some of those other skills on that course because they require you to be established in the environment to have some things in place you're getting a bit deeper into that natural economy it's not things that you suddenly parachuted in and that you can apply immediately we've got to be there for a little while you've got to start collecting materials preparing them maybe waiting a few days for them to dry etcetera etc that's what we do on the intermediate course a fire plough so fire play a couple of observations one is it emanates in Polynesia so it culturally that's where it belongs but also you have to understand the nature of the materials now that's a wide geographic region from Hawaii down to the Mallory in New Zealand up through and up through the Pacific there's a big area there northern Australia as well it was known to have been used so what type of woods have you got available to you and what is the what is the nature of the environment that you're in is it cold and damp or is relatively warm etc and hibiscus is one of the best materials and to be used and that clearly has a certain geographic range and so and that is part of it so there's a cultural carrying of the technique with the Polynesians and then there's also availability of suitable materials and that's part of the issue so by all means if you're and I know you're working on your bow drill vent and as you develop your bow drill skills and you apply the bow drill with different materials here in northern temperate the ones that work well for friction think about maybe applying those for for fire plough and some of them work better than others it's hard to find materials here native ones in particular in northern Europe that work well for the fire plough and the hardness of the plough is important the shape of the end of the plow is important so look at some good diagrams of or even photographs of fire plows that work and try and replicate the end of the plow that shapes very important and then in terms of materials and you can play around with things like clematis as the baseboard you can play around with things like Ivy you can play around with willow as long as it's not too hard

yeah I would say play around with those first and not necessarily for the to the top part but for the bottom part and then you can also if you can get hold of Western redcedar or Eastern white cedar North American species Fujiya genus have a play with those as well as the bass board and they're they're nice for friction fighting the other native ones to have a play with the course of the lines and they're good friction fire lighting woods see where you get to those but I will warn you that it's hard and it requires a lot of strength here clasping the hand there and pushing and those core strengths coming from here as you you're moving forward and holding your body rigid and then there is arm strength as well you can see why those pollination cards as well as all the paddling and you can see why they're Mary's and the Phrygians and the Hawaiian guys have got big arms and it's all that fire plowing and because you need in hit the arm strength but hopefully that helps Vince and that isn't the easiest route of friction fire lighting to go down in terms of self study in the UK but it's an interesting and rewarding one should you want to go down that route question from Brian legates a leggett I'd like to call him Leggett sounds more you know sounds more exploratory question is just reading it again here it sort of quite spread out on the page the formatting fitness for wilderness expeditions Brian's question is and it was a pleasure finally meeting you in person at the bushcraft show my question relates to the fitness levels required to undertake wilderness expeditions such as your blood vein or Tanzania trips I will be fifty in a couple years time and would love to mark the occasion by undertaking on a venture of this nature being frank I'm overweight and unfit having spent the best part of 15 years of my working life in an office ships like these are a significant financial investment and I would hate to feel that I'm ruining it for other people by holding them back and potentially not being able to keep up thank you in advance for your thoughts Brian that's quite sweet Brian intended your consideration for others and also clearly you want to not be exhausted during any trip you want to be able to enjoy it and make the most of it and both in terms of it not being an ordeal and not being so tired that you can't spend the evenings looking at the Northern Lights or the Stars unencumbered by light pollution or watching wildlife or whatever it is you want to be able to take everything in and not just be got chin hanging by your chinstrap as it were and so I completely understand that and yes you do need to have some level of fitness for undertaking trips and with Tanzania it's it's a the physical side is largely walking a walking Safari walking around with a head so that type of thing and sometimes it can be quite hot so and that's drain

so just just a walking fitness I would say just going out and walking particularly in the summer that's going to be as good at anything to do the day pack going out and walking on a regular basis just having that basic leg strength cardiovascular fitness being on your feet for a good part of the day and actually to be honest with you Brian I see that with people who come on courses with me who are mainly sedentary who work in an office and just being on your feet

outdoors all day we're not covering huge distances we're just out and about we're looking at trees we're collecting materials we're building a shelter which is somewhat physical and building a shelter lighting fires cooking outdoors no net node sort of comfy chairs of it where you know you're standing you're sitting on stumps you're crouching you're kneeling up and down moving around it's tiring for people if they're not used to it and so there's that just just being on your feet so I would say going out what doing a bit of walking that's going to give you a good baseline for many things in terms of what we do in Canada canoeing you do need to have some canoeing experience and for the Canadian trips and you can get that we have some uk-based programs which help you get to that point so we have the expedition canoeing skills course which is a flat water based course which is designed to give you all the skills you need for doing a trip in the UK on flat water going to someone like Sweden to do a trip on flat water so I flat water them in lakes and getting between lakes portaging etc etc and all the camp craft skills to go with that or go into someone like Algonquin and in North America that it's that kind of spyler trip and then we do a trip on the river spey which dovetails with our expedition canoeing skills course so there's a flat water consolidation phase a bit of moving water at the beginning and then we head off down the Spay and the nature of the stay is that it gets bigger and bumpier as you go down so you've got a learning phase as you go down so people who have done say our blood vein trip who have prior to maybe two years and two years prior to that have never done any paddling before have comes through the expedition canoeing skills course Spade trip and then they've come and done a blood vein trip and the blood vein is a proper wilderness River it's 14 days 13 nights a on the river flying with float planes with all the equipment all the food that we need self sufficient self sustained for two weeks traveling down a wilderness river and it's a pool drop river so some of its flat some of its got Rapids but it's flat Rapids flat Rapids as is the nature of Canadian Shield rivers and it's a great great trip and it is somewhat tiring and there is that sort of core strength Torsen rope torso rotation with your body and which comes from here but if you've got to the point where you're able to come on that trip in terms of paddling experience whether you do it with us

or whether you say get up to two to three stars UK British canoeing standard elsewhere and you know what that means in terms of paddling and your body knows what it means and you're kind of naturally there and then of course there is the portage element of canoe trips and that's just walking in the woods with the pack on or walking in the woods with a boat on your head and again walking doing some regular walking and up and down some hills maybe with a backpack with a little day pack on and nice rolling countryside if you go out on a regular basis on a weekend if you spend a day or even a half a day every other weekend or every weekend in the six months prior to a trip like that going walking you'll be more than fit enough and because again you're going to be on your feet or in the boat most of the day unless you're sleeping and and you've got the canoeing skills you've got the walking fitness you've got the ability to carry a little bit of weight through the portage none of the Portage's on the blood vein a particularly long I think the longest one is about 370 meters but it's it's just that you're not sick think all day and you're not sitting doing nothing all day you're sitting or kneeling paddling or you're walking through the portage trails or you're on the the camp spot and you're going out getting firewood setting up camp etc etc and and then and then you're enjoying enjoying the surroundings otherwise so yeah I think it's well within your capabilities to do any of those trips I mean none of our trips are made to be you know ordeals not they're meant to be accessible as much as we can make them in terms of prerequisites and they are meant to be enjoyable and they're meant to our job really what my job is generally is to enable people to go out into nature to go out into wild places and to do the things that they want and that's that's kind of it I don't have a mission statement but if you wanted to I think it would be that in terms of sharing information and knowledge with people online like I am doing now podcast videos etc and sharing information on my blog writing magazine articles contributing to people's books and which I've done number of and also then teaching courses teaching skills and leading trips all of those are aimed at helping people get to where they want to both figuratively and physically and that's what I do so none of what we do is aim to put barricades or barriers in your way and if your concern about fitness you shouldn't be all you need to do is have a plan you're thinking about it a long way in advance which is good and this goes for doing something with me or doing something with anybody else if you want to do an adventurous journey some adventure travel a wilderness trip is think about it well in advance think about saving up putting money aside and while you're doing that think about getting your basic fitness levels up and that doesn't mean going to the gym and doing weights and going to CrossFit or anything like that it just means getting out on your feet because that is that's if you're sedentary that's the main thing if you go out walking every weekend or do short walks two or three times a week and preferably with a bit of a day pack on with a bit of weight in it so you used to having a few things on your shoulders and that will be more than adequate to get you up the curve and you can ramp up you know do some slightly longer walks perhaps closer to the trip and you'll find it combined if we talk about the canoeing with doing the canoeing training that you need to do you'll find it no issue at all I know that because we've had plenty of people come and do that with us before Brian and you're not outside the age bracket that we get on those trips by any means and your lifestyle is not uncommon and that's that's what we do so it's fairly straightforward for you to get on many of those trips in terms of getting yourself up to up to speed so hopefully that's useful but if you've got more specific questions you know where I am you're on my online courses we have fairly regular contacts you know where I am on Facebook you know I am on email so you can if you've got more specific questions than that please please do just ask wild teas this is from Duncan who also met me at the bushcraft show good to hear from you Duncan wanted to ask you a question would you say that the what would you say ask this side there's just too many words in there what would you say are some easily identifiable plants that I can make a tea out of in the woods I love nettle tea but what others would you would be good to try and or nettles good of course and that's quite a particular taste but other things you could try that were easily identifiable wood sorrel oxalis heceta cellar and quite a tart lemony apple pili flavor in the leaf some of that steeped in hot water adds a nice flavor to it ground ivy glaucoma headless here in the mint family very slightly medicinal taste and on its own lots of it isn't always to everyone's taste although it's very good I should have some now I've had this sort of qatar for a while at a head cold a little while ago which is not usual for me certainly not in the summer last time i was ill in the summer was 1995 it's good for bronchial complaints and clearing your nostrils so you know good amount of ground ivy in hot water it's good just to breathe the vapors but drinking as well is good for sore throats bronchial chest complains head colds etc but as a day to day tea is better knit mixed with a few nettles perfect for sort of blending the flavor and the other thing that you could add into it is some wild mint as well and there are a number of wild mints you could use they're nice on their own as well of course so water mint is a common mint that you'll find a mint of damp places and I've mentioned that a number of times on my blog if you have a look at my blog at porchetta code at UK wild wanderings 8 I talked about wild mint on their Waterman specifically and there's also another article on my blog about using water mint for teas as well so that's a good one I'll put a link in the show notes for those and corn mint as well looks very similar to water mint and in you often they do hybridize a bit as well so none of the wild limps and the UK are going to cause you any issue so if it's if it looks like mint and it smells like means you can can link tea with it and so that's a good one to do pine needles we talked about pine needles already you know how if you've listened to this whole episode you know how to identify or at least have a good idea of what you're going to be looking for cross-reference with an ID guide perhaps but any of the pines you can make a pine needle tea rich in vitamin C has generally a good flavor to it that's another good one meadowsweet is another one a filler pendular or maria and i find it a very easy leaf to identify but some people confuse it with other things so from that perspective I would say just be a little bit careful with that but meadowsweet the leaves again it's got quite a specific taste to it's a little bit medicinal but it does make quite a nice tea it's got a headache it's got some natural aspirin in it as well so it's quite soothing if you're a bit sore or you've got a headache

those those would be that I kind of top ones and then you can start using things like bramble leaves and the spring and that type of thing going to give you a bit of a fruity flavor and then you can start making cordials and all sorts of things with fruit but in terms of leaf teas green leaf teas that common widespread easily excuse me easily identified those are the ones that I go for excuse me learning to navigate at night short and sweet really nice example of a Twitter question using the hashtag ask Paul curtly and this is from wild Brigante and his question is what's the best way to learn navigation at night thanks Gian oh well Luke Jenna I think your question is what's the best way to learn to navigate at night as opposed to learning all navigation during the night I think that's what you mean so I'm going to take it as what's the best way to learn how to navigate in the dark and the way I teach people to navigate at night is giving them certain giving them some basic navigation during daylight so they are understanding the principles of things like bearings being able to take a bearing from a map and apply it walk on that bearing walking on a bearing when they don't have a visual frame of reference and their ways of doing that even during daylight so being out in an open field and just walking by keeping your bearing correct with your compass without looking at what's around you counting a number of paces and then changing the angle by a number of degrees and then walking out a route and getting back to where you started and being accurate we're getting back to where you started without cheating and that's a good way of practicing just walking on bearings and clearly the risk is low there because if you get it wrong you're in an open field you're not going to fall off anything and into anything you're not going to get lost and so you can train yourself to do that in a low-risk environment which is good and then you can come to the woods during daylight hours and start walking how to walk on a bearing in the woods and because of course you can't walk in a straight line in the woods and I don't mean that you're going to walk in circles when you don't have a compass I'm talking with your compass clearly there are trees and has obstacles in their way and so you have to then have some techniques for getting around the obstacles but keeping on your on your bearing so whether it's citing a tree and then what that's on your bearing walking to that going around the other side of it and sighting the next thing double-checking with a back bearing that you're on the right line to your the one that you just walked from having boxing around techniques all of those things are important so you can put you can practice all of those things during the day like learning how to pace and time your legs and I don't mean your legs I mean the legs that you're walking along so you working out this is going to take me six minutes to walk and I'm expecting and you know and I know I walk so many paces per hundred meters etc etc I'm working out how many paces it's going to take keeping track of your distance using paces pacing and timing for dead reckoning if you like how important at night but those are things that you can practice during the day and then things like if you're honored on a track a trail in the woods that's on your map you can take bearings down the trail to make sure you're on the right bearing when you come to junctions in the trail you can take bearings even if you can't see very far down them you can take bearings double-check that you're choosing the right one and they're all good nighttime techniques so there's a lot that you can practice during the day and then the more you get into the woods the the less distance you can actually see if you're out in the open you can see landmarks in the distance it's easy to orient the map you hardly need to use a compass but once you get into the woods and dense woodlands you need to it's more like walking at night anymore so that's a good intermediate stage and then you need some techniques for actually practically applying walking on bearings pacing timing etc in the woods and then you can then start maybe moving around a relatively straightforward environment unencumbered by too many obstacles at night try and do it without head torches on a night where there's a good moon and or have a a method where you can look at your map without losing your night vision so maybe keeping one eye open one eye closed or using a non white light that's going to not affect your night vision as much so that you can look at your map and your compass and then turn your light off and walk do that in a relatively on day and risky environment both in terms of consequences of your making mistakes with your

techniques in terms of just wasting the time and also obviously practical you know danger of falling off and over things and getting yourself into into dangerous situations and and then maybe come to the woods in the dark and then you can really start to to move around in any environment in in darkness but it does take some time it takes some practice focus on the basics walking on bearings understanding the relationship between magnetic north geographic north and and grid north understanding how to take bearings from your map for where you are so that you can walk on them practice walking on bearings accurately in unrest key environments practice pacing practice timing practice putting those together in the daylight then start putting them together and at night in a field say for example and then you can start applying them in harder environments in the dark that's the approach that I would that I would take last question from Thomas in the Czech Republic and he asks what is your opinion on Parham Oklo thing if you have some experiences please share I like caramel clothing and I think it's good bed based not far from here actually I have no connection with the company and butt-nik waxham and paramotor not far from here in this part of the UK and I like the Nick wax products for reproof in my gear and particularly the tech wash for cleaning it and the TX Direct for reproof in readable stuff I use that on clothes and then use it on with breathable membranes like gore-tex jackets and event and para moet cetera and I also use it on busy bags as well it works very well on those these are all baby bags and says the paramotor clothing I like I have a smock which is unlined it's just a windproof shell and I really like that it's a little bit heavier than some wind proofs and I don't mean ven tile in that fight I mean like proper lightweight wind proofs that are just gossamer thin and going a little bit heavier it's got a little bit more in terms of features in terms of cuff velcro and zips and pocket and it's a nice it's like a the paramount outer the analogy outer material it's like a parallel version of a vent I'll smoke that I've we're in the woods and I like it a lot I wear it quite a lot for walking I work quite a lot for for Hill walking when it's not teeming with rain but it's windy it's very breathable keeps the wind off is comfortable to wear packs down to nothing I also take it on a winter trips with me because again it packs down to nothing and it's brilliant for digging out snow shelters and in fact I did something just just remembered actually I did something on my blog about clothing for digging out a Cameron Bure what the title was with it speaking out Quinn's ease or digging out snow shelters whether it was that specific to Quinn's ease but basically that paramos smoke is an over smoke that I wear on that type of activity I've used it in Norway for digging out snow shelters in the mountains I've used it in northern Sweden for digging out Queen Z's and it's great because it stops you other stuff getting wet and it's not your main smock either which is going to get wet so you can take off your big heavy and vent I'll smoke for example in the northern forest with a fair rough and all of that and you can put this little smock on which keep the seal it all up keep the snow out keep the snow and moisture off your base layer and then it packs all it dries out very quickly in packs away to nothing so I really like that and then the lined stuff as well is good whether they're the smocks and/or the jackets they work very very well and I have friends in Mountain Rescue who are many many mountain rescue people where Palermo and here in the UK where they're going to get cold and they're going to get wet unless they've got the right clothing

and even if they do get a bit wet the paramotor stuff seems to keep them dry keep them keep them in the right condition when they're moving in the right condition when the stationary looking after a casualty and lots of people who are in arduous conditions and the outdoors in the UK in particular really rate it for for those things also it works nicely under vent I'll in the same way that Buffalo tops work well under a vent I'll top the lined paramos smocks if you use that as your warm layers if you like and the analogy material the the thin material it's like Pertex none of these synthetic outer materials are good in heavy briars where you've got thorns and abrasive materials against them or fire is the main issue with all of those synthetics if you get a spit from the fire onto them straight through if you put a vent I'll smoke over the top it protects the the finer material on the inside and then the other thing you know everybody should notice about ventilate isn't the most waterproof fabric in the world people say it's a gore-tex equivalent no it's not and I've worn I like vent file a lot I've got double layered vent I'll smoke that I had custom made for me and Ian and I had one made a few years ago for our winter trips that we do in northern Sweden and we love those smocks they're absolutely fantastic and the lighter weight smokes that snow sled used to make that Hill Trek still do make those type of jackets they're fine for the woods they're good and they're breathable and they protect your inner clothing but when it really lashes it down they don't keep the water out and I've worn single layer vent I'll smocks in the hills in Scotland and really regretted it and let's not sell people this romantic idea that that stuff is as good as a modern triple layer gore-tex XCR and pro shell or event or what-have-you jacket in there in the mountain in Scotland in mark in its raining and it's cold now it's not in the woods fantastic but even so chucking down with rain the water is going to come through on the shoulders of a single leg or texture of a single layer vent I'll jacket and fairly quickly combined with something like a buffalo systems special six shirt or a param oh I don't know the the model name but a paramos smoke of a similar weight underneath fantastic combination ven pile and param oh go really well together and some of the other synthetic based systems with a vent I'll shell over the top work really well together in the woods so if you've got that type of system you can wear them without the vent I'll in the mountains and with the vent I'll in the woods and it gives you good flexible system and the jackets themselves and the paramotor stuff is very good and I'd recommend it that brings us to the end I believe brings us to the end of a sport currently 57 so thanks for your questions again all good questions range of different topics that we takes us down there and all of these questions help bring a conversation to the four different things before it helps draw stuff out of me that I wouldn't necessarily think to talk about certainly not at that moment and Britt draws things out of me different perspectives that based on my experience but maybe I wouldn't choose to write an article about or make a Tips & Tricks video about or what-have-you so that's really useful for me to get that information out to you thank you for the questions thanks to all of you for your attention everyone who's listening via the podcast everyone who is watching via the videos whether it's on my blog on YouTube much much appreciated for your attention and might I ask as always if you are watching please leave a comment below wherever you're watching the video please leave a comment please like the video if you're able to just clicking like and on YouTube leaving a comment helps or leaving a comment on my blog is always appreciated I do read everyone and also if you are on podcast land in podcast land please leave a rating in the appropriate place on the platform that you're on even if it's just giving it star rating leaving a comment is great but just saying you like it if you do of course is very very helpful it helps put it out in front of more people which helps me frankly and it helps me because the more people that see this the more I can justify spending the time doing it and of course the more people who watch the more good questions we get and then everyone benefits so thanks again for your questions thanks for attention and I will see you on the next episode of a spork early before too long take care Cheers [Music]

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