If you’re out for a hike at the weekend, whether it’s a woodland stroll or a highland trek, having a few key items in your rucksack can make a huge difference to your comfort should you need them. It’s relatively common during a walk in a new area, especially at this time of year, for journey plans to stretch and you find yourself walking into the growing dark down the wrong valley.

During bushcraft courses here in the UK and when hosting private tuition sessions there’s one concept above all that I find has the most impact on my clients proficiency with their knife.

I’ve written a few articles now on the knots I use when setting up a tarp for camping, but in the video below I combine the three knots I use most often to demonstrate from start to finish how I go about pitching my camp.

In this video I demonstrate how I keep my axe sharp in the field and at home. I use a DC4 pocket stone by Fallkniven, and have used this method almost exclusively since getting my first Gransfors Axe 15 years ago.

Pineapple Weed - Wild Chamomile - Disc-Mayweed.

Pineapple Weed a member of the ever chilled out Chamomile Tribe, under the bright and friendly Asteraceae (Sunflower) family.  In the Genus Matricaria, its cousin Chamomile (M. chamomilla) is commonly the source of most commercially available Chamomile tea, Pineapple Weed is the punk-rock version of its sell-out mainstream cousin, but we’ll get onto that in soon.

During our Primary and Itinerant Courses I advocate carrying the ‘crazy 8’ everyday carry items that make life very much easier when outdoors. With the progress being made in hyper-light tough fabrics though I may start considering adding a super-light tarp to my list.

It’s now possible to get a single person tarp that literally packs down to pocket size, though I currently use a slightly larger one.

Having returned from our most recent canoeing trip with clients to Loch Awe I'm spending a little time reviewing my evening notes and looking at the equipment I took to see what worked well and what I may do differently next time. In this quick blog I'll highlight what I took for evening wear and how it performed.

I originally wrote this short tutorial for an online bushcraft store, I've recreated in full for you here.

I thought I’d share with a simple recipe that forms the basis of a staple bread in the wilds, needing only three primary ingredients which can be long stored and transported in such quantities as to sustain you during extended periods away from resupply.