johnsunter.com >> outdoor >> bushcraft >> desert survival course 1
Studying bushcraft survival in the Sahara Desert with Survival School (1/2).
I took part in a 9 day desert survival course with Survival School in Morocco.
The right clothing was essential.
Here I wear a full length shirt and trousers by Rohan, and a broad brimmed floppy hat.
I also have my favourite sunglasses with leather sides, to keep out dust and sand. On my feet I wear British Army combat boots.
We slept out all but one night during the course.
The first of the 2 sleeping systems I used, was a lifeventure free standing mosquito net. It didn't need to be treated and worked perfectly.
Inside I have my thermarest (I consider this to be the single best piece of outdoor gear I have ever purchased.) and my down sleeping bag, which in the desert, was unzipped and used as a 2nd mattress.
Whilst in mountains/forest etc, I used the same system, but substituted the mozzy net for a goretex bivvi bag
I put an "orange" plastic bag underneath to protect my sleeping equipment. I normally carry one for emergency's, sitting on to eat sandwiches etc, and they only cost £2.50
One of my friends on the course Joe, showed me how to put my socks over the top of my boots, so that insects couldn't get in.
Travelling in Land rovers, we arrive at our first camp, in the black desert.
Our Berber drivers and guide make straight for a large tree. What use is that one tree in this enormous desert I wonder ?
This proved to be the first of many lessons I would learn about survival/living in the desert.
Between about 10:30am and 4:30pm, it is too hot to do anything. We woke most days at 6am, did our training until 10:30 and rested until the early evening, when we began our studies again.
The tree was an invaluable resource, and as the shade moved throughout the day, the entire team moved with it!
Our instructor Kev, taught the first session on basic survival strategy.
The 2nd session was about desert shelter construction.
The first shelter we built was basically a large hole in the sand, with a basha covering the top, held in place with sand.
A better version off the shelter, was built above ground using rocks.
The rocks are built into a u-shape with the sand inside removed to reveal the cooler sand underneath.
A 2nd smaller wall was built above this and another basha added.
This double covering, created an air pocket which reduced the inside temperature of the shelter substantially.
An improvised double layer shelter built near some rocks in the black desert by Mark and his wife Sylvie.
If you look closely, in the top left hand corner of the picture, you can see a modern day Berber Nomad (hence the mountain bike) who had come over to see what we were doing.
Terry sits inside a classic double layer basha rig,
set up at the front of a Land rover, with the vehicle providing a ready made backrest.
The basha is supported by 2 sand ladders.
As we headed into the sand dunes, we came upon a Berber nomad camp.
They live very simply in the desert, I was later to find just how hard their lives must be, when I spent 5 days in the dunes.
Our guide Mohamed was a chef and restaurateur, who cooked us resteraunt quality food, in the middle of the desert each night.
This proved invaluable towards moral, since although the course was well organized, and the participants a great bunch, you cant beat a good meal.
Here, Lamb is spit roasted by the fire.
A few of us, wanted to see how bread is cooked traditionally by the Berber Nomads.
Our guides went to a nomad village, and negotiated for someone to come and demonstrate.
A local Berber woman arrived and took charge of the fire.
We were all fascinated by her bread making, and although a proud woman, she seemed delighted at all the attention she received.
The doe is prepared, then placed on a smooth bed of sand, coated with a slight layer of sand, then covered over with embers.
The end product, perfect crispy bread, cooked on an open fire.
Kev gives a talk on vehicle recovery, using one of the 3 Land rovers we had at our disposal.
The course did not cover off road driving, as this would require an entire course, devoted solely to that subject
We were taught several different ways of getting vehicles out of trouble, including the simple yet amazingly effective "trick" of letting the tyres down slightly.
Here we use sand ladders to retrieve our trusted "landy".
The session continued with a talk on selection of vehicle, and what equipment should be carried, avoidance of overloading the roof rack etc.
Some of the strange creatures we encountered.
This is a scorpion which we found.
We also saw a beetle, which Mark (who worked at London Zoo) identified as having the strongest jaw bone in the animal kingdom.
Whilst doing night navigation, John Mallet discovered this Sand Viper.
We were all perfectly fine, as we were wearing boots.
I couldn't go too near it with the camera though, so I have had to enhance this picture a little.
