johnsunter.com >> outdoor >> bushcraft >> desert survival course 2
Studying bushcraft survival in the Sahara Desert with Survival School (2/2).
JK leads the session on navigation using compass.
We used several different types of compass on the exercise, which covered fundamentals, but also emphasised practical use in the desert.
This was complimented by the previous evenings talk on finding latitude and longitude using simple tools, and navigation from the stars.
After this, we did a sat nav exercise.
On my wrist I am wearing my Garmin Sat Nav which I have owned for some time. Like many things, I had never actually used it before, but JK taught me all sorts of tricks with it.
One off my favourite things was using it when travelling in vehicles. Its possible for example to use the GPS to calculate time/distance from destination and use it on trains and buses.
The next day, we had a navigation exercise, where we were tested on our navigation and got to practice travelling across the tops of sand dunes (its useless walking up and down them, as its wastes energy).
One of the session was on firelighting.
Here a bucket is filled with a mixture of sand and fuel, with the sand acting as a wick.
Its a simple controlled way of lighting a fire in the desert.
Here, Kev takes a bulb he has, and breaks the glass around it.
Next one of our drivers, removes the cover and replaces the bulbs.
With the light activated, Kevs "broken" bulb lights some cotton wool from the first aid kit.
Its often Anecdotally stated that you can make fire from coca cola and chocolate.
The basic idea, is that the bottom of the coke can, can be polished with the chocolate, and then used as a kind of Lens, to focus sunlight onto some tinder.
Kev and JK demonstrate firefighting with a firedrill.
I have tried fire drill before and always found it very difficult.
I imagined using one in somewhere like Africa, would be much easier. It wasn't.
As a fun evening project, we had plans for a solar cooker, printed from the Internet, and various blue peter type resources to build one.
I promoted myself to project manager, but by the time I had organized meetings, drawn a gant chart and arranged finance for the project, the lads had actually built it.
The finished solar cooker.
The basic idea, is that several triangular pieces of cardboard, have tinfoil glued to them, and are then fastened together. To form a find of satellite dish.
A metal container with food (in our case, rice) is placed in the centre, and the whole thing is moved around to face the sun.
In 2 hours, it cooked the rice perfectly.
Next was a session on water procurement.
Pat and I purify some water, with the new filter, which I had bought for the trip.
JK prepares a solar still.
A container is placed at the bottom, with a length of plastic pipe fed through the sand
If you don't do it this way you have to dismantle the still every time you want to drink the water.
Next its covered over with a polythene sheet, and a stone is placed on the plastic, so the condensation, drips into the container.
We made one with urine, dirty water and foliage, and one with just sand.
The solar still with the foliage etc, produced this (a third of a litre).
The water was brown and stank (but we were in a desert, and it was still water !).
The solar still with just sand, produced nothing.
A plastic bag, placed around some foliage.
Produced 3 times as much water as the successfull solar still, and required no-where near the effort to create.
We did a session on signaling.
It became obvious, almost immediately, that a signaling mirror, is the weapon of choice in the daytime, and 3 fires were the best option at night.
Here I practice with different sorts of mirrors, including cd's.
This Land rover is a quarter of a mile away, and can hardly be seen (hence the red circle around it
Its for this reason, that the advice to stay with the vehicle is normally given. A person standing next to the land rover, can hardly be seen.
This was one of the best trips, that I have ever done, I would like to thank everyone at Survival school and all the people that took part.
