Being fed by nature - The Adventure Van with a Social Plan
Myself, Alex Mason and David Willis with Bimble, my Adventure Van with a Social Plan
The project
I had originally planned to start this project in 2019 but with a busy work year and various other things going on, it just didn’t seem to be the right time.. Then roll on 2020 and having been through what we have, the outdoors is even more important than ever for our mental health so now seems as good a time as any to kick off my Adventure Van with a Social Plan project once again.
The idea behind this project is to have experiences with people I know but doing things I have never done before, learning new skills and simply soaking up all that our great outdoors has to offer for the benefit of mind, body and soul. We all know the benefits of being outdoors has on our mental (and physical) health and over the next year or so I’ll be exploring different ways of getting the most out of trying new things in the fresh air. I am a seasoned adventurer, have travelled to lands far way and been fortunate enough to have had some pretty amazing experiences but it’s now time to bring it home, head off in my adventure van called Bimble with someone in my passenger seat and to give you some ideas of how nature can nurture you too.
My first port of call
For my first new experience I headed up to Little Chalfont to meet up with David Willis, bushcraft instructor and all round book on outdoor knowledge. I have spent a lot of my outdoor life in woods so am used to wandering through them either with my dogs or on DofE expeditions however it’s a rarity for me to sit still in one and to learn new skills.
Having been sent very easy and specific instructions of how to find David and his woods, I rolled Bimble into the field where she was going to be parked up for the next 24 hours bang on time. I met David at Yestival 2017, the (almost) yearly SayYesMore festival of adventure. This was my first festival of any kind and being surrounded by a diverse range of people who were all up for adventures near or far, big or small, was enjoyably overwhelming and incredibly encouraging in the same package. When David saw my original post asking for volunteers to be part of my project he immediately said yes and for the last couple of years I’ve been saying to him ‘I will, soon!’ That one day became a reality at the beginning of September and what a 24-hour day it was.
David’s backstory
Joining the army at 17, David served as a surveyor in the Royal Engineers for just under 7 years spending time in various locations including Belize. After leaving the army to join a civilian life he retrained in data management and went into the tech industry in the 1980s where he spent the majority of his indoor working life. The outdoors has always been in his and his family’s blood and he has spent time living alongside the Maasai in the Rift Valley and learning from the Bushman of the Kalahari, motorcycled around Europe, built and paddled his canoe along British rivers.
Escaping the corporate world was his best decision ever (David’s own words). He had a big Yes moment when a course was cancelled so he redirected the funds and retrained to teach bushcraft skills taking a course with bushcraft guru John Rhyder which consisted of 10 x 5 day modules over a year which included teaching, woodland management, plants, trees, animals, learning much of it in Latin, first aid, basic expedition skills, woodland crafts, outdoor catering (particularly vegan) and concluded with an assessment on each subject. With further courses before and after, David really is an outdoors encyclopedia and now loves teaching adults and children, sharing the skills needed to enjoy living life in the fresh air and having fun outdoors.
Another Yes moment came when he met the owner of the woods where he runs his bushcraft skills courses in the Chilterns. It’s amazing where a simple 3 letter word can take you.
Being fed by nature
David had asked me what I’d like to learn during our 24 hours in nature and I was happy to be led by his knowledge but said a definite yes to whittling. I have always wanted to whittle a spoon and now was my chance. David said that the main aim was to leave life’s worries at the gate and that is exactly what I did.
Accompanied by friend, fellow adventurer, long distance hiker, continent crossing cyclist and ocean rower Alex Mason and with my 2 dogs Daisy and Lily for extra company, we left Bimble parked up behind a hedge at just after 10am on a bright but chilly Wednesday morning and took the short walk away from the road and into the peace and quiet of the woods.
With a quick guide of our camp area finished and the all important health and safety brief, we popped our kit down safely away from the already flickering fire for the obligatory cuppa by the flames. Our learning had already started by stealth with simple things such as how to use the simple but effective composting loo, or the contemplation station as I renamed it, how to set up a kettle and pot and a reminder never to sit down wind from the campfire smoke!
Our day was already in full and gentle flow and we could feel ourselves already relaxing courtesy of David’s calm nature, the rustling of the leaves, hearing the birds chirping, listening to a young Buzzard’s call and watching my dogs snuffling in the leaves.
As you can imagine, Alex and I are used to being on the move and I was surprised at how easy it was to simply sit and be still. When you are occupied with doing and learning, it’s a very satisfying state to be in. For the rest of the day we found ourselves happily contained around the camp fire, not moving farther than the walk to the loo or a quick wander back to Bimble to fetch the dogs’ bed and I didn’t miss the movement at all.
We were being fed by nature in so many ways. Making and baking bread was next on the agenda, again something that I have never done before bar a failed loaf of soda bread in my kitchen at home. I was pleasantly encouraged at how easy it is and I am now planning to create a fire pit at home to do some outside baking.
Whilst our bread was proving and then baking, David showed us how to fillet a fish and Alex then took on the challenge. With the bread almost ready and our fish splayed out on skewers which we had made ourselves we got onto creating lunch. Baked bread and fish and fresh salad was the order of the day and by George it tasted good!
With our stomachs full and some good campfire chats had already we moved onto learning different methods of how to create fire which is always fascinating. There are a good many tried and tested methods of making fire from wire wool and a 9V battery, a combo of cotton wool, vaseline and a spark created by a variety of flints to using King Alfred’s cakes fungus (good as tinder, not good as food) and then moved onto creating things with knives.
David gave us another quick safety brief (don’t cut yourself!) and introduced us to an array of knives, axes and saws whilst telling us what is legal to carry if it’s part of your job and what is suitable to carry for leisure, different uses for each sharp tool and the safest way of using them and then we were onto my long held ambition, to whittle a spoon.
Oh how satisfying it was! We were sitting still, gently whittling away, drinking tea, chatting and checking that we were heading in the right direction with our soon to be used eating tools. Whilst Alex and I honed our skills, David cracked on with dinner which was a simple veggie stir fry. Out came his frying pan which could tell a few food stories, in went the veg, onto the fire and in a few minutes we had a delicious nutritious meal.
With darkness falling up went our tents and it was time for bed. I find when travelling overseas that my body most definitely gets into a rhythm with sun up and sun down and when you are outside camping, even more so. Before long I was settling into my sleeping bag with Daisy at my head and Lily, camping for the first time, beside me in her bed. It was her first time in a tent but as we spend so much time in the van, she is used to sleeping in a variety of locations. We were soon all fast asleep.
The following morning I woke up as light started to seep through the canvas and the birds started their morning singing routine. We were greeting when getting out of the tent by a cup of something hot before we headed off for a tour of the woods and a in depth lesson on tree identification. I know a lot about nature but have struggled over the last few years with remembering certain things thanks to brain fog and the menopause, trees being one of them. David gave us a masterclass of how to remember a small but significant number of trees in the woods, the more common ones and those which we see less often. I hugged a red wood, not that it needed any identification but it was certainly one I haven’t seen in the UK before. We saw a number of badger sets, watched squirrels scampering up the trees to get out of reach of the dogs, wandered around the perimeter of the woods seeing which trees grow well in a variety of locations and hearing why woodland management is so important before heading back to camp for a breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee.
Sadly it was then time to pack up and head home. A fully immersive 24 hours which really calmed my mind, be-stilled my body and nourished my soul.
I can’t recommend David and his woods enough and will most definitely be going back for more natural nourishment. Do take a look at his website where there are some handy step by step guides.
Thank you David for your time.
David’s details:
Website - www.davidwillis.info
Social media - Facebook - Instagram - LinkedIn
Footnote - I saw this on David’s social media recently and thought it sums up being outdoors perfectly:
Why I go to the woods - Being outdoors is where I am the most contented with life - others that join me, young and old, and those in between, appear more relaxed, whether that is simply being in a woodland, listening to the birds sing, making a fire, contemplating life whilst gazing into its flames, foraging in the hedgerows or crafting something, or cooking up something naturally delicious, I really don't know. But perhaps, just like sipping a nettle tea, it calms us, a walk barefoot connects us, and the fresh air stimulates the senses, and we feel alive. (my best guess)
Being fed by nature - 24 hours in 3 minutes