Forest School Course Underway

---

The course I came all this way for started this morning. I'm only a couple of kilometres down the road from the Scout Camp where the course is being held. There are 15 people doing this course including me. No one has come as far as I have! There are only two guys doing this course so mostly women. We spent the morning getting to know each others names and where we all come from. We went out into the forest. Luckily today was a non-rainy day. It was chilly and grey. There has been so much rain that the forest was really muddy. My boots felt about 2kgs heavier with the mud on them. We played some games, wandered through the forest, found some fungus and apparently there were lots of voles running around. I didn't see any but lots of other people did. I'll keep my eyes out tomorrow. They told me they look like a skinny little mouse... There are lots of mole hills around as well.

We spent the afternoon learning how to use a bow saw properly (bush saw at home). We were taught how to do a 'tool talk' and then how to use the saw safely. The trainer says he has used bow saws with 4 year olds but there has been some 17 year olds that he wouldn't give one to ... lol. We looked at tinder that is used to start a fire and then wandered through the forest finding our own tinder to start our own fires tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that! We are also going to build dens.

---

Photos

Under the Bothy Bag
This is an emergency tent.