Minimum Kit for Outdoor Survival

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I’ve always been a keen camper, but I’m nowhere near as tough as Bear Grylls or Ray Mears. For me it’s fair weather all the way.

But some of my hardier mates were discussing the minimum needed to survive a few nights outdoors at this chilly time of year.

The conclusion was: shelter, warmth and some way to make fire and get some food and water. So this has resulted in a challenge for us to spend two nights and two days living and sleeping outdoors, in April.

We’re allowing ourselved to take some tents, a warm sleeping bag for each of us along with a knife, some water along with warm clothes and footwear. This is all the camping gear that we’ll be taking.

We’re not allowed to take any lighters or matches (but I shall definitely be taking my firesteel) and we’re not going to take any food. So we’ll be trying to snare a rabbit or two, or maybe scraping some road-kill for a road-kill cook off.

This reminds me of a one night survival challenge that I undertook when in the boy scouts. On that occasion we were allowed to take a little food, but no shelter and no means of starting a fire. We had to build a bivouac and start a fire by means of friction. I remember that this was a lot of fun, but hard work.

Without doubt, the most useful item that we took with us that time was our knives. You may have noticed how this is the key survival essential that Bear Grylls always has with him when he parachutes into a wilderness somewhere. Equipped with a well made knife you can cut branches to make a shelter or create a fire. You have the tool you need to make a snare to trap rabbits and then skin it ready for cooking.

So wish me luck on my forthcoming survival challenge weekend. But I shall definitely be taking my mobile phone so if we don’t have any luck with rabbits or road kill I’ll be able to call for a pizza!

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