Bushcraft

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BUSHCRAFT I was asked to write an article on the bushcraft which was held on the weekend of 15-17th March at Smith Creek in the Tauherenikau Valley. There was approximately 36 people present and as it was the first I had been on for about two years, I noticed the very high response from new members to go on a bushcraft, with pleasure. The last few I had been on had a low attendance because the members propably felt that as they had gone to the introductory sessions they felt that there was no need for them to go on a bushcraft course. A few days before the bushcraft weekend a meeting has held, convened by Nick Jennings who was the organiser, in order to see what course one was prepared to instruct on. After due completion of this, a circular arrived in the mail advising you of the time and the length of the talk your instruction was to be held, and made for a very smooth running weekend. It was a shame that some of the older, more experienced members of the club could not come along to assist the new instructors on any points which would be to the advantage of the new club members and be on hand to offer any help after the exercise had been completed. I think that if the groups could have been spread over a larger area it would have stopped one group from seeing what another group was doing and would have prevented a lot of eyes straying from the lesson they were being taught. The Saturday night meal was run in a good way, with sO many on the trip, one massive stew for everybody would have been terrible to control, whereas this weekend groups were formed to have separate stews and thus the food was prepared by a lot more people and was ready a lot faster. The sing-song by the camp fire that night was enjoyed by everyone present as was the jokes that were cracked. I would like to say that the instruction given by the instructors was very good and I hope that the Club can retain these people and more willing people to instruct on future bushcrafts in the years to come. I would like to thank Nick in the way he organised the course, as in my opinion it was first class and must have taken a lot of pressure off the Chief Guide who already has sO many duties at Club. Peter Goodwin