 |
Ray Mears tests his own courage as he takes
part in the RAF's three-week survival course
in Cornwall. He joins a team of 20 jet
pilots, navigators and helicopter crew as
they learn to survive at sea and on land.
RAF aircrew can find themselves in action
almost anywhere in the world, flying over
desert, sea, jungle, woodland or the Arctic.
If they are shot down behind enemy lines,
they have to be able to survive in every
environment. "In a few seconds, a fighter
pilot can be catapulted from their jet worth
millions of pounds into a Stone Age situation
where they're surviving hand to mouth," says
Ray.
From learning to survive on water, the course
moves to Dartmoor where Ray spends a week
living rough in shelters, learning how to
trap squirrels and birds, light fires and
cook what he catches. It's wet and cold. When
they go on the run for three days and nights,
a hunter force is let loose to capture them.
---
Ray Mears (born 1964) is a British author and
TV presenter on the subject of bushcraft and
survival techniques. He grew up in Southern
England, and started tracking foxes at a
young age. It was his Judo teacher who gave
him the idea to learn survival skills. He has
been teaching survival skills since 1983,
when he founded the "Woodlore" School of
Wilderness Bushcraft. His Outdoor Survival
Handbook was published in 1990, and his first
TV appearance was in 1993 in the BBC2 series
Tracks.
His presentation style is often praised as
authoritative but relaxed and friendly. His
love of his subject and his sense of
communion with nature are evident in his
programmes, as is his respect for indigenous
cultures. He has developed something of a
cult following amongst students in the United
Kingdom.
Ray Mears has become synonymous with survival
and wilderness bushcraft through his
television series Tracks, World of Survival,
The Essential Guide to Rocks, and Extreme
Survival. He spent his life leaning these
skills and is a master of the subject.
Wanting to be able to sleep out on the trail
and unable to afford camping equipment, he
resorted to a Robinson Crusoe approach to
solving the problem.
Digesting every scrap of information relating
to survival that he could find in his local
library, he soon began to re-learn skills
that had not been employed on the North Downs
for hundreds of years.
Since those early days Ray has expanded his
horizons by travelling the world. He has won
the friendship of many nations and been
privileged to accompany many tribes while
hunting, tracking and searching for wild
plants and medicine.
In his early twenties Ray founded his company
Woodlore, through which he trains both
military and civilian audiences the skills of
survival.
Tags : aircraft military ray mears fighter pilot bbc bushcraft survival Worldwide Wilderness Shelter |
