Trackways

 

The Year Course will cover in depth many of the subjects touched upon in the Wild Craft Survival skills course.  It will also introduce a wide range of new material that is not taught elsewhere. The purpose of the course is to integrate the skills in to our everyday life.  This demands practice and application as all the skills take much time to master.

The year course is the start of a journey back to a place of lasting connection with the earth.  The course helps us to feel confident on our own in nature, a return to our authentic natural self.  The emphasis lies with the development of the necessary knowledge and skill base to live with the land and a sense of interconnection with the great out doors that we are a part of.

The year course runs over 10 months allowing us to have out door experience through out the year and to become able to be comfortable outdoors under most conditions. It is designed to address some of the questions people encounter after taking their first class. How to put these ways in to practice? How to find time to make the skills workable?

We cover a comprehensive range of advanced survival skills while also developing our inner resources to overcome the challenges we encounter. This helps us to become more independent on all levels. The skills are taught through principles which mean that they can be applied to many different situations and environments allowing the students a great deal of adaptability.

Facing the challenge of the Survival Quest builds a deep sense of self trust, knowing we can rely on our own skills.  This is a rich experience that both directs us towards living in harmony with the land and facilitates the necessary experience to share the skills.

There will be structured aides for studying many aspects of nature, tracking, birds, plants and animals, developing an intimate knowledge and connection with the environment. This fosters an exciting exploration of many fields of study in to the natural world that will last a life time.

The course consists of five meetings, four teaching modules of five days and a week long quest experience.  Each five day module will include a weekend.  As it is an ongoing group friendships form and a sense of community builds with skills being shared and a culture of mutual support flourishing.

The Trackways year course has been running since 2000 and is the most established course of this type in the country.  A number of graduates over the years have gone on to develop their own successful schools and others are working in the field of survival training including the Trackways team.  The Trackways instructors are all well trained and experienced teachers.

In an age where nature deficit disorder has become a recognized syndrome this course aims to encourage the participants to readdress the balance for themselves. This course is an invitation to bring some adventure in to our lives, learning how to spend time in wild environments to find a sense of perspective and contentment that comes from feeling at home in the great outdoors.

The courses are self catering so please bring food for the duration and a stove.  Cooking will be encouraged in and around the fire and ways of using the fire for cooking will be explored over the course.  Tea and coffee and a kettle will be provided.

(Certain modules may be open to advanced students where appropriate)

 

The prerequisite for the year course is Wild Craft Survival If you are interested in the year course then please let us know as soon as possible.

 

To Apply

It is possible to spread the payment over the year though a deposit of £500 must be sent with the application. The total cost for the year course starting in 2013 is £2800.

Trackways also offers a program of teaching experience including mentoring and guidance for those wishing to become teachers.

Trackways is in the process of creating a second year course please contact us for details.

Itinerary for Year course 2013  

 

Wild craft catch up March 4-5th  £240

First session 5 Days:   March 6-10 th : Establishing a survival camp moving towards survival living. Skills covered: group shelter, advanced fire making, Traps, Awareness routines, Cooking in the fire, more cordage, Winter plant I.D. including edible and medicinal plants.

Second session 5 Days: April 26-30 th  : Caretaking and the way of the tracker Learning to heal the earth and return it to balance. Tracking principles and practice, Animal I.D. Awareness skills, Plant profiles, Tree I.D. and uses, Caretaking methods and practice (This class is open to advanced students )

 Third session 5 Days: June 26-30 th: Nature Awareness: Bird language, silent and invisible movement, camouflage,
concentric ring study, blind fold work, balance work, tracking at speed, silent communication.

Fourth session 5 Days: September 25-29th : More advanced Survival skills:  Hide tanning, Bark work, Flint knapping, ceramics. Plant I.D. for food and medicine, Bow making, arrow fletching, raw hide use.

Fifth session 7 Days Date TBA : Survival Quest Putting your skills to the test living wild for four days.  

Year course cost £2800 (not including the wild craft catch up.)

Some of the skills covered over the year course:

Flint knapping making arrow heads, wild food preparation, shelter building and living

advanced fire methods, bow drill fire with natural cordage, axe, saw and knife use and safety, survival bow making, arrow making, fletching, tools made by fire, water purification methods, fire cooking methods,  hide tanning, raw hide work, bark basket making including water carrying baskets, bone work, the use of different bones for specific purposes, making tools from bones, use of sinew, native hunting methods, trapping, primitive pottery, Flint knapping making hand axes, knife blades & Celts, primitive food preparation including making jerky, hand drill fire method, bow making principles, snap bow, father and son bow, bow in an hour, working with pine pitch, the art of invisibility, many diverse stalking steps, expert camouflage, concentric rings in nature, the study of bird language, the routine of invisibility, scout psychology and awareness, body control,  group dynamics, the scout shelter, nature awareness, plant and tree identification, natural soaps tooth brush etc, detailed study of medicinal plant use, herbal first aid, tracking techniques, track ageing, the tracking stick, night tracking, pattern classification, pressure release studies, single track analysis, natural navigation.