View Full Version : Wilderness Gathering
I thought I would start a thred on this to find out peoples plans....
Mine are to vist on the saturday with a day ticket, who else is going?
what is it? when is it? is there a website?
Ian
outdoorgirl
10-08-2005, 20:22
Nope, can't make this one either. I couldn't be at Merthyr Mawr for the moot, and now where am I when WG is on, and just down the road from where I live? Yup. Merthyr Mawr... :)
Ah well. One of these days... :)
http://www.wildernessgathering.co.uk/
All the information can be found on that link my friend.
Full weekend hopefully......
Don't bother with the day ticket, it's a full weekend job!
This will be my third, you meet so many people, be invited to so many camp fires and share the company of so many good people.
Neil
I'll be there again this year. Looking forward to meeting up with old mates and making some new ones :D
The guy I do volenteer work with on Crowle Moors (Ken) is coming with me. I'm taking my 7 man Kata and there's only 2 us of in it . So if anyone needs a place to crash give me a shout.
I've got myself booked on the tracking master class on the Sunday morning with Max from Shadow Hawk. I'm really looking forward to that.
Once again the devil has conspired to vomit on my sleeping bag...I have to work that weekend aaarrrgh! I missed MM as well.
I suppose there is next year :(
I really wanted to come along - seems a good place to learn (and I have a lot to learn!). But then once again events have messed things up, as I have a party to go to (which doesn't sound like a very good excuse :), but it's one I can't really miss).
Hi all
Will be there for the weekend, though this time I will camp in the woods rather than by the pond.
Martin, I don't know if we have met at any of the meet ups but will look out for the Kata.
Cheers
George
I'll be setting up my Kata in the woods, just look for the mucky one that stinks of smoke :D Kata that is :rolleyes:
Hi,
I was thinking about coming along on a day pass for this event as i cant really afford the weekend cost at the moment.
Could someone who has been before explain a little about what goes on?
hope to see some of you there.
Andy
jamesdevine
16-08-2005, 08:41
As posted before my wife and I are making the trip over from Dublin. Would have loved to have gone to one of the July meets but it was my mothers 50th (couldn't miss that now could I).
Look out for a Millets Hippy Hut(stop laughing my wife bought it honest) with an Irish flag that will be us.
See you all there.
James
If you want to know more about what goes on have a look at the website on this link http://www.wildernessgathering.co.uk/ . It's hugely informal, full of enthusiasts who, like you, want to chat about what enthuses them and there are skills workshops, trade stands and food sales as well. I went to the first one not knowing anybody, then to the second looking forward to seeing new friends again. People are really friendly..oh....and don't forget your liquour supply - it's a great way to chill for the weekend.
Hi Falcon, thanks for the reply, Sounds like good fun then. Yeah I had looked at the website, but have been to many events where the website can sometimes be over-hyped. Really looking forward to going and seeing lots of other people into bushcraft....I had no idea so many people were keen on it!!!!!
Thanks again.
I can't go now! Stupid friends getting married!! :(
C_Claycomb
17-08-2005, 14:10
I will be there. Still in two minds on what to bring, bows or knives (and tools to make them), or try to cram the car with both!
I am off for the full weekend, went last year and it was very good sold a few knives, met many lile minded folk had drinks food singing and stories around various camp fires. Go the full 3 days else you will very fed up when you leave after 1 day the evenings are the best part.
basically you have a wood in which you camp and are allowed fires, you can sleep in a tent or under the stars or how you like, in the main area are trade stands and exhibitions plus food and a chance to sell your own kit and just wander and chat you can do a bit of Archery or throw axes. There are 3 areas for courses ie tracking wild foods etc. In the evening theres is much singing, drinking and story telling. Go if you can.
I really want to get to this one, missed the last one but oh I will probably end up missing it anyway that's what my life is like. I always miss everything!
Sounds like great fun, glad i'm going but wish i could make it for the whole weekend and evenings.
Will have to stay the whole weekend next year.....
I'm afraid I'm a total newbie but very keen. Can you go just for Saturday night and Sunday ? The website just lists onew day & weekend prices.
Annie
Annie, your best bet would be to phone Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft and ask him what the score would be on that :)
Every time that I have been before I have been for the 2 days so I couldn't comment other than say as above.
jamesdevine
01-09-2005, 23:57
Well in twelve hours time my wife and I will be winging our way to Bristol Airport so I hope to meet finally meet some of you good folks there.
Talk too soon.
James :D
Come hell or high water, I'll be there tomorrow morning(ish). Doped up on NSAIDs & antibiotics, but it's so close I can't not go.
That and the fact that it'll be the third time running :)
just got back from the WG and must say it was rather good fun!
Was a pleasure meeting a few new faces, although it was pretty hard to tell who was who off here. But bumped into Buckshot and Stuart in the morning and had C_Claycomb pointed out.
Was a very good day and am well and truely jealous of those staying the whole weekend as the woods looked like good fun for camping in too.
Hope everyone else enjoyed the day.
p.s - The t-shirt fits fine thank you Buckshot. :D
richardw
03-09-2005, 20:25
Me too. My first vsist to the WG and hugely enjoyable. Spent too much money of course and went away with some Bison burgers and sausages as well.
Will definitely go for the whole weekend next year.
Richard
Fenlander
05-09-2005, 07:56
Just thought people ought to know.......
When I got home from the WG last night I found three ticks on my legs :eek:
Buckshot
05-09-2005, 09:13
p.s - The t-shirt fits fine thank you Buckshot. :D
:D phew ! :D
Nice to meet you all as well. It was a shame I could only do the one day - family pressures... Perhaps next year...
Cheers all
Mark
richardw
05-09-2005, 09:55
A great day and big thanks to Buckshot for taking the time to show the wife and I the basics of braiding leather. He certainly instilled some enthusiasm into us to have a go.
Richard
I was there for the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. A friendlier bunch of people I couldn't hope to meet, and I learnt something from just about everyone I talked to.
(The only disappointment is that the BCUK T-shirts weren't available in Large for some reason!)
C_Claycomb
05-09-2005, 10:40
ditto the disappointment on lack of large shirts :rolleyes: It was rather embarassing :o
I hope everyone got home in a reasonable timeframe. I was late leaving (again!) at 6:10 and it took me 4 hours to do the 140 miles home... only managed 23 miles in the first hour :eek: I really loath driving in that part of the country!
Thanks to everyone who stopped and had a chat.
Does anyone have any decent photos of the bison, raccoons and other critters on site?
Does anyone have any decent photos of the bison, raccoons and other critters on site?
I have some but am unsure of their quality as i havent looked at them yet. I get some thumbnails together and if you want any you are more than welcome to the full size shots.
I took some of the turkey and it kept running away so no idea if those came out.
richardw
05-09-2005, 13:02
I hope everyone got home in a reasonable timeframe. I was late leaving (again!) at 6:10 and it took me 4 hours to do the 140 miles home... only managed 23 miles in the first hour :eek: I really loath driving in that part of the country!
On Sturday it took my wife and I an hour to do 3 1/2 miles on the A303 thanks to a caravan that broke down on a narrow part of the single carriageway!
Two hours to get there and three and three quarters to get home!
Richard
Went down for the day on Saturday with the family and thoroughly enjoyed. Nice to meet up with friends again. Managed to get away without spending to much , although I have got a few ideas for the future.
One suggestion for next year however. Could knives please be banned from the childerens play area? I spent quite a bit of time there with my children and witnessed children with knives unsheathed at innapropriate times :eek: . Although the behaviour wasn't aggressive I don't think that this is an appropriate area for these tools (This should apply to adults as well as children!)
Don't get me wrong I'm not against children learning how to handle knives and was impressed that WG had organised a tutorial for the children. Whether the message had got through to all of them is another matter.
Buckshot
05-09-2005, 15:33
Went down for the day on Saturday with the family and thoroughly enjoyed. Nice to meet up with friends again. Managed to get away without spending to much , although I have got a few ideas for the future.
One suggestion for next year however. Could knives please be banned from the childerens play area? I spent quite a bit of time there with my children and witnessed children with knives unsheathed at innapropriate times :eek: . Although the behaviour wasn't aggressive I don't think that this is an appropriate area for these tools (This should apply to adults as well as children!)
Don't get me wrong I'm not against children learning how to handle knives and was impressed that WG had organised a tutorial for the children. Whether the message had got through to all of them is another matter.
Can I suggest you contact Roger at Bison with that suggestion, as it wasn't run by us these sorts of things are nothing to do with BCUK. :)
Cheers
Mark
Can I suggest you contact Roger at Bison with that suggestion, as it wasn't run by us these sorts of things are nothing to do with BCUK. :)
Cheers
Mark
Will do. Thanks for the suggestion.
Does anyone have any decent photos of the bison, raccoons and other critters on site?
I have a few pictures of furry characters (only the Raccoons this year) I will see if I can find any of the bison that I took on prevoius years ;)
Just found a picture from the 2004 Wilderness Gathering of Bison grazing on the field beyond the brook. Quality's not great due to the limitations of my camera, which I didn't get round to using this year.... The picture is now in the gallery.
Fenlander
05-09-2005, 17:30
ditto the disappointment on lack of large shirts :rolleyes: It was rather embarassing :o
I hope everyone got home in a reasonable timeframe. I was late leaving (again!) at 6:10 and it took me 4 hours to do the 140 miles home... only managed 23 miles in the first hour :eek: I really loath driving in that part of the country!
Thanks to everyone who stopped and had a chat.
Does anyone have any decent photos of the bison, raccoons and other critters on site?
I've just put one of my pictures in the gallery Chris ;)
Hey pics uploaded.
The camera I, well my girlfriend, was using was just a point and shot jobby so nothing special i'm afraid..
But you can see the pics here as I am unable to upload pics to the Gallery as i don't have an option to. ::Shrug::
http://www.acc-systems.dsl.pipex.com/Otherpages/WGpics.htm
bambodoggy
05-09-2005, 18:33
On Sturday it took my wife and I an hour to do 3 1/2 miles on the A303 thanks to a caravan that broke down on a narrow part of the single carriageway!
Two hours to get there and three and three quarters to get home!
Richard
Oh the joys of a fast motorbike..... I left the site at about 8pm and was home by 9:15pm....I stopped for two smokes on the way home and I live about 90 miles away :D :D :D
That crutch rockets gunna do you some harm one day Bam, you take care. :D
All that bison stew you porked didn't slow you down then Bam? :rolleyes: :eek: :D
I went to the gathering for the day on Saturday and had a good time chatting to old and new friends, browsing the stalls and learning about stuff...
however...
I thought that paying £7.50 to enter a market was a bit steep really, add to that £10 to attend a one hour lecture and I seriously question the value of day tickets at all.
I'd like to go again next year but for the weekend and would love to see a few demos, things to try etc. that you don't have to pay extra for.
anyone else agree?
What a great event this year, so good to see friends old and new, Martin I expect to see you running your own demo's next year.
It was great to see so many of you on the Wild Food School stand.
The best bit, as always, is sharing a bevvy or two round the warm light of a woodland fire with a really good bunch of people and swapping stories and experiences (learning how to deal with "natives & thier wives" I'm sure will pay dividends in the future).
JP - I missed Bob Coopers session, but the feedback I heard was excellent, thanks for your input getting him along.
As for Backwoods Survival, what a talent! Patricks Primitive fishing class was inspirational.
It was also really good to see so many of you not believing the hype and making your own gear.
Neil
jamesdevine
06-09-2005, 09:33
Well my wife and I really enjoyed the weekend there was so much to see and do and some many people to meet it was hard and I known we mist loads.
Bob Cooper was excellent as was the herb walk we did on Saturday morning. The travel time really ate into what we could and couldn't do as we arrived late on Friday and left early or Sunday.
To Martin and Ralph/Susan ;) you guys still didn't convinced my wife to go to Sweden or convince her of the merits of let he will have to try harder then that.
Viking it was a pleasure to meet you in person and My offer still stands if you want to sample really Guinnes you need to visit Ireland.
Stuart and Chris it was also a pleasure to finally meet you guys and Chris Sirena says thanks for spending all that time looking for the T shirt (known I just need to get here to register)
Finally to everyone else we missed or I have forgotten to mention we are sorry but there is always next year. Arrive early Friday and Fly home on Monday.
:D
James
bambodoggy
06-09-2005, 15:30
Viking it was a pleasure to meet you in person and My offer still stands if you want to sample really Guinnes you need to visit Ireland.
James, you really need to get yourself to Sweden next year and if you're lucky Johan will take you drinking with his german buddy lol ;) :eek: Seriously, have another look through my pics of the trip and see if you can't talk your mrs into it :)
Martin/Steve...I only had three bowls of bison stew which isn't nearly enough to slow down a fireblade on it's way home! lol :D
Flux, sorry I missed you there, would have been nice to put a face to a name and say hi. I hadn't thought about the costs involved as I didn't plan to and didn't go to any lectures so I just paid the £7.50 I guess when you put it compared to what you get for the weekend ticket then you're right....but maybe it's done that way on purpose to encourage more to come for the whole weekend.
Either way, I had a smashing time and when I got home the wife (very non-bushcrafty lady) said she'd come next year and camp for the weekend! Happy days! :D :D :D
Bam. :)
raskusdrotti
06-09-2005, 15:39
Martin/Steve...I only had three bowls of bison stew which isn't nearly enough to slow down a fireblade on it's way home! lol :D
Bam. :)
...and a bowl of chilli and rice and veg from the food tent LOL :D
jamesdevine
06-09-2005, 15:47
Bam that was you on the Firblade in the carpark. My good lady and I walk right passed you I'm sure as you got ready to leave. Shame I missed you and I am glad you got home safe as they really are mean machines.
I have a feeling she went prepared :rolleyes: . Do bring your good lady for the weekend next year. It was Sirena's second ever camp and she really enjoyed it and now wants more so happy days. :D
James
bambodoggy
06-09-2005, 16:06
...and a bowl of chilli and rice and veg from the food tent LOL :D
Cheeky!!! I was including that in the "three bowls"!!!! lol :D :D :D (I was working on the old survival/military principle of eat as much as you can while you can.......oh, hang on....I do that with food all the time!!! :rolleyes: lol).
James, yes I remember a couple going past as I was strapping my daysac onto the back of the blade....pity I didn't know it was you guys or I'd have stopped to say hi....still either see you at next years WG.....or even better in Sweden (I'm going again and so is Raskusdrotti if I haven't brained him by then! :p lol).
Bam. :)
(Neil, have you got my antlers bits safe bud?).
Hi George
Thanks for showing me the bow drill technique, we had a great time camping out in the woods with so many kindred spirits, lots of iformation from lots of different sources, to much to take in over the space of one weekend really, suppose it poses the question, get out there, practise and learn by the mistakes and listen and learn to as many people as possible, great weekend and the bison burgers were awesome!
Paganwolf
07-09-2005, 08:18
What a great event this year, so good to see friends old and new, Martin I expect to see you running your own demo's next year.
It was great to see so many of you on the Wild Food School stand.
The best bit, as always, is sharing a bevvy or two round the warm light of a woodland fire with a really good bunch of people and swapping stories and experiences (learning how to deal with "natives & thier wives" I'm sure will pay dividends in the future).
JP - I missed Bob Coopers session, but the feedback I heard was excellent, thanks for your input getting him along.
As for Backwoods Survival, what a talent! Patricks Primitive fishing class was inspirational.
It was also really good to see so many of you not believing the hype and making your own gear.
Neil
Hi Neil, Sorry you missed Bob, he may be coming back with some of his instructors next year, He is a great guy and Im looking forward to the course he's running for us next year BIG TIME! lol, James I missed you! Garys just told me who you was lol sorry matey im terrible :rolleyes: PM me your addy and ill send this crook knife via the post its one of mine flippin sharp and on me buddy hope you had a great time, you will have to come over and we can spend a weekend in ashdown ;)
Viking it was a pleasure to meet you in person and My offer still stands if you want to sample really Guinnes you need to visit Ireland.
James
Nice to meet you James, an if you ever come over you know who to call
I might pick you up on that offer :)
James, you really need to get yourself to Sweden next year and if you're lucky Johan will take you drinking with his german buddy lol ;) :eek: Seriously, have another look through my pics of the trip and see if you can't talk your mrs into it :)
Bam. :)
I bring the whole group to meet the German next time, but just for that "last one"
Sorry to read that some kids were misbehaving with knives. I ran, for free, the knife safety workshop and if I had found out that kids were using knives inappropriately then, as per rules of the gathering, the knives would have been removed. In fact, this was enforced a couple of times. It is everyone's responsibility to make sure that this happens - there are not 'bushcraft police' to monitor this all the time! Sorry once again, but maybe next time you could just say and we would be able to do something positive about it.
Despite this I am sure, like us from Islay, you had a great time.
JeremyH :)
Yup'
Went with the missus for the whole weekend.
First time we had ever done something like this.
Did as many of the courses as poss.
Good grub at the catering tent.
All kinds of interesting people.
What struck me most' was the unusual amount of consideration and courtesy' .
Wife's been harping-on about Bison 'Raccoons and Prairie Dogs and for some reason she seems to be eye-ing up a large percentage of our back garden.
She would insist on wearing unsuitable footwear' without socks and thus clocked up a massive score of 27 bites around the ankles.
Why do they allus seem to get bit more often than blokes' by anything thats around?
Just polished-off the last of the scrumpy' its gonna be a long wait til next WG.
Seagull
richardw
09-09-2005, 16:27
Sorry to read that some kids were misbehaving with knives. I ran, for free, the knife safety workshop and if I had found out that kids were using knives inappropriately then, as per rules of the gathering, the knives would have been removed. In fact, this was enforced a couple of times. It is everyone's responsibility to make sure that this happens - there are not 'bushcraft police' to monitor this all the time! Sorry once again, but maybe next time you could just say and we would be able to do something positive about it.
Despite this I am sure, like us from Islay, you had a great time.
JeremyH :)
My wife and I watched part of this and have to day that we were hugely impressed.
Well done Jeremy.
Richard
Paganwolf
09-09-2005, 18:07
My wife and I watched part of this and have to day that we were hugely impressed.
Well done Jeremy.
Richard
I second that Jeremy you did an out standing job, the only people here at fault dare i say it are the parents :rolleyes: its a valid point which will be passed on to Roger...
Fire Starter
10-09-2005, 12:11
What a fantastic weekend at the Wilderness Gathering. It was good meeting up with some of the guys from last year and sharing a drink at the camp fire.
I finally managed to get to grips with the bow thanks to Dave Watson....Next challenge the hand drill.
The astronomy class on Saturday night was very informative and its always better when you are being shown the heavens with someone who knows what he is talking about.
Visited all the stands and it was good to see Backwoods Survival School there (I went on a course last year). I went to the backwoods hunting and fishing talks and was very impressed, that guys skill and knowledge never ceases to amaze me.
Personally I think it's great value for money (considering I'm a miser), where else can you have access to so many people with a variety of skills all willing to spend time passing on information and techniques. If you compare that to the cost of a course you are quids in.
What does surprise me is why all the other Bushcraft schools do not take part? Anyway I think the organisers deserve a round of applause and it will be marked in my calendar every year.