If You Go Into The Woods Today……..

When VGSOE first contacted me to offer their servcies in Hostile Environment Training, my initial thoughts were along the lines of, "Do I really need that. I'll be alright, won't I?" After 2 days and 1 night experiencing their expert training and knowledge, applied through practical situations and realistic scenarios, I can't recommend them highly enough to anyone thinking of adventure travel.

I've never been in the military, I never fought for my country, and I've never been to war. But I have come under fire and stared down the barrel of a gun. I have stood shoulder to shoulder with the finest of men and woman whilst those around us bay for blood. To this extent I think I can at least acknowledge some of the traits our brave men and woman of the armed services possess. They truly are the finest of people and deserve every breath of honour and respect we as a nation can give them. That's why I'm honoured to raise funds for The Royal British Legion.

I spent 7 years working the doors of Glasgow, learning the craft of conflict management, reading body language, honing my 'negotiating' skills and, at times, having to resort to a more physical means of discussion. I arrived in London at the age of 25 thinking I was pretty street wise and could handle myself in most situations. After finishing training school at the Met's once first class Hendon establishment, I was sent straight to Peckham in the South East of London, to a baptism of fire. Unless you've pulled on the uniform and worked in some of London's 'problem' boroughs, I really don't think you can appreciate how hard a job it is. The danger's are very, VERY real, the work is dirty, unpleasant, uncomfortable and, at times, horrific. But again it's the people you stand shoulder to shoulder with on a daily basis that provide the rewards. The banter, the common spirit, the teamwork and comradery are all aspects of the 'job' which I love, and I'm sure those in the armed services share such sentiment.

So the prospect of 'Hostile Environment Training' almost made me think I was going a bit overboard in my preparations. I was after all doing this for charity and people went overlanding all over the world every single day. Looking back that was a pretty naive mindset as more than one of the countries I'm going to are, at this very moment, experiencing severe political and military unrest. The prospect of me being robbed, or even worse kidnapped, was a very real one and further highlighted by the fact I'll be travelling alone.

But aside from this, everything I need for the trip will have to be carried on me and my bike. Not everywhere has shops I'll be able to buy things in all the time. I'll need to be self-reliant and prepared to survive on simple basic things. Was I really prepared for this? Having now undergone the training by VGSOE, I certainly was not.

After arriving at Sevenacres (VGSOE's HQ in Essex) and meeting Ralph and Dan, who were to be my instructors over the next 2 days, I was thoroughly briefed on what to expect over the next day and night. Ralph made a point of establishing what my expectations of the course were and if there was anything in particular I wanted to cover. Then it was a quick change into some sensible outdoors attire, bags were slung into the jeep, and we were off out into the countryside. During the journey Ralph touched on the importance of environment awareness, such as taking a mental note of town and road names, direction of travel, times, basically just being aware of what is going on around you. This would be further reinforced in spectacular fashion during the night when a hunter force attacked our base camp! More on this later though.

After being dropped off at the side of a road we made our way on foot across several fields before venturing deep into some dense woodland. All the while Ralph and Dan were constantly quizzing me on the lie of the land, what landmarks did I notice, which way were we heading, what was the ground like – North, South East etc. Soon we arrived at a slight clearing in the forest which was to become home for the foreseable.

The weather forecast had been horrific to say the least, but so far it'd stayed dry. As luck would have it no sooner had we settled at camp and gotten ourselves orientated, than the first spots of rain began to fall. Ralph ran through the construction of a few basic shelters, then it was over to us to build our own homes for the night! After an hour or so's work I don't mind admitting I was quietly content with our efforts (see the above pic).

Next it was fire. Fire means heat, heat means you can cook, dry, and almost as importantly, fire means safety. Big hairy things with teeth and fangs don't like fire, so fire was my friend. I was shown various different techniques to get a fire going, many of which I'd seen on TV with Ray Mears and Bear Grylls, but until you've tried them yourself for real, you can't appreciate how technical they are. Wood being rubbed on wood looks fairly simple on telly, and once you've got the technique down, it is. But the difference between simply frantically rubbing two bits of wood together for hours, and actually getting them to produce embers with which you can light a fire, is very fine. FRUSTRATINGLY fine.

With a fire beginning to catch and shelters up, Ralph and Dan moved onto food and water. I'd never really paid much attention to the ground when walking in the woods before. But after Ralph & Dan pointed out various signs of animal tracks that ran across the forest floor, it was like spaghetti junction! Different drag marks, paw prints, depth & width of track, the signs were all there.

Ralph then introduced me to various types of trap and snare which can be quickly constructed out of natural materials I'd find in any wooded area around the world. He ran through their mechanism's, trigger appilcations, and where and how to place them. Thankfully we didn't need to rely on our trapping capabilities for food that night, as there were plenty of freshly shot rabbits hanging in our base camp. However, they still needed to be skinned and prepared for cooking, that's where our next lesson lay.

Now I'm a country boy born and bred. I'm under no illusion where my meat comes from and I've no problem in killing and preparing meat for food. But I'd never actually had to gut anything other than fish before. I don't mind admitting that I was maybe just a wee bit apprehensive about doing this with 'thumper' here.

But again Ralph patiently demonstrated exactly what needed to be done, then walked us through each step. VGSOE's instruction style is such that you learn through on-the-job training, but you're not just left to get on with it. The instructors are there, overseeing your every move and giving you just enough slack to make mistakes whilst still catching it early enough to keep you on the right track.

Soon enough I had my bunny all ready to go on the fire and the long wait began as it cooked over the open pit heat. I've got no idea how long it actually took to cook, we were continually active to keep ourselves busy. Wood had to be constantly gathered and stocked up to keep the fire burning throughout the night. Water had to be continually de-cantered from the collecting cannister into our various water bottles. Ahh water! That brings me on to some more handy tips I learnt.

Without rainfall, you have to seek water from other means such as retained moisture within vegetation. One technique to do this involves digging a pit in the ground and filling it with loads of fresh green foliage. You then place your water bottle right in the middle of the pit and cover the whole pit with a plastic sheet, sealed around the edges with mud and/or earth. You then place a stone in the centre of the sheet, directly above where the bottle is located. 'Magic' then happens and over time, the moisture retained in the foliage is extracted and condenses on the underside of the plastic sheeting. Due to the stone, this water then runs down the decline, eventually dropping into your water bottle!

The next method of collecting water involves a sheet of plastic and some rainfall. As luck would have it we had plenty of both. With the plastic sheeting bungee'd out at an incline, acting as a catchment area with a slight channel orchestrated into it, the caught rainfall runs down to a home made spout and drip straight into your water bottle. Genius!

Fed, watered, warm and in general high spirits, we settled in for the night, all the time aware that there was a team of lad's somewhere out there who were hunting us down. But there was nothing we could do to prevent it from happening so you just had to relax and wait for it to begin. As nightfall arrived the rain still hadn't ceased so we made a bee line for our shelters and dug in for the night. Due to my poor planning I had to push my feet through the bottom of mine just so I could get my head under shelter for the night, but I didn't care, I was cream crackered!

At 0200hrs my lovely kip was rudely disturbed by some flash bangs, automatic gun fire, and the hazy, dark, shape of Ralph screaming into my face, "Get you &(*%*ng arse out of there and RUN!!" Now if you've ever seen a newly born horse or deer try to stand up you'll have a pretty good mental image of what I was like getting up of the forest floor and making my way through the pitch black forest to a meeting point we had recce'd the previous night. All the while I had Ralph running alongside me, telling me where to go and not to stop running. Eventually we got to an old bomb crater deep in the forest, dove in to the mud and nettles, and lay low.

It only seemed like it took 5 minutes for the hunter force to arrive next to where we were hiding and begin sweeping the area by torch light. Although I knew it was just a training exercise, you could feel the adrenaline soaring through your body and your heart almost bursting out your ears! After a while the torch lights disappeared into the distance and we eventually began to crawl on our bellies through the forest and out towards a clearing. I can't go into too much about the tactics and techniques Ralph and Dan taught us that night, and I certainly have no pictures or video, but for the next 3 hours I was caught, blindfolded, stripped of my boots and socks, marched through the forest and thrown deep into a whole dug under the ground, broken out of my cell and made a run for it across open ground. We got split up, had to find each other in the pitch black, evade capture again from a pursuing (and very miffed) hunter force, then successfully escape into the night.

Come morning it was brekkie around the fire debriefing what happened through the night, with Ralph putting some realistic perspective on certain parts of my trip. He'd been to many of the places I was going, not as a traveller I hasten to add, and had experienced the darker side of what may lay ahead. I listened intently, hoping I'd never have to do anything like that for real by myself, but certainly more confident in my own abilities having experienced VGSOE's training.

Later that morning we returned to HQ and there was time for one more quick brew and a natter about what I'd learned and experienced. Having gone through VGSOE's 'Hostile Envirnment Training' I'm now a lot more confident in my abilities should I find myself separated form all my kit. Not only that, I feel a lot more confident all round, ready to face the trip head on, without worrying about what may happen, because whatever happens, I just have to deal with it as best as I can. I've had the best training possible from VGSOE so that's half the battle.

I can't wait!