It is the combination of skills and knowledge that allows you to live in the wilderness, and use what is around you, for as long as you want. There is no reason why someone cannot develop the ability to live in the wilderness comfortably.

The vast array of jingle-jangle gadgets that some of the modern outdoorsmen and women carry with them would make our ancestral woodsmen and women turn in their graves. Their packs were light and the equipment sparse. Around their belts they may have carried a tinder bag, a knife/axe and a cup- if that!

Remember, all of our modern intricate machines and tools have been developed step by step through the centuries from the ancient inventions of the distant past. The raw materials used outside are the locally available plants, animals and resources found in the earth. The more that you know, and learn, about their uses, the more alternatives you have to meet your daily needs. There is nothing in the outdoors that does not have a use at some time or other.

Though this knowledge comes to us from prehistoric times, it has never gone out of fashion. In fact, it provides our society with an insight into a simpler way of life, and perhaps a happier one. So, from the generations of tribes and wilderness men and women that have gone before us, we have the Outdoor Wisdom and Learning that we use today. With all of the problems that affect our current society; when fear, dishonour and anti-social behaviour are common place, the serenity and peace of the wilderness is never dearer to the hearts of us.

O.W.L. provides you with the Outdoor Wisdom and Learning that you need through two routes- the first is called Wilderness Living Skills (a.k.a. Bushcraft, Survival and Wilderness Skills), the second is called Forest School and here I take learners of all ages and teach them a curriculum through the use of the outdoors.