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This page is aimed at living off the earth with just a knife (if need be). With this page, we hope to share ideas and show how fun and easy living in the bush can be. This page also covers the requirements for the South African survival scoutcraft badge.

SURVIVAL SCOUTCRAFT BADGE

(1) Know the four main needs to be satisfied in a survival situation. Discuss the various ways in which these needs can be satisfied. Discuss the useful items that could be included in your kit in case this type of emergency should arise on an expedition.

The four main needs are: shelter, warmth, food and water. There are many different ways of satisfying each, but this will discussed in more detail in requirements 2-5. Many people have different ideas of what should be put inside a survival kit and for this reason; I have made a list of what appears on most lists and what I feel to be important.

Waterproof matches: They will strike anywhere. The down side is they are more bulky than normal matches.
Small Candle: Useful for starting a fire or to gain light in a shelter.
Flint and Steel: It is a means to making fire and will last longer than matches.
Needle and thread: Can be useful for fixing things, or making things. Use think thread like nylon (can be used to fish) and wrap around needle for storage.
Fish Hook and line: Your food supplies with run out and you will need to catch your own food.
A small compass: Useful for finding the way out.
Small First Aid Kit: Pack items for head and stomachaches, elasto plaster, pins, etc.
2-3 Condoms: Useful for carry water, can hold up to 1 litre each.
Small knife: Can be used in just about anything.
Small torch: E.g. a maglite
Water purification tablets: You never know if the water will be safe to drink.
You can add other things or remove certain things depending on where you are going.

(2) Shelter: Build a weatherproof shelter from natural materials or groundsheets (overhanging rocks and cliff excluded) and sleep in it alone or with another Scout for at least one night.

The idea with any shelter is to make the angle of the shelter's wall as narrow as possible. If the shelter is flat on top, the water has nowhere to go and will either build up or drip through. By making the angles of the wall narrow, the water will run down the side. Next, it is easier to make a shelter in between bushes. This helps in that there is already a natural shelter from the wind and possible the rain. Once you located a suitable area (like in camping, with a slight slope for the water to drain off), then we need to find materials for the shelter. Big leafs, reeds, long grass will work well. The art of shelter making is in packing the material closely together. If you can see through it, you better bet the rain can go through it! A good test for practice is to shine you torch from the inside a get some one to see if they can see the light. Don't test with water, because if it leaks the ground will get wet and you won't want to sleep there. For more ideas on shelters, visit the South Africa Web page Backwoods shelters.

(3) Warmth: Lay and light a fire outdoors, without matches, using an alternative method such as magnifying glass, binoculars, flint and steel, friction, bow and drill or batteries.

When making a fire by any means, it is important to have some kind of tinder. Most times we use newspaper, blits, dry leafs, etc. When it comes to a survival situation, you may not have newspaper or blits. The best kinds of tinder are: dried grass, wood shavings, waxed paper and cotton fluff (from your pockets). Once we have this we going to need some good kindling to catch the fire. Now this includes small soft woods twigs, which can be turned into a fuzz stick (a sick that has been shaving to get to the dry inside, makes it easier to burn).

Once we have the fuel, we can choose which source of fire to use. We could use a magnifying glass that is used by facing the glass at the sun and focusing it on a small spot of the tinder. This work best when there are no clouds. Glasses, or camera lens, etc can be used instead if need be.

Flint and steel: This works by striking a knife, etc against a piece of flint, which makes spark on the tinder. Most flint and steel bought nowadays came with a burning substance, that can be shaved off the back to help ignite the fire.

(4) Food: With raw ingredients (not dehydrated), cook over an open fire a meal consisting of a main course (utensils and aluminium foil excluded) and a twist or damper.

There are so many things you can cook backwoodsman style, but for you first time try to keep it simply and work you way from there. You could braai a chop by pushing a stick through it or just lay it on the coals (its just wood!). Or how about cooking the fish, you just caught? Hit a stick into the ground and tie the fish to the stick facing head down. Cover the head in the coals and leave the scales on.

With the twister it easy to mix in a plastic bag or if you not allowed to, you can make a pot out of a dried out pumpkin. Make sure you put a little bit of water in at a time or you may end up with runny dough. For more Backwoodsman recipes visit the SASA web page Backwoods cooking or Backwoods recipes.