Spend a night in our hand picked woodlands with our highly skilled instructors, rediscovering your inner child. Our family bushcraft overnight adventure is a great family bonding experience. You will all be stretched, learn new things and see the woods in a new light.
All of our courses are available as 24 month gift vouchers which can be purchased here.
Prices: Adults: £185 Children: £135
Timings: 10am to 12noon the following day.
Food included.
Ages: Children aged 8+, One adult can accompany up to two children.
Location: South London Woods – CR3. Our South Wales Woodland, in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park can also be booked for private courses.
Course size: 12 maximum
Every course is a little different due to a range of circumstances, but this a sample of our family overnight adventure.
We meet, and head off for a walk to the woods, on this walk you’ll learn to identify a range of trees and plants as well as discover what we can use them for. We will keep a close eye out for any animal tracks and sign as well.
Once we are in the woods its time to get the fire going, we will light this one as a group and get the kettle hanging over it. Whilst the kettle warms you’ll work in your family groups to build shelters out of natural materials, make sure you build them well you’ll be spending the night in them.
Time for Lunch! You’ll prepare and cook your lunch over the fire you have helped to build and tend.
Following on from lunch, when you’ve got nice full bellies, it’s time to learn how to use knives safely. Everyone will go home with a sculpture or tool you have created.
Next its lighting fires using a range of methods including, ferro rods, batteries and wire wool, traditional flint and steel and a fire piston.
Dinner time!
Communally cooked over the main fire and finished off with hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows around the camp fire. Young people can be given the option to make their nests in their shelters at this time.
After this, we will head off to do a night hike, hopefully catching sight of bats as they flit around looking for insects to eat. If you are very lucky we might even catch sight of the elusive badgers, whist we see who can make the best tawny owl impression. If the weather permits we’ll learn about the constellations, some of their legends and how to find North using them.
After a very full on day you’ll head off to your shelter for a well deserved sleep.
Day 2:
Waking up in the morning to the sound of birdsong, we’ll take a short pause and do a sit spot, absorbing the sights, sounds and smells as the woodland wakes up around us. Then it’s time to get the fire started, and you’ll cook your breakfast of damper bread, a traditional flat bread used by travellers around the world. See how well your hand made butter knife spreads the jam.
To top it all off you’ll make a bracelet, necklace or keyring with natural cordage to remember your time away in the woods before packing up camp, and heading back home.
If you want a private family experience please get in touch. Prices start from £1250 for an overnight course, these can be run in either our South London Woodland or our South Wales Woodland.
If our family bushcraft overnight adventure seems like a little too much adventure for you – check out our Family Bushcraft Day.
The kit list for this adventure can be found here.
Ami –
My two daughters and I recently (31st July) went for a family overnight bushcraft experience with the wonderful Lizzy in her forest near Coulsdon South.
My Highlights:
– Lizzy’s upbeat positivity, resilience and bushcraft knowledge.
– doing all the activities in the amazing base camp made from a parachute.
– Building our shelter.
– Really great food cooked over an open fire.
– Using the butter knife I had carved.
– Taking home a bracelet I made from stinging nettle rope.
– The toilet!! Loved it!
My 14 year old daughters highlights:
– Learning how to use a bushcraft knife to carve cooking implements. We have now ordered her a knife to continue this new hobby at home.
– Cooking over the fire.
My 9 year old daughters highlights:
– Starting fires! (Safely of course)
– Filtering water
– Playing stick for hours with Luna the dog.
Things we didn’t expect:
– So much rain! This definitely impacted our enjoyment and gave us a more realistic survival experience. There was something very primal about building a shelter that we knew we had to sleep in on a rainy night. The stakes were high! We did a good job under Lizzy’s expert instruction and except for a few drips and one slightly damp sleeping bag, we succeeded.
– it just being our family. In some ways it was great because we got one to one tuition from Lizzy. On the other hand I imagine more families would equal more laughs and camaraderie.
D –
So much fun in a safe and welcoming environment. Lizzy is extraordinarily knowledgeable and was able to teach us innumerable life-skills such as fire starting, shelter building, cooking outdoors, whittling butter knives, weaving bracelets out of plant fibres as well as which trees abounded and their uses.
We slept under our home-made shelter in a private forest, whilst bonding as father and daughter in a way that made us self-reliant although we worked as a team. I would recommend this to anyone since Lizzy is capable of teaching even the most nature-illiterate of us (that’s me); plus we’ve made memories which will last a lifetime. Thanks Lizzy.