April 2024 – Wilderness Survival Weekend

On 27-28 April 2024, we held a wilderness survival campout in Chézery-Forens, tucked in the French Alps.

The weekend started with two hikes of various difficulties. I led the first one, which was fairly easy, allowing us to take in the serene nature and wildlife of the area. It was really nice to be alone in the woods. The other was a more challenging endeavour, taken upon themselves by the Venturers (senior and experienced scouts), and quite fitted its name of “high adventure”.

Upon arrival at the location of the campout itself, we busied ourselves on constructing wilderness survival shelters to sleep in overnight. We then went fishing at a nearby river and although we were unsuccessful at catching anything, we nevertheless cooked dinner “wilderness style”, using limited resources and utensils. I truly felt like we experienced the whole wilderness survival scenario, as it began to rain overnight, and really got going over breakfast (slightly soggy bread has never tasted so good!). Nonetheless, we persevered, and went for a short hike along the mountainside. To sum up, I had a really great time (albeit pushing my capacites more than I’d previously thought possible), and I learned a lot about surviving in emergency situations in the wilderness. I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in shelters in the middle of nature, and look forward to doing it again next time!

Written by Sebastien Burgess (Life Scout; Senior Patrol Leader – Webmaster)