Military Surlplus vs Non-Surplus; Mediterranean Bushcraft | #AskPaulKirtley 69

Description

Welcome to Episode 69 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about Mediterranean bushcraft, water purification and desalination on a coastal creek trip, cleaning stainless steel water bottles and several inter-related questions on backpacking, backpacks and military surplus gear.

TIMESTAMPS:

06:19 Military surplus vs non-military surplus

12:00 Surplus or non-surplus backpacks?

15:52 Backpacks: Internal Frame vs External Frame?

19:58 Pack size variables

28:07 Cleaning stainless steel water bottles

33:50 Water purification and desalination on a creek trip

38:54 Mediterranean Bushcraft?

LINKS MENTIONED:

How To Live In A Heated Tent:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2014/how-to-live-in-a-heated-tent/

More info on winter boreal trips with Paul:

frontierbushcraft.com/winter/

Chris Townsend’s blog:

http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com/

PK Podcast interview with Chris Townsend:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2015/chris-townsend-backpacking-legend/

The Five Water Contaminants You Need To Know About:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/water-purification-5-contaminants-you-need-to-know-about/

WHAT IS #ASKPAULKIRTLEY?

#askpaulkirtley is your chance to ask Paul Kirtley questions about wilderness bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life.

Ask Paul Kirtley is a regular Q&A show (also available as a podcast) with leading bushcraft instructor Paul Kirtley, founder of Frontier Bushcraft and author of Paul Kirtley's Blog.

ASK PAUL A QUESTION:

Ask a question here: http://paulkirtley.co.uk/ask-paul-kirtley/

Or tweet your questions with hashtag #askpaulkirtley to @pkirt

SHOW NOTES & PREVIOUS EPISODES:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/Topics/askpaulkirtley/

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GET MORE WILDERNESS SKILLS ADVICE & INFO:

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Tags: bushcraft,survival,wilderness,camping,hiking,outdoors,question and answer,advice,questions,answers,bushcrafting,nature,self reliance,self sufficiency,outdoor skills,outdoor knowledge,Paul Kirtley,askpaulkirtley

Video Transcription

this episode of a sport currently comes to you from a heated tent in the boreal forest in Canada [Music]

welcome welcome to episode 69 of a sport curtly and as you can see I am in a lovely snow trekker tent we have come to a wonderful area of the boreal forest from where we were when I recorded the last episode and we're up here exploring and camping and it's absolutely wonderful there's nobody else up here we've seen tracks of moose we've seen tracks of Marten squirrels grouse Ravens have come and checked us out it's been wonderful the nature here is fantastic starting to warm up now I think it's been quite a warm March anyway and they had a really cold December through February end of February here but since we've been here it's actually started to warm up a bit and the nights are still cold though when we got out the tent this morning and it was about minus 18 it's come up to a nice temperature the skies have cleared today after a couple of cloudy days and it's a lovely sunny day outside so I may well be silhouetted against the backdrop of the tent here and also the other thing I should say is if you were listening to this on a podcast I don't have my audio gear with me I've just got my small camera and but hopefully I'm an enclosed enough space here it's a little bit breezy outside and I didn't want any wind noise on the microphone and this is a great environment for you to see and if you're interested in camping out in heated tents as a great article and downloadable PDF on my website at Paul Kirk Leo UK and articles called how to live in a heated tent I will link to it below the videos wherever you're watching this if you're watching it on Paul Kelly doctor at UK or YouTube I will link to that and you can get hold of that if you've not seen it before and a lot of the setups that you might be able to see your the frame of this shot at the moment where I'm sitting a lot of that is explained in more detail there so please check that out and if you're interested in what the hell am i doing up here apart from having a wonderful time camping which I love doing my two mates are off and having a bit of a wander at the moment and what are we doing here well we are doing a rocky for future trip with clients with students if you like and if you're interested in potentially coming with me and my colleagues who've been winter camping for many years and have been into boreal bushcraft for many years and if you'd like to come and do a trip with us then please go to frontier bushcraft comm forward slash winter and just leave your name and your email address there and when we've got some trips lined up we will email you with the details no hard sell just to let you know what we're doing it's exactly what we do with the canoe trips in the summer over here in Canada and today always sell out so there's no need for me to push that particularly hard they're great trips wonderful wilderness areas and we're looking forward to coming here in the winter as well and and sharing what we know and how to operate in this environment with other people as well so keep an eye out for that and I've got a bunch of questions lined up as usual ironically I don't think any of these have gotten scuse me I've got anything to do with winter camping but that's just the way it goes and I line these questions up and load them onto my phone we have absolutely no mobile phone reception here no cell phone reception we've got a Sat phone with us but this is literally just being used as a notebook at the moment and I will bring up the episode 69 questions some of these are a little bit overlapping if you like I remember putting these together and thinking well that's similar to that one that one similar to that one I'll put them all in one episode so my questions will maybe be somewhat overlapping but hopefully it all meshes together into a coherent whole and I've got my hot coffee as usual I've made coffee on the stove with a little person later and I've got my crusader

metal mug is good for keeping warm on top of the stove and I'm good to go I'm just gonna bring that camera a little bit closer just in case just to make sure the audio is good and then I will answer your questions also give you a little look outside while I'm moving the camera have a look as I come on just those are our toboggans there you can see a bit of smoke whipping across from the from the tent stove chimney there toboggans end of the lake that we're on at the moment you can see some of our trails wonderful wonderful boreal forest environment absolutely stunning in this March sunshine

all right good so first question military surplus versus non-military surface and this is a very broad question this is from Carla ka la and the question is I have a question regarding military surplus items with bushcrafting are there any items you use or suggester by is military surplus and some items you would not recommend to buyers military surplus best regards Carla it's a very broad question and let's start close each of us here there are three of us here we've all got military surplus bivy bags I'm using a Dutch army bivi bag as is one of my colleagues they're very good for winter divvying because they're big and they're also quite heavy duty would I use them for summer backpacking absolutely not I use either a normal mo d bag for a lot of what I do in the forest in the UK that's the UK military baby bag which I find quite lightweight for the size of it and pretty robust and not too expensive and I use that a lot if I want to go super lightweight and I use the snow pack SF bivy which is fantastically compact and lightweight I've made videos about that lightening the load one lightning a load episode one and talking about lightening the load of your sleeping kit you can see more there about all of those big bags and how are they are comparing size and weight but I do rate a lot of the military surplus baby bags try and buy grade one so stuff that's in decent condition or even stuff that's brand new other military surplus things I've got here Swedish m90 and over jacket Parker very good for just throwing on when you're stopped on there on a lake or just stopped particular when you're walking if you're pulling toboggans like we are you dress quite lightly and then maybe you stop you want drink have a bit of a feed check that jacket on over the top mother ship jacket really good and they used to be relatively inexpensive I bought mine for about twenty twenty to twenty-five pounds something like that which would be about forty dollars and I think they're a bit more expensive than that but they are very good and worth having I like those try and get a decent price on them other military surplus stuff that I use Swedish shirts as well you've seen me in those a lot in the summer they're Swedish military shirts they cost about four or five pounds each they're really good value that nice comfortable cotton what else do I use Swedish military the bandanas little the cotton cloths that confers neckerchiefs they're good for as towels and the good as improvised triangular bandages and all sorts of improvised rough water filter all sorts of things you can use those for I like those and but generally I don't use a huge amount of surplus kit I used to have you know like a DPM smock for knocking around in the woods in particular what I used to do more air rifle shooting and that type of thing but generally I don't choose things on the basis of whether or not it's military or not I know some people think I automatically it's military it's great and other people think automatically if it's military it's not great it's over-engineered it's too heavy and it makes you look like a soldier I understand both points of view so I always look at it on a case-by-case basis one thing I probably would avoid buying his surplice boots and because they tend to be tend to be knackered but yeah that's about I don't particularly like buying surplus sleeping bags I wouldn't recommend that try and buy decent quality but inexpensive synthetic bag if you're buying a bag in a snug pack make some good ones for example and other people do too and we're going to come onto some other bits of kit I know this is a specific question about ruck sacks coming up as well and again yeah you can buy some surplus rucksacks but they tend to have been roughly treated a lot of issue kit isn't always that good if you've got any friends in the the tree asked them what of their issue kit they find is good and what they find is rubbish that they replace themselves she don't want to be buying stuff that the soldiers who are using them day-in day-out and don't think that good and that's you know that's a good enough vote against something and so if it's something that gets replaced a lot that's probably a good sign that it's not great and that could be boots it could be ruck sacks it could be garments you know different units have different flexibility in terms of replacing their kit or adding their personal kit into things so that's always something to look at but generally again like all kit and I think it's got nothing to do with bushcraft it's just a general point and like I used to do mountain I used to wear some Dutch army cotton trousers for some amount and walking that I used to summer backpacking that I used to really like quite light used to dry quite quickly and quite cool and back in the days and I didn't have a lot of money and couldn't buy more technical garments just look at it from an engineering point of view what do you need the thing to do how light does it need to be how durable doesn't need to be how long does it need to last and does it matter if it's camouflage some places you don't want to be going looking like a soldier you'll be some mistaken for a mercenary and depends where you're going what you're doing how light does it need to be how tough does it need to be how does it fit in with the rest of the gear and if you look at it from that perspective then you can integrate it with all the rest of your equipment okay so this is another very similar question but it's more specific this is from Blake and his question is hi Paul I've listened to your podcast for a while now but I was wondering what is better in your expert opinion surplus or non surplus backpacks thanks Blake mm if we're talking about the same model that surplus or non surplus you if you're looking at a particular model of backpack then you might get a good deal by routing through a surplus store finding something that's being used lightly used in good condition is the rucksack you want and you might get a bargain so that's a good that's a good reason for looking at surplus if you've decided that you want a particular type of rucksack that you could buy new or you can buy surplus have a look and see if you can get a surplus one in good condition if it's a more general point military versus non military military backpacks tend tend to be relatively heavy compared to civilian backpacking backpacks and so weight is always an issue particularly particularly for a civilian because you're probably not as young as highly physically trained or regularly carrying the backpack is the military guy so it's easy to look at the military guys and kind of go well those guys know what they're doing I'm just going to buy what they've got and and that can sometimes be a bit of a fallacy for the reasons that I've said you know they're running around wearing those things all the time they're young they're fit and they get used to it and I would always try and minimize the weight of anything and that may mean looking at non-military backpacks looking at backpacks these days you can get really nice lightweight backpacks from a range of different manufacturers that are designed for long distance hiking look at the packs that people are using for things like the Appalachian Trail Pacific Crest Trail you know multi-day hikes multistage hikes where they're getting resupplied along the way the backpack needs to be light and also it needs to last three mountain time and eat you know ideally it lasts that hike you know the season that they're doing that through hike and there's some real you know modern materials is really good lightweight tough modern materials well engineered well-thought-out backpacks and I've been looking there as well and again going back to the previous question it's an engineering question what do you need to do how light does it need to be how tough and durable does it need to be and and look at the experience of people who are using those things and make a decision based on that so I I can't say for sure that surplus backpacks you know all military backpacks versus non military backpacks are the best you know I've got a birdhouse Vulcan rucksack that I've had for years which I like for ski touring in the winter it's not that heavy it's quite tough I can get all my gear in it and I know some military units used that I have no idea whether they still do I use a saber 45 rucksack which I've got here as a day pack sometimes in the summer use that as a backpack for my summer backpacking here I'm using it as a day pack that is is used by military units and then I've got others I've got like crux and Burke House various other you know Noren er rucksacks which are non military I think it just depends on what you need how light or tough it needs to be and go from there and it's kind of irrelevant then whether it's used by the military or not as I say if you decide on one that you think I really like that design see if you can get one that's likely use secondhand that's always good whether it's military or civilian alright next question this one is on rucksacks again so you can see why I kind of grouped these questions all together this is from Dale Dale hi Paul really enjoyed the You Tube channel you give great tips and advice

I don't currently practice much bushcraft yet I enjoy hiking and I am looking to do a long hike trip over several days but need a bigger pack than my day pack so I would like to know what pack you prefer to use on expeditions and what do you think about an external frame pack versus an internal frame as I've heard pros and cons for both well there are pros and cons to external frames versus internal frame external frame packs were all the rage back in the 60s and 70s for sure but then there's been a move away from them and I think if you're carrying very heavy rucksack loads then an external frame pack can still have an advantage and I know some old-school guys will still swear by external frame packs I know lofty Wiseman and his book talks about external frame packs I know some guys up in the North West of the United States that I'm in touch with and they're very much they like their old-school external frame packs because that's what they've always used and that's fine I think you need to use stuff that you're familiar with and happy with but there are some very good internal frame packs now as well both in terms of you know what we've been talking about military and non-military packs a lot of them are internal frame packs and they're good they're lightweight they're somewhat more contained which can be good for pushing through clothes country you know pushing through and tight trails and what-have-you and they can also be somewhat more comfortable although some people would say the external frame packs are more comfortable so I think Internet's to an extent it's what you're used to and like anything and I would recommend having a look at the blog of somebody like Chris Townsend who's been on my podcast has done a lot of long-distance backpacking and he gets access to a huge amount of kit for kit reviews and testing for t geo magazine the great outdoors and he also unlike a lot of uk-based kit testers he is also open minded and because he's done a lot in the United States Appalachian Pacific Crest all of those Continental Divide trails he has a real good eye for the backpacks that are suitable for that type of long distance hiking and I would have a look at Chris Townsend's blog I know I look at it for keeping up to date with outside of things

he has a lot more experience with different types of kids than I do for that type of thing and because he's just got access to it and he's done those long distance trails so definitely have a look at his blog I will link it below here I believe it's Chris Townsend com but I don't quote me on that I will put the the link under this and also check out the podcast that I did with him I will link that in the YouTube video and I will link that below because he's got lots of tips in there about walking and long-distance backpacking which I think you'll find useful even if you're doing shorter stuff than you know those multi month long trails you can think about those chunked up into you know week long or ten-day long sections between resupplies and that's a normal for most people a more normal distance for doing along the trip and it's those longer trails are a series of those stitched together in effect so those tips all carry over even if you're going out for 4 5 6 7 10 days they all carry over and so check check that podcast out as well and I think you'll find all of that very useful

pack size variables and Sarah we've got more on backpacks this is from Paul Bonner in Canada and his question is what are your thoughts regarding pack size bigger the pack the greater the space and space either not being used or the temptation to add more gear smaller pack assists in streamlining equipment needs but is also limiting I've watched your videos on packing equipment etc and it seems with the Sabre 45 an additional pockets that this is your preferred choice for pack size for most camping trips the additional plc pockets give you a 72 pack when desired I have a Kelty Red Wing a 50 litre I really like for short trips I have a smaller day pack as well years ago I purchased a 7200 [Music]

see you in Donna Astro plane pack which is great for any wilderness adventure but size and weight and nine pounds is sometimes overkill other than my day pack I would really like to just go with one pack and make it do for my wilderness tripping adventures appreciate your thoughts on this maybe others struggle with this issue when packing thanks so much really appreciate your expertise Paul Bonner well that kind of overlapped with some of the previous questions Paul I don't necessarily think that you're going to get one pack that does everything all the time that you're out unless you're only out at certain times of the year and I don't know whether you're intending to be out year-round or whether you're just intending to be out in the summer I know you're in Canada and I've had some contact with you before and I'm pretty sure that you like getting out in the winter and if you're using a backpacking winter I tend to use backpacks for ski touring and you need them to be quite big because everything gets stiffer and more awkward to pack and I'll see if it's cold you don't want to be messing around trying to pack things really tightly like some sort of game of

Tetris into your backpack that's really specific and you have to get everything right and you end up with really cold hands doing that and wasting a lot of time so I think just a slightly bigger rucksack than you'd use normally to fit that gear in it's all well and good you know really working out how you pack everything in your living room when you're nice and warm we're doing it in a cold cabin or getting out of a snow shelter or a cold tent and or getting things in and out your rucksack when you're out in the cold at the ambient temperature you need a bigger rucksack you wanna better get things in out there quickly and you still want it to be balanced well you can still get quite big ruck sacks that are relatively light and then it's also discipline then about not putting too much in them if you're using it a different time of year so you could get a somewhat bigger rucksack maybe 70 to 80 liter rock sack that would be great for winter ski touring winter snowshoe touring and that you can get you know it's not all just about weight you know a winter sleeping bag is bulky whether it's down or synthetic winter over jackets that you might put on when you're stopped are bulky because they need to be warm they need to be able to trap the air and keep you warm and you need the room for that it doesn't necessarily mean it's massively massively heavy but it's going to be more bulky then you can have a down sleeping bag a down jacket and down booties for when you in the tent all of those things they take up room they're not necessarily super heavy but you need a room for them and you wouldn't have to have that room in the summer so you need more room and then you've got the issue that I talked about of needing a bit more room to make things easy in the winter as well so if you're starting from the point of view of only needing one rucksack and I would get something that works for your winter gear but then make sure it's as lightweight as possible without that being a detriment to the durability in the winter and then just be disciplined about what you put in it in the summer and you know that's that's down to your self-discipline you don't have to put gear in it you can you can reduce the gear and then also the other thing to say about a bigger rucksack is that you then do have the option of going on a longer trip in the summer because you can get more food in it remember

food takes up a lot of room and a lot of weight if you want something with a good harness good hip belt something it's gonna put the weight into your hips and then you know if you want to do a short trip you can you just cinch it all down you don't put so much gear in it and food in it and if you want to do a longer trip you can put more food in it and you've still got the same rucksack yes I do use the same a45 which is over there as I say I'm using it as a day pack here there's no side pockets on it I think it's a really good winter hiking day pack whether it's snowshoeing in this environment or way out from camp or whether it's Mountain walking in the UK or parts of North America it's a good winter day pack you can get a lot of stuff in it you know 45 50 litres is a good size

I've got also got a crux ak-47 rucksack which is a similar volume it's just a bit taller and thinner and I quite like for winter mountain walking winter mountaineering really has no real such thing as mountain walking in the winter and and that's good as well similar size to the Sabre 45 both good and I think that's the way you're going to have to go if you want one rucksack I certainly couldn't do a winter ski touring camping trip out of a sabre 45 it's just too small and I don't always use it for backpacking anyway I like it in the woods that is the rucksack I work out of a lot so when I'm going into the woods I'm setting up a camp for me personally I've got everything I need and then I'm gonna run a course that's the pack I take and I can keep organized with it woodland walking I like it in the mountains I'll tend to use something that's a bit taller and thinner that doesn't have side pockets simply because I had a really interesting experience a long time ago with a rucksack with side pockets on high up in the mountains above glen african scotland and it was very windy and the wind was catching my coming in catching my side pockets and i was on a very steep zigzagging trail and every time I change direction the wind caught me

it was quite hairy and ever since then I've tried to try to avoid side pockets high up in the hills because I don't like and I also know people who are for example in mountain rescue who don't like side pockets because they get in the way of doing things with ropes etc and so it depends what you're doing and but I would say if you just want to generally be out year-round get something that works for you in winter and then just have the discipline not to put too much in it in the summer and I agree 9 pounds or you know two point whatever kilograms that that is is getting on the heavy side I had a 70 liter rucksack that was 2.3 2.4 kilograms a few years ago I sold that because it was just too heavy for the volume you can get a you know 78 2 litre rucksack again going back to what I was saying about lightweight lightweight long-distance backpack and you can get some very good packs now that are not too heavy that are in the 1.5 to 1.7 five at most kilogram range that has got all the volume that you'll ever need and again check out Chris Townsend's blog because he's always putting stuff up there and that is it on that sort of intermeshing thing about rucksacks and military surplus and all of that that we've we've we've got through all right next question cleaning stainless steel water bottles this is from Gary Gary bugler and he says Paul now that I'm subscribed to your videos I'm loving the high level advice that you give I recently bought a 38 ounce stainless steel Nalgene white top water bottle and have been using soap and water to clean it however every three or four weeks I pour in some white wine vinegar with water about 50/50 mix and let it soak and rinse around before cleaning out again with fresh water and a scrubbing brush is this a suitable method for sterilizing stainless steel water bottles as I normally use baby bottle disinfectant

for my plastic bottles but as you know this is not suitable for stainless bottles

we appreciate your experience and thoughts thanks in advance Gary all right and first off it kind of depends what you're putting in them Gary and what are you putting in those bottles if you're just putting water in and the waters clean and potable is it's safe to drink then the main introduction of bacteria is really going to be bringing your mouth to it and maybe just some environmental stuff dropping in when you've got it open it's not going to get that dirty that quickly and if you're using it regularly and flushing it through regularly it's going to be fine most of the time if you're treating the water in the bottle with chlorine iodine chlorine dioxide which are the standard you know different methods of using chemicals to disinfect water depending on what you're doing it beforehand and various other methods which I won't get into here and but that will disinfect the bottle as well you know any pathogenic organisms that are in there are going to be killed off by those suitable methods because that's why you're using them and so that's going to keep it cleaning itself so the times when you have issues with water bottles as if you're putting a lot of food in there and by food I mean anything from a cordial Gatorade Isis star and isotonic type drink mixture fruit juice you're putting sugar in there and bugs like to grow on that type of thing you're providing food for things to grow and then of course mold potentially you're going to be more fastidious than about scrubbing it out and I find for all of my bottles whether I'm whether it's cig bottles the aluminium sig bottles with the with a narrow opening stainless steel plastic I found having a bottle brush really useful just to get in there and clean I will just use washing up liquid if I've been if I'm if I've been using it

I've had food in it I've had coffee in the same with same with same with stainless-steel vacuum flasks for hot drinks this has got coffee in it at the moment had Gatorade in it yesterday when I get back from this trip that will be cleaned out and I will use I will just use regular washing up liquid and I'll give it a rinse out first washing up liquid in there I let it soak for a little while and then I will get the bottle brush in there and give it a good scrub around and now rinse it out to make sure all the all the detergent is out of there all the washing up liquid and if I wanted to sterilize it then with a stainless steel with a metal thing there's absolutely no issue we're just putting boiling water in I used to do that with plastic bottles as well I used to do a lot of cycling and one of the problems that cyclists get is that you get stomach bugs with dirty bottles and so I was quite fastidious about cleaning my bottles and I would just sterilize them with hot water and you know just put a boil water pour it in let it sit that will kill anything that's in there and then put your drinking afterwards so if you wanted to sterilize a metal and stainless steel vacuum flask on non vacuum flask you can put hot water in and that will kill things off if you want to sterilize it with chemicals just use a chlorine tablet well that will work well unless you put out some absolutely filthy dirty Creek water in there that might have say Giardia or in or something and you haven't disinfected it before you know at all and before the waters gone in there chlorine will be fine otherwise use chlorine dioxide is probably the best bet for everyone who's listening to this because you can't always get iodine everywhere and it doesn't always work against Cryptosporidium and some Giardia apparently doesn't work against these days but again we're getting too much into the water purification there but the point is and I don't think you you know unless you if you're using it every day you're flushing it out yes you might get a buildup of food if you're putting a lot of food in there clearly if you put hot soup in a flask or something then you're going to need to give it a good clean out but generally just soap and water wash it out hot water is fine if you really want to go the extra mile and Chuck a water purification tablet in there and leave it and then and then empty out and that'll be sterilized it'd be fine and then use your white wine vinegar for making a nice salad and that would be that what I'd be doing nice salad dressing Raven don't if you can hear it on the audio another water purification question this is from who's this from Matt this is from Matt hi Paul I recently went for a day paddle in my canoe on a nearby waterway where I started at the mouth of a creek opening to the ocean then went around twelve kilometers upstream to the sauce lake whilst paddling I got thinking about what I would need what would need to be done to treat the water for drinking at various points along the way obviously close to the ocean there'd be lots of salt in the water and would need some form desalination but would this still be necessary the further you went upstream is there a point when salt water turns fresh or is it a case of once brackish always brackish throwing in a cheeky bonus question what method would you use to treat water if you were doing a similar journey as always I greatly appreciate the quality content you contribute to the community and that's for Matt on the Gold Coast in Queensland in Australia and it's milk crates not great that I'm sitting on I prefer wine organs but we've got a milk crate here yeah I mean if it's salty water you're gonna have to desalinate it there's no two ways around that yes you can get in reverse osmosis pumps but they're somewhat overkill for a day paddle and as to the question as to whether or not it will turn fresh it depends on the gradient and it depends on the tidal reach of the area that of the water system that you're in and now in some places you know where you've got some extensive mangrove swamps and things salt water can go a long way back inland it also depends on what the water table is doing where you are and you said you go you went back up to a source lake now presumably that's freshwater unless it's tidal all the way in and so at some point depending on you know where the tide comes into and the gradient of the stream of the creek from where it starts to where it finishes there is going to be some transition between saltwater and freshwater where that is I don't know so it every every River is different so some rivers you get saltwater coming a long way back in and other rivers it's only a short distance like the Spay for example that we paddle in Scotland because it's quite steep and it's freshwater to within a couple of hundred meters at the end and then you're into Spade a and you're into saltwater and that when the tide comes and it only comes so far back in and not very far up the river whereas other rivers are much more slack than much more slow salt water will come further in and the tidal reach is much further up so it kind of depends on where you are and the specifics of that particular Creek and the lay of the land where you are I wouldn't be if I was paddling inland to freshwater I wouldn't be trying to treat the saltwater at the beginning of the journey I would take some fresh water with me and then further in and where the fresh water was if I was going to treat that any of the usual methods and that work for fresh water whether that's coarse filtration and boiling cross filtration and a chemical sterilization or closed filtration micro filtration and chemical sterilization they're the kind of bomb-proof methods that I use I've written about those in various places I've written about the problems you can get with water and how to deal with them on my blog and I will link to the first of those articles below this video and that will help you more than anybody else interested in that question small wooden afire Ravens flying around again as well stove ticking over

all right last question and ironically this is about Mediterranean climate and bushcraft kind of funny that I'm up in the boreal in winter this is from William and his question is hi Paul I am soon moving to Portugal and wondering if you might have any recommendation on books or other sources of information on bushcraft in a Mediterranean climate I've seen nothing so anything would be helpful

William well I said that's a that's a good question a number of levels because it allows us to talk about different aspects of bushcraft there's a range of techniques which are applicable anywhere and it's not like all of a sudden you've got completely different ways of lighting fires or making cordage or making shelters you know the methodologies the the fundamental techniques are the same if you're moving from the UK or Germany or anywhere around Europe if you move to Portugal the techniques you're gonna use that are pretty much the same if you are moving to Fiji or Hawaii then maybe you might be moving from bow drill to fire plough for example but Jen so that's the kind of different technique that I'm talking about but generally your friction fire lighting your fire lighting methods your water purification your natural navigation cordage making shelter building all of those things are going to be the same what's going to be different are the resources you might use to achieve those things different tree species different plant species different considerations in terms of fire safety drier climate etc etc but fundamentally it's the same even the sky that's gonna be over you is going to be similar if you're in the northern hemisphere anywhere what you'll see in Portugal is very very similar in terms of Mediterranean climate it's quite varied clearly you've got southern Europe and then you've got the Middle East and then you've got North Africa and you know all around so everything from you know Portugal you could have the Atlantic coast of Portugal through to the beaches or at the far end at the the eastern end of T of the Mediterranean and so you know Israeli type territory you've got the Sinai down in the bottom right-hand corner if you like then you're all round through North Africa and right round - pretty much the the coast where the coast of West Africa comes up and meets the coast of North Africa so you've got quite a range of different terrains and climates there but a lot of the species will will carry on through and round and tree species in particular plant species although there will be gradations and different places and there will be different levels of irrigation different levels of rainfall different levels of aridity in different places aridness and I would look - you know everything from you know part support you're going to draw for more northern European tree and plant identification and uses and as you move east you might be looking at you know what do they do what do they do in Greece what are the traditional skills in Greece or what the traditional skills in Turkey and what military manuals from Israel might be able to get hold of in terms of survival you know what do the Bedouins do in the Sinai what do local people do in North Africa all of that knowledge is out there but yes it may not all be in one book but there is plenty of sources of information and I think you know if you really want to go deep you can you can delve into all of those all those things you know what did you know skills from Sicily skills from southern Italy you know there's there's there's loads of traditional skills and still some very rural places where people are still relying on their knowledge of nature in various different ways

hunting skills and trapping skills and finding water in that environment and knowledge of the trees in the plants you can piece that together but know that there probably isn't one single book and but I would say look at military survival manuals look at extrapolating from what you know from further north and Europe and that will particularly for Portugal and that will that will help a lot I would say and then you can build from that in terms of your knowledge of local flora and fauna as well an experiment you know use the basic skills and experiment you know if you know how to bow drill just go and look at what the common would sir come on widespread woods where you are and just try it you know spend a few days trying different woods and you'll fight you'll quickly find out what works fibrous plant materials there even if you don't know what the species are you can recognize them you can recognize different fibrous plant materials and you can go well that that looks like it might be good for a tinder bundle that looks like it might be good for cordage and experiment with it if you know the basic technique of laying a cordage or making a bird's nest type tinder bundle to take an ember to flame you can experiment and that's the value of learning those core skills as elementary wilderness bushcraft skills and then layering on local tree and plant identification knowledge on top of that as well as tapping into local a traditional knowledge where it exists where you are and then of course don't don't forget you know a lot of the time military people in an area that are operating an area have assimilated and codified and brought all of that stuff together in terms of a basic level of being able to operate for a reasonable amount of time until they get back to safety in that environment so don't don't forget to look for that as well so thank you William for that question that brings us to the end of this episode of a sport Kirtley which of course is the show where I answer your questions on wilderness bushcraft survival skills and outdoor life in general the best of my ability my experience in particular try and bring that to bear both in terms of how I think about things as well as how I do things and I will always try and put you on to good other resources as well like Chris towns ends blog you should check that after all that backpacking stuff in particular long-distance walking he is very very good and experience with that stuff as I say if you're interested in joining me for a boreal wilderness experience in the winter in future please go to frontier bushcraft dot-com that's Frontier bushcraft com forward slash winter add your name and your email address there and I will email you with further details as and when I have them to share with you so hopefully you will be here with us at some point some of you in the future that are watching this that would be great

yeah we're here for a few more days and then we're heading back to the UK via Winnipeg and looking forward to visiting the museum there again and some of you will have seen a video that I did about visiting the Winnipeg museum at the end of a blood vein canoe trip that we did up here a few years ago my colleagues have not been there before so I'm looking forward to taking them there and having a look around again and great displays their natural history native skills and native life and Hudson's Bay Company as well as some great stuff in there in Manitoba Museum and Winnipeg so we're looking forward to doing that at the end of this trip and we've got a few more days in the boreal forest yet and I've got another night here and then we've got a walk walk back to the cabin where we were based in the first half of the trip and then we're going to pack up the gear and then there will be a plane coming in to pick us up and light aircraft be a number of flights backwards and forwards to get the three vers in the gear out and then we're staying locally and then we're driving back to Winnipeg and so yeah it's a bit of a an extraction and but worth it for being in this wonderful environment and we are in about 40,000 square kilometres of wilderness and we're told we're likely that were the only three people in here which is quite spectacular something the size of Norfolk in the UK you could imagine that the county of Norfolk which is quite a big county this is bigger than that and we are the only three people here it gives you some idea of the scale of this landscape and it's a privilege to be here and you spending some time here and I look forward to sharing more of this both in terms of online and materials as well as some of you in person I hope going forward so until then or at least until the next a sport currently and enjoy what you're doing enjoy your outdoor life stay safe and speak to you soon Cheers [Music]

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