How do you do this exactly? Is there a light switch somewhere inside you that once activated opens up powers of awareness and understanding that was just waiting to emerge?
I wish.
But there are some short cuts that will push you along the path to nature awareness. You are not the first person to walk down this road. Instead of learning the languages of nature by yourself it will be a lot easier if you use the lessons learned from other people who have walked down this road already.
Enter the Kamana programme
Back in 1997 I was just starting to understand that there was a deeper side of the natural world that I was missing. I had recently stumbled onto Jon Young's school in Seattle where I met this guy who was quiet, reserved and exceptionally knowledgeable in tracking, bird language and wilderness survival.
Let me fill you in on the back story. I was still on active duty service with the US Army Green Berets. We were supposed to be the absolute best in wilderness survival, quiet movement and tracking. I had just recently returned from the Army's survival school when I met Jon Young. I attended a weekend course he was offering on survival. I thought I would show up and teach these hippy types a thing or two about survival. There were about 15 people that came to the course with 6 or 7 children as well. Jon gave each of us clothes pegs and told us that were supposed to tactically place clothes pegs on each other without being seen. You had to place them on the front of the body somewhere. The back was too easy and therefore off limits.
I immediately thought that this game was not fair at all. Here I was a highly trained commando and these poor civilians were way out of their league. Well, needless to say, within an hour or so I had a half dozen clothes pegs on me. To add salt to the wound I soon learned that the kids were the main culprits for the reason I looked like a pin cushion. I never saw any of them while they were putting the pegs on me.
It quickly became apparent that maybe I wasn't the best and baddest person in the woods. Jon's course that weekend opened up my understanding of what Nature was and how to approach the woods in a more profound way. I went home and ordered the Kamana programme.
The Kamana training programme is a curriculum written by Jon Young where you can study at home and at your own pace. It will teach you all of the basics of seeing the trees, plants, animals, weather and all of nature on a much deeper level. You will learn the plants and animals located around your own area. This programme is tailored for the location of the student.
This course was fundamental in my path towards learning bushcraft skills, how to survive, and how to understand what is going on in the woods around me. It showed me what plants were edible and usable in survival, it taught me aidless navigation, it taught me how to find what birds and animals were in my sit spot. It is an experiential home study course through which the students gains a comprehensive naturalist training background.
If you want to learn bushcraft skills.
If you always wondered what those tracks in the sand mean.
If you feel that there is something more in the woods than you can understand.
Then the Kamana Naturalist Training Programme can get you to those goals.
Every Bushcrafter should be well versed in the natural world around them. They should know every bird, every tree, a good number of plants, and should know how to navigate without compass and map.
Which of your bushcraft skills could use some enhancement?
More information can be found at www.ipna.ie.
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