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Martyn
09-07-04, 04:14 PM
Tireless in our efforts to bring you the best on offer, BritishBlades and BushcraftUK have got together with Bearclaw Bushcraft to bring you something a bit special. A world class tracker by the name of Ian Maxwell, will be teaching a tracking course based at the Merthyr Mawr (Wales) location of Bearclaw. This is more than just "whats the difference between badger and fox droppings, or teaching you the difference between a rabbit track from a squirrel track. Ian is a tracker from Zambia who used to work for the Zambian game parks tracking poachers and game, he now lives in the UK and is employed by the police as a tracker. It's an opportunity to get inside the mind of a tracker, to find out how he sees the world, how he sees signposts all around him in nature.

As mentioned, the course will be held at Bearclaw's location...


Bearclaw bushcraft is situated on a 3500 acre private estate near the village of Merthyr Mawr in south Wales, just off junction 36 of the M4 and 10minutes from bridged railway station

The estate has an incredibly varied mixture of terrain with:

· 300 acres of forest including broad leaf coppice and ancient woodland
· 5 square kilometres of sand dunes (the second largest and highest in Europe)
· 4.5 kilometres of coastline (with the second largest tidal change in the world)
· 6 kilometres of river
· an estuary
· 3 natural springs
· 2 castles
· numerous streams and ponds

The outstanding diversity of flora and fauna on this site has earned it no less than five designations.

· SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest
· NNR National Nature Reserve
· SPC Special Area of Conservation
· SAM scheduled ancient monument
· Heritage Coast

Our base camp is fully equipped with running water, toilets, showers and a purpose built lecture building for when indoor lectures are appropriate

As an exclusive only available to BritishBlades and BushcraftUK members, Bearclaw is offering a discount....


UPDATE: Bookings not taken at present!

Few outdoor skills hold such magic or are as highly regarded as are those of the Tracker and the Scout and now thanks to the generous team at Bearclaw bushcraft Bushcraftuk and British Blades members have the exclusive chance to learn these for themselves.

Lead by Ian Maxwell, a professional tracker and outdoorsman, this series of courses will lead you into a world you possibly never knew existed while at the same time opening both your eyes and your heart to the natural world around you.

Each course is designed to build upon the skills taught in the last and as such will be run of two weekend, one in January and the other February before culminating in a 5 day advanced course which will be run in March 2005.

To take advantage of this unique opportunity and discount you must be a member of either forum and book all three courses in advance. For more information visit the Bearclaw courses page at www.bearclawbushcraft.co.uk.

Discount calculated against a final payment which must be received prior to first course commencement and agreed as per Bearclaw Bushcraft Ltd’s usual terms and conditions.

Most of us know Gary, so drop him a line for more details if you're interested.
http://www.bearclawbushcraft.co.uk/courses/scoutcraft.htm

I was gutted to miss an opportunity for this myself in April as I was at work. Some of the guys from BcUK went along and had an amazing time. They even spent some time tracking each other under Ians guidance. Fantastic stuff.

MushiSushi
09-07-04, 04:23 PM
Hmmmm ..... £350 for a week, with 10% discount ... a person could be sorely tempted ..... would i be told off for taking a big knife instead of a tiddly 4"er though? :D ..... just in case of bears and Colins ;)

Martyn
09-07-04, 04:27 PM
Dunno about the knife Mushi, probably OK but you might get a raised eyebrow if you take your Wakisashi. :D

But just to clarify, there's no financial gain in this for either BushcraftUK or BritishBlades, and I know Gary has cut the costs to the bone for Bearclaw too, he's just about covering expenses.

Gary
09-07-04, 04:28 PM
Mushisushi I doubt it - Ian carries a big knife too!

MushiSushi
09-07-04, 04:30 PM
Now doesn't that say something ....... not like that TV character with his little bitty knives ..... I like this Ian ... he sounds like a man's man :240: ;)

Tvividr
09-07-04, 05:51 PM
That is sooo tempting, but I don't know if I dare book anything so far in advance. The dates for the February and March courses may be a big problem ......
Not much of a tracker myself but I have had the fortune to work close together with African trackers, and those fellas are just amazing :wow: :notworthy
As we have had a job to do I've never had the time to really learn to track proper, other than recognising the different spoors from different animal species (I'm completely lost when there are tracks from 100s of the same animal species or the tracks go over rocks, but those guys are not). A specialised series of courses like this would be the key. Hope I can get the dates sorted out, but then I also need to make myself a new knife as it seems that I will be needing something bigger than a puny little scandi. Big dangerous beasts like bears wouldn't be a problem :noggin: but I've never seen a Colin..... is that a protected species ? :wink:

leon-1
10-07-04, 04:13 AM
Ian Maxwell is spot on, I met him on the wilderness gathering last year where he stood in at short notice with no prepared notes (he was dropped in it), the instruction that he gave at the time was very good despite virtually no time to prepare for a lecture.

If this guy has time to prepare then you could find yourselves in a totally new world and quite possibly another hobby to keep you busy :biggthump

wayne
10-07-04, 08:56 PM
Leon-1 did you book that tracking course in Sept?

I have already asked Gary to reserve my place on the courses.

There is just too much to learn and too little time.

Gary
11-07-04, 02:26 PM
Wayne your place is booked.

Anybody else interested please book soon as its quickly filling up and the maximum course size is only 12 people.

Mushi et al - can I just confirm one detail, as several people have enquired and been slightly confused. Discount is offered against booking all three events the total cost for these, with discount is £540.

Hope that has helped clarify things.

MushiSushi
11-07-04, 02:55 PM
Hi Gary, does that mean that you have to attend all weekend courses before doing the week course?

Simon

Tvividr
11-07-04, 04:22 PM
Hi Gary, does that mean that you have to attend all weekend courses before doing the week course?
It seems so : "Due to the depth of knowledge of your instructors and the foundation work involved in your learning the subject students are required to attend each course in the order they are laid out below." from http://www.bearclawbushcraft.co.uk/courses/scoutcraft.htm

Gary
11-07-04, 04:54 PM
Yes Mushi - there would be no point attending the weeklong advanced course if you dont know the fundamentals taught upon the first weekend basic course. Plus you wouldnt have such things as a tracking log book which comes with the first course for example.

The full set of courses arent cheap, but they are better value for money than most and this is why I am also offering you all a discount as I want as many people as possible to be able to benefit from doing the full set of courses.

This series of courses are designed to train you to be trackers and you will be trackers by the end of the courses. Unlike some courses you may have attended there is no lip service on these, we are not playing at teaching you to be trackers the training you will recieve is full and proper to the degree where Ian himself (the only PROFESSIONAL tracker in the UK) will acknowledge you as trained trackers by the end of the final course.

Personally I think this is an unbeatable offer which won't be available again.

MushiSushi
11-07-04, 05:06 PM
there was never any doubt that it is an unbeatable offer. And it makes sense that you'd need to do all three ... was just thinking aloud :)

Tvividr
10-09-04, 09:03 PM
Gary, are the dates for the tracking courses on your website finalized, or may they change at a later stage ?

Gary
12-09-04, 04:36 PM
TVIVIDR,

Dates are set in stone my friend.

Several people have already booked, and Max has had to set aside the time from his busy diary, so barring 'The day after tomorrow' or 'Alien invasion' those are the dates that will run.

Hope that helps. :biggthump

Tvividr
12-09-04, 10:07 PM
TVIVIDR,
Dates are set in stone my friend.
Several people have already booked, and Max has had to set aside the time from his busy diary, so barring 'The day after tomorrow' or 'Alien invasion' those are the dates that will run.
Hope that helps. :biggthump
Aaarrghhh..... :banghead: no that does not help at all. January and February are no good for me :censored:
Guess I better call in a favor from the green goblins from outaspace :thetwins:
Will you set up other courses at a later stage ?

Gary
15-09-04, 08:53 AM
Tvividr,

Sorry to hear that especially as places are disappearing fast.

This series of courses have been set up as a special offer for BB/BCUK members and as such are being run at cost by us as both a test of their popularity and to give members of both groups a well deserved chance to experience the skills of a first class tracker. Whether we run further courses will depend upon members feedback but I would point out that once courses are offered to the general public the cost will rise to cover the usual over heads ect.

All I can say is book now to avoid disappointment and save a lot of money.