We need the wilderness as much as the wilderness needs us
Bushcraft expert Ray Mears chats to MARION MCMULLEN about inviting audiences for a walk on the wild side
You’ve been called the father of British bushcraft. What can people expect on your new tour?
We’re going to have a lot of fun.
I wrote a book called We Are Nature: How To Reconnect With The Wild. It wasn’t a lockdown book, I wrote it a little before then, and I think it is one of my most important books. People have told me it is life-changing.
It looks at how to use your senses and reconnect with the wilderness. Exploring the extraordinary natural senses that we all have, that are two and a half million years old – sight, sound, smell and taste – and supercharging our senses, becoming more aware of what is around us.
Once you start, you begin to notice more and more. Nature is camouflaged. It doesn’t want to be seen. Recently we have learned to value our green spaces more than ever. We need the wilderness as much as the wilderness needs us, it is time to cease being frustrated at wanton crimes against nature and to act to prevent them. Enhanced powers of observation can make a huge difference, protecting the lives of wild creatures that are unable to speak for themselves.
Do you enjoy touring?
(Laughs) I do and I don’t. Theatre dressing rooms can be grubby and the travelling is tiring, but I love meeting the people and it is really great to see the country.
Audiences cover all age groups, young people especially are very interested and put a lot of thought into their questions.
They are very heartfelt.
Am I ever stumped by any of questions?
Yes, all of the time, but I admit it and say ‘I don’t know the answer to that’ . You can’t know the answer to everything. It’s a big tour – 40 dates – and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m hoping to do a course in Lapland as well first, before it all starts.
When did your passion for the natural world begin?
I started being interested in bushcraft when I was very young when there was no internet to go to if you wanted to learn anything.
I was interested in plants and what ones you could eat, and when I was about seven I went to the public library looking for a book about edible plants. There was a lot about botanicals, but I found one very slim book. I can’t remember what it was called now, but I can still picture it. I found one of the plants mentioned in the book and very gingerly tasted it. It tasted of apple peel. That opened the floodgates.
I also had a young judo teacher who was a mentor and he encouraged me to take a really serious interest, a more professional interest, in it all.
(Laughs) Everyone said I was crazy, but there are a lot more people around doing it today – some good and some not so good. It’s led to me filming in places like China and Australia and teaching in Lapland.
What has been the biggest change now from when you started?
There are lots more people around in the countryside and a lot more plastic bottles.
I remember when you used to be paid for returning your old glass bottles and I think that would work for plastic bottles.
In Iceland they have a sort of vending machine in reverse. You get paid when put your old plastic bottles in the machine. It works very well.
I stood and watched it for a while and at one point there was a whole queue of people waiting to use it.
I remember going into this beautiful glade in the New Forest one time and someone had left an empty plastic bottle sitting in the middle of the tree stump.
I can’t understand that mentality. It’s an empty bottle, it is light, you can simply crush it, put it in your pocket and take it away with you.
It is time to cease being frustrated at wanton crimes against nature and act to prevent them...
Ray Mears
What would be your perfect day?
Spending the whole day outside canoeing. I love canoeing.
I’d get up in the morning and go with my wife on a canoeing trip or go solo.
It would be late September in Canada as the mist was coming across the lake. The fire would be burning and I would sit and have pancakes first and then away we’d go. I love that.
■ We are Nature – An Invitation To Reconnect With The Natural World tours from February 22. Go to raymears.com for ticket and venue information.