Bushcraft Day | 30 July 2019 | Oxford02 August 2019 We had a great turnout for our third year at Bushcraft Oxford despite the weather forecast which was annoyingly accurate minus the thunder and lightning! Some of the children were attending for the third time so they must enjoy themselves to keep coming back for more. We had to shelter most of the time under the camp tepee as the weather was truly horrendous and I did have to wash every item of clothing I was wearing as I smelt like I had rolled in the campfire, but there was not one grumble from anyone and they got stuck in and made the best of it. We made survival bracelets with Paracord and my weaving has definitely improved on last year’s bracelet efforts! We were well looked after and entertained by our two rangers Tom and Sam who showed us how to make fire which was very challenging when every stick in the wood was wet, our cotton wool and wire wool was wet, and even when we decided to cheat and resort to matches we found that they were wet too!! I did even make the joke that we should try the magnifying glass and the sun but we might still be there now trying to find the sun and get a reflection! We learnt about the art of camouflage and how to hide successfully in the woods, the children didn’t need to be invited twice to use mud to camouflage themselves! (apologies to all the parents for the mess I gave you your children back in!!!) And just because it was just raining so torrentially at times and we couldn’t do all our activities the rangers got a special shipment from one of the other nearby camps and we practiced our marshmallow toasting skills! (apologies again to all the parents for the sugar intake on Tuesday!) One of the highlights for me was a young girl who was so nervous about coming along saying to me at the end of the day on the walk out of camp that she was definitely coming back next year and bringing her classmate with JIA. It was so lovely to see her and all the children having such fun it made the day so special for me and I’m sure for Jo too to get a chance to see them outside of the hospital environment. See you all next year Bushcraft Buddies! View photos Written by Tracy Bracher