Learn survival skills that can save your life

Learn survival skills on a course at Wild Things!

If you fancy taking a walk on the wild side, then an outdoors course with Wild Things! may be right up your street.

The education charity, based on the Moray coast, encourages explorers to don their waterproofs, head for the woods and build up a relationship with their natural environment.

Wild Things! runs Wild Women courses, taking groups of females wild camping and teaching them how to build and light a campfire, forage for food and even make rope from nettles.

And for the boys, there’s the Father And Son Wilderness Weekend, offering a chance to put your manly skills into action, building Bear Grylls-style shelters and learning survival skills such as cooking and knife carving.

Other courses include Basha Boat Building, where you’ll build a craft from tarpaulin, rope, brush from the forest and wooden sticks then sail it out to sea.

And Bushcraft With Bark, where skilled instructors will teach you how to make bowls, spoons and knives from tree trunks.

Plus Animal Tracks And Signs, investigating wildlife in the local habitat.

For those who like to lead, there’s also the nationally accredited Activity Leader Training Programme, a six-day jaunt teaching participants how to lead environment education courses in the wild to keen learners of all ages.

In its 10 years, Wild Things! has delivered outdoor learning experiences to more than 10,000 people, introducing them not only to nature, but also some of the most remote and beautiful parts of Scotland.

And this autumn, it will also be running some day courses for kids, especially during the October school break.

Wild Things! founder Jennie Martin said: “The natural world is an environment where stress is reduced, anxiety eased, confidence built and relationships developed.”

For more info, visit wild-things.org.uk.