My Rewilding Adventure
Hi Everyone, I’m Josh and I’m one of three in the Wellbeing Network team. We recently had a wellbeing event named ‘Rewilding Adventure’ organised by Terry Doyle, and I decided to come along to kick back a little and share my experiences with the Network, and to show how these monthly wellbeing events can improve your own wellbeing.
Let’s begin shall we?
On a sunny Saturday morning, I embarked on an exciting journey to the beautiful forest that houses the Rewilding Adventure site. Located in a serene natural setting, this event promised a day filled with enticing outdoor activites, perfect for those seeking a break from their daily routines.
In this blog, I'll take you along on my Rewilding Adventure - a jam-packed spot with various activies and a chance to learn a little bit about interacting with nature, sharing my experiences and insights from a day spent embracing the great outdoors.
I arrived on site, being lead through the archway that welcomes all who visit the Rewilding Adventure. I trailed through the shaded woods, passing by the canopy tents that would host our morning activities before arriving at the main tent and being greeted by my fellow adventurers.
We Introduced ourselves around the fire and fueled up on tea, coffee and fire toasted crumpets - all eager to start our day.
A Walk in the Forest
Our amazing host, Morgan, took us on a short walk around the surrounding woods, shared insights about the local ecosystem, pointing out various plants and species of trees, as well as just really engaging the group in nature as a whole, which I think some of us definitely lack in our office-bound lives sometimes.
From my own point of view, I rarely looked deeply into nature this way. I never really bothered to learn the difference between oak trees or really paid attention to what was growing around me. But it was a massively refreshing change from my daily routin, a chance to disconnect from the digital world and tune in to the intricacy of the forest
But that was just one part of our little morning escape here, and once we had finished our short tour of the forest we played a game which was quite similar to hide and seek, but instead of avoiding the seeker as best we could, we instead had to use the trees and ditches to approach in stealth, having only a dozen or so seconds to hide. The seeker would try and spot us from their circle, which they couldn’t move from, before we could get close enough to enter the zone and win. Despite our group consisting of adults, i’m sure alot of us felt like kids again, letting loose and playing silly games without a care in the world, which is something I think we take for granted - No matter our age, we all need to just relax and have fun from time to time.
Group photo of the Wellbeing Network attendees, and the wonderful team at Rewilding Adventure
The Art of Firemaking
Once we returned to the main tent, we began the other activites on offer. One of the standout activities for me was the firemaking session. Morgan shared some methods of lighting fires with a fire steel. We subtituted the naturial material of plants and flammable tree sap with cotton wool and vaseline, as to not exhaust the forest of its plantlife.
From here we built a cage around our tinder, holding it in place and also providing an adequate amount of fuel. With a long ten minutes of me floundering with the firesteel, trying to throw sparks into my would-be fire, the spark finally latched onto the tinder and my labour paid off.
Sure, I could have just used a lighter for the same purpose, but the sense of accomplishment was much more rewarding, and it turned out to be just such good fun!
Channeling my Inner Lumberjack
Next up was time for some axe throwing—an activity that felt like a page right out of a lumberjack's playbook. The rush of releasing an axe into the air, watching it spin, and hearing the satisfying thud as it embedded itself into the wooden target was a great way to let off some steam. Well, when my axe didn’t hit the target sideways anyway. We were coached in the proper technique, and I was surprised by how quickly I (mostly) got the hang of it. We switched between the traditional throwing axe to one handed thrown axes, and I found myself hitting my mark alot more with those. At this point I was completely in the zone, utterly focused on trying to land every axe I threw. Once it came round to finishing the activity I was sad that I couldn’t do this all day.
Not Quite Robin Hood
Standing with bow in hand, I aimed at the not so distant target. Bowstring drawn, I release the arrow towards the target…
It completely misses.
Archery is a sport that requires focus, patience and accuarcy. I dont have any of that, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love every second of it. My aim was shoddy but I was putting arrow into target one after the other much more effectively than my axethrowing. My excitement was off the charts while firing arrows, as this was the activity that mainly caught my eye when I booked my spot for the event, and it was so worth it to experience something so unique that I’ve always wanted to try. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and my time with the bow was short lived as we were all reconvening to end the adventure.
The Rewilding Conclusion
Once we had returned to the main tent, we finished the day with beverages and roasted marshmellows over the fire, a sweet end to an eventful morning. We all shared with our thoughts about the whole event, the ways it improved our wellbeing, as well as the potential benefits of service users of wellbeing support services.
From the conversations we held, I think the Rewilding Adventure is the perfect, practically therapeutic event that would be a great addition to any service that would benefit from getting their service users connecting with nature, enjoying activities together as a group, and engaging them with some unforgettable experiences.
From my own experiences, I was barely thinking about the outside world while I attended, as I was too wrapped up in the fantastic activities. The stresses on my mind seemed to take a back seat while I was engaged, and I believe there’s great mental wellbeing benefits to be had here.
And that being said, the Rewilding Adventure Team is eager to get involved with the members of the network. If you think your organisation would benefit from what the Rewilding Adventure has to offer then don’t hestitate to get in touch.
To contact Morgan and the Rewilding Adventure Team, you can email:
Morgan@rewildingadventure.co.uk
Special thanks to Terry Doyle for setting up this event for us, as well as all the hard work he has does for our monthly wellbeing events
As well as the Rewilding Adventure Team, for giving us such an amazing experience.