I’ve been watching “Naked and Afraid” for the last several hours. I’m curious, were you put into that same scenario, stranded out in the wild for 21 days, bare-ass naked with only a single item of your choosing, what item would you choose to bring?
Some type of sharp tool, like a knife, is tempting, but I’m thinking the item to bring is a simple Bic lighter. People in general seriously underestimate the difficulty of making fire out of found items in the wild; it seems like a simple enough task, making fire, because it’s such a trivial matter in modern-day life, but in reality, without modern conveniences, creating fire can be shockingly difficult. So that’s my item: a Bic lighter.
Sure, but you know what the first couple of items in that book will be? #1: find potable water. #2:make fire. Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things.
I would have to say that spiffy knife/lighter combination and my little black med bag plus a vial of insulin, test kit, alcohol swabs and syringes. [it holds my pill bottle collection, I get my meds 3 months at a time, and store everything in one bag with my insulin bottles in the fridge, and testing kit and syringes in the bedside drawer with the alcohol swabs.]
[or will I magically not need medication for this? I am willing to go magically healthy and not need any medications.]
Though honestly, from my historical recreating interests I can actually knap a flint knife, use wood, sap and inner bark to turn it into a handled knife, and make a second one to use as a spear. I can do 2 different types of friction fire starting [fire bow and rubbed stick] and know several different types of shelter to make and how to decide which type to use [and why to use that specific one] though being handicapped my lack of ability to move any sort of distance without crutches [I could go to and from a latrine with crutches] and a wheelchair [anything further than 300 feet and back every few hours] makes it problematical.
Depending on where, if there are wild sheep in the area I would have shoes and warm clothing fairly quickly, I know how to tan leather with brains and can make’bog shoes’and know how to process from raw wool to finished garment in several ways from sprang and finger crochet to making and using a backstrap loom. Though I admit I have no desire to wear leather clothing, I would wear it to keep warm. I also have no objections to eating any mammal rat sized or larger [except skunk, I understand the meat tastes skunky] and I would prefer not to eat goat as it tastes and smells like goat piss to me [sensitive to some hormone or chemical goats produce, any goat product has an overwhelming urine whang to it for me.] I can also process raw clay into a workable form, make soap from fat and lye from wood ash, and can cook over fire using a gridiron, clay pot, metal pot and turnspit. [cooking with clay over fire is a learning experience =) my roomie has several pots made to cook with fire that she uses while camping medievally at SCA events.]
Why yes, you could probably drop me into any late stone to bronze age celtic area and barring language and infirmity I could actually get on fairly well.
My ipod. No seriously! Here’s the rationale:
I have zero survival/wilderness skills. I can’t fish, can’t hunt or trap, can’t figure out what plants are good and bad to eat or how to not get killed by wild animals, etc. Even sort of cheating with a multi-tool or Rambo type survival knife, I’m most likely going to be dead within 2 days. Games drain the pods battery within a couple hours but if I just listen to music I can get a day or two out of it. I could also read books on my pod to pass the time while waiting to die.
A knife of some sort, definitely a knife. At worst my SAK, better a more dedicated survival jobby like the ASEK or K-BAR.
Knapping well is hard work, I’d prefer not to have to do it to survive if I don’t have to, and it’s all very well having the Bic, but on the whole I’ve never had a problem starting fires with a bowdrill. Having a knife already, gives more time to focus on the fire and the other essentials like clothing, water and food.
Again, this depends where we are. If it’s anywhere outside the tropical/temperate areas, I’d want warm clothes. If it’s desert, I’d want covering robes. But otherwise, I want a knife.
No seriously! Here’s the rationale: