My country memories

Boyhood adventures in Surrey woodlands introduced survival expert Ray Mears to bushcraft, inspiring his lifelong love of nature

Image: Niall McDiarmid

‘I was about seven when I started exploring nature on my own, with my army poncho, welly boots and old tin cup.

‘We lived five minutes from the common in Kenley, Surrey, which has fantastic flora and fauna. The woodland around London has a wide range of species, and trees similar to the jungle - with clematis and creepers winding around them like vines..

‘I basically lived like a little aborigine: making ropes out of grass and clematis bark, building shelters, watching the owls hunting, discovering the hole in the tree used by the starling; just being out and about with nature. Bushcraft, to me, is only a tool that has enabled me to be close to nature. Of course, now I do things that are far more sophisticated than when I was a boy. But there is something very magical about simplicity, and I'm very glad that I lived those days in the English countryside.'

Ray Mears is an author, broadcaster and founder of the Woodlore School of Wilderness Bushcraft. See www.raymears.com for details.