1.Shelter
2.Water
3.Fire
4.Food
1. Shelter, If you believe to be in a survival situation shelter is the most important preparation, without it you are exposed to the elements and things go from bad to worse without one. Protection from sun will help preserve valuable water content in your body, prevent hypothermia in cold climates and keeps spirits up, if you are dry and warm/cool depending on climate you will function better. A shelter will keep you and your gear dry, making fire lighting easier and helping you to plan out your next move. Remember, you can become hypothermic even in summer months, all it takes is for you to get caught in the rain and the temperature to drop and a breeze to pick up and prety soon you will be in difficulty. Always spend the time and make a good shelter first off, hopefully you wont need to make another one for a while, so build it while you have good strength and are fit to carry out the work. If food becomes a problem you dont want to waste valuable food energy rebuilding one later on. Remember choosing your shelters location can be as important as building one. Choose an area thats not prone to flooding or that is in an exposed or dangerous area.
2. Water, hydration is very important, you will need to find and purify your water, by boiling, chemical sterilisation, filtration or all of the fore mentioned. You will find that your body constantly uses water when you eat food and when you work hard, through sweat, building shelters or collect wood etc. Secure a safe area, contamination free, for water collection and a means of collecting it. A condom packed in a survival tin can be used to carry water, plastic bags can be used to get water from plants and for collecting dew, rivers and lakes are the obvious choice, but water will need to be boiled, so secure the items needed for collection and boiling.which leads us on to the next point, which is third in our priority list (fire for sterilisation of water)
3. Fire, creates warmth and the ability to cook food forraged from your surroundings. The ability to steralise your drinking water is of great importance killing off most bugs and bacteria found naturally in water. Don't forget that a fire also creates smoke to reveal your position should you need to be found in a rescue situation, smoke can be easily seen from the air during daytime and it also gives you light. During the night it will keep away unwanted visitors in the night such as wild animals. Fire is man's friend and has always entertained people giving them a sense of security and a sense of home a base to work from .... believe me, all the little comforts will make the difference when you are in the wild for a long time.
4. Food, once you have the 3 main tasks complete, you can start to forrage or hunt for food, you will be hungry by now and food will be an important task from here on in. Catching fish by line fishing, tickling fish by hand or spearing, netting, are all viable ways to take food from a lake or river. snares for open rabbit runs or bird traps, these can be left and checked every 8-12 hours. if you have time you may wish to make spears or bows to help hunt rather than trap, it will take your mind of things a bit and help you focus on something positive. If you are bushcrafting, rather than surviving out of necessity, you may have a firearm with you for hunting which will greatly increase your chances for killing eddible game. These are the 4 basic necessities you should secure first and in the correct order, following these guidelines will make life a whole lot easier for you. feel free to share your ideas and pictures of your camps and shelters, we would love to hear from you and how you set up your living areas for survival or bushcraft.
Stay safe and be prepared.
Shiver
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