Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: Mourneman on April 09, 2012
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During a recent walk with Ed in Annalong valley we discussed about what sort of fish could be caught in the mountain lakes or what game could be caught,berries picked,shelters made,thinking more about this now,leads me into an interesting question, given just the clothes on our back could we hunt,collect & shelter our way through a weekend.surly this would be in the true essence of the wilderness,one from which modern political correctness has removed us,The albity to hunt,trap,catch,plant,sow has been replaced by a system where we are supplied like hamster on a drip feed,anyway i planning to put this to the test later this summer in annalong valley,i'll fish the water,trap the land & make my own shelter from what i can find,at worse i'll go hungry & fail to provide for myself.having being involved in most aspects of fishing & hunting for most parts of my life i'am prepared to give it a go.Anyway it 's a great chance to build huts & dive into river like when you were 15,my wife thinks i'am Peter Pan ;D
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sure if things don't work out, you could always pop into meelmore lodge for a bacon, egg & sausage soda ;D
but i can highly recommend doing a wee course with ni survival school first http://www.nisurvival.co.uk/
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I saw buoys floating on blue lough on Sat when I was up with my bro.. You never know what's in there.. But I'm sure you could pick up some leftovers with the food left from the campers in Annalong wood!
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I forage for wild food when I get the chance, avoid the mushrooms they can be bad!!
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Excellent idea, wild duck from blue lough, plenty of rabbits to snare, beware of the fish in analong river aparentlly they are a protected species, lots of sheep to make a nice stew vegetation isn,t up to much food wise, u could allways beg the day trippers for bread, it would still count as u haven't paid for it lol G. ;D
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As long as you don't go as far as to do a Bear Grylls stunt . . .
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Wud love to do something like this ,
but unfortunetly in this country there s always some rules and regulations ,
bringing down a sheep would probably lead to a bad encounter with an angry farmer :D , fishing in some parts (unless its sea fishing ) is governed ,
but learning how to trap and track game etc would be a craft worth having.
As for berries and mushrooms its a skilled eye thats called, for unless your in to your halucinogenics ;)
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Sheep aren't wild animals so they don't count anyway - might as well order a Dominoe's.
There are fish in Annalong River, I suspect they're small brown trout. Not sure if a permit is needed for here but a rod licence would be. Any fish in the upland lakes are likely to be small but if you catch enough...
There are bilberry bushes on some of the Mournes peaks, think they are edible. Brambles round the lower slopes would have blackberries. I've yet to find wild strawberries in the Mournes.
Fungi are risky unless you know what you're looking at! Puffballs are pretty easy to identify (and meant to be nice) but even then its only a short season when they're available.
Even considering legal worries there's not much game in the Mournes, a few hares, maybe some rabbits round lower slopes, woodpigeon ... but I suspect hunting most of these species would be out of the question. Not even any rabbits in Annalong Wood as far as I know.
Insects are meant to have a lot of protein ... maybe if you caught enough midgies and made a soup or something ...
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Insects are meant to have a lot of protein ... maybe if you caught enough midgies and made a soup or something ...
:D. No catching required, just try to heat up some soup, the rest will take care of itself.
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sounds like daves coffee at the shelter stone camp ;D
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This sounds like a difficult thing to attempt.
I have never found red wine growing on trees or in bushes. No beef for the fire. To be fair, there isnt a lot up there. Dont go chasing the sheep, it just doesnt look right.
Nice idea, but you will be hungry. The walkers on a Sunday morning would start looking like big cooked chickens, wondering why you are trying to eat their arm.
Good luck if you do it and hope you find something to eat.