Saturday, December 30, 2017

Simon in Namibia

My good friend Simon in Germany recently took a trip to the Namib and visited the San Bushmen. He was able to get in a little "dirt time" with some real bushcraft experts. I have posted his personal narrative below.

See you on the trail!

Col Tomahawk

During my recent travels in africa I got the chance to stay at a San village for several days and accompany them on a hunting trip.

"The San or Saan people are members of various Khoisan-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer people representing the first nation of Southern Africa [...]"
- Wikipedia on the San People, search it up for further information


THE GEAR OF A HUNTER

A San hunter carries all his gear in his quiver, together with his arrows, or attached to the sling of that quiver.
Appart from that quiver and his loin cloth, he's not wearing much anyways. 
The typical gear consists the following items:

- A drinking straw, made of tall gras, to drink rain water out of small holes in trees or rocks
- A blown out egg of an ostrich, filled with water and plugged as a canteen 
- A small knife, either from stone or nowadays homeforged from scrap metal. Full tang style, with sheat and handle made from the same piece of wood and the blade edged on both sides
- A small hatchet, made from a hardened piece of root, with a detachable blade that can be turned to use it as a hoe. The handel also functions as a pipe for tobacco.
- A pair of fire sticks
- The quiver, made from a branch of the quivertree
- The bow & arrows, more on that later


ON THE TRAIL WITH THE SAN

As you might have noticed, the San bushman don't carry any food with them. Since most hunting trips are daylong only, they rely on food they collect while on the move.
With their knowledge, there's plenty of food avaible in the bush.

"Bush Potatoes" can be dug up and eaten either raw or roasted over a fire.
Different berries and fruits provide nutrition and water at the same time.
When they start the hunt, they start to sweep towards a cardinal direction, navigating by the sun, the group scattered over several hundred meters width, communicating by short calls and 'click-noises.
Once they pic up fresh tracks of an animal, they follow them, considering the wind direction, and close up to its hideout.
When I was with them, we stalked an antelope until we were only 10 meters away from it, without being noticed.
Once within the reach of their primitive bows, they'll shoot a poisoned arrow at their prey, and the poison will do its work.

This also describes why they only use were simple bow constructions, since they don't need penetration or range for their way of hunting.


BOW & ARROW
 The bow is made from a green branch, with both ends carved slender and the center hardened over a fire. The string is premade from plant fibres, and they always care some spare string with them.
The arrows consist of two pieces. The shaft made of wood has a precisely carved piece of bone that makes the arrow perfectly balanced and the use of fletching obsolete.
The arrowheads are from bone or metal, and they are only loosely attached to the shaft with a drop of tree gum, so the shaft will drop when the arrow hits an animal, while the poisoned head stays in the flesh.
This way the shaft doesn't break when the animal breaks through the bush, and the hunters have the place where the shaft lies on the ground as starting point to follow the wounded animal until where the poison finally kills it.
The poison is made from a special kind of maggot that gets crushed, and they never apply it to the tip of the arrow but half an inch behind it, so if a hunter accidentally pricks himself with one of his arrows, he doesn't gets poisoned.
By the way, the poison gets non-dangerous once the meat is heated.

Following some pictures of me making a bow in the bush and different arrow heads.


ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:









Friday, December 22, 2017

Heres to Now!

"Heres to now". I'm on the Thai side of the Mehkong river tonight. I bought some BBQ chicken guts and sticky rice for dinner;right now, I'm sitting along the river eating in the quiet ambiance. So, Heres to now! there is nowhere on earth I would rather be.

Col Tomahawk

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

New passport vs Old passport


OK, new passport Vs old Passport. The old one took me 5 years and 37 different countries to fill up. Time will tell how long it takes me to fill up the new one. Next stop, Laos PDR.

see you on the trail!

Colonel Tomahawk

The view on my walk this morning

I took a long walk this morning around Mea sai, Thailand. The morning air was cool and velt good. it made the sap rise even in an old tree trunk like mine.

See you on the trail!

Col Tomahawk








Thursday, December 14, 2017

Canoeing down the Mekong

" But the best bit was the sheer beauty of being alone on a powerful river with thick noisy jungle on each bank and feeling completely alive in the universe as a natural part of it.  I felt like the planet was perfect and that there was nothing else I ever needed in life.  THIS was it right NOW.  I’ll never forget that feeling."

~Alastair Humphreys

This Limey kid reminds me a bit of my Hero Pat Falterman (RIP).

http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/olly-whittle/

See you on the trail!

Col. Tomahawk

Tankara "fly fishing"


Tenkara fly fishing (Japanese: テンカラ, literally: "from heaven", or "from the skies") is a traditional type of fishing practiced in Japan that should not be confused with fly fishing. 
 
Who knew? I did the same thing as a Kid just trying to catch food for the table in the good 'ol USA. I never knew it had an artsie fartsy name like "Tenkara".

Primarily used for mountain stream trout fishing, tenkara is one of the most popular methods of angling among fresh-water mountain anglers in Japan.

The appeal of tenkara is its elegant simplicity;

Rod: A very long and flexible rod (usually telescopic) is used in tenkara fishing. The rods normally range from 3.3 to 4.5 meters (11 to 15 ft) long. These rods were originally made of bamboo, but are nowadays made with carbon and/or fiber glass. They also have a handle similar to fly-fishing rods that can be made of wood (the more prized rods) or cork.

Line: As in fly-fishing, it is the tenkara line that propels the weightless fly forward. In tenkara, the traditional and most commonly used line is a tapered furled line (twisted monofilament), of the same length or slightly shorter than the rod. The main advantage of furled lines is the delicate presentation and ease of casting. Alternatively, a tenkara "level" line can be used. Level lines are specially formulated fluorocarbon adjusted to the desired length. They are easier to cast against the wind.

The traditional tenkara line has a loop of braided line at its thicker end. This braided line is used to tie the tenkara line directly to the tip of the rod by using a cow hitch (aka: girth hitch) knot. The line at the rod's tip needs to have a stopper knot, which will hold the cow hitch in place. It is a very secure method to attach the line.

Tippet: This is the same as a regular fly-fishing tippet, and is used to connect the fly to the line (which is too thick to tie directly to the fly). Usually between 30 cm to 1 meter of tippet is added to the end of the line. This is typically referred to in Japanese as "hea" (for hair).

Fly: Artificial flies are used in tenkara fly-fishing. These are tied with thread, feathers and sometimes fur as in western fly-fishing. Traditionally a special reverse hackle wet-fly is used. In Japan it is known as "kebari". These traditional Japanese flies differ from most Western flies, in that the hackle is tied facing forward.

Slingshots - SE Asia style

If you had to choose one of these slingshots, which would it be? The one on the Left is Filipino and the one on the right is Thai.

Im packing my gear for the next adventure.

See you on the trail!

Colonel Tomahawk

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

The Golden Triangle

I took a short trip up to the Golden triangle to scout out some landing spots,hotels, and visa information for the upcoming featherman 6 Mekong river expedition. It was a good scout. I love the area and might just move there and make it my base of operations in SE Asia.

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

See you on the trail!

Colonel Tomahawk



























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