Website Revamp has started

A lot of the pages were out of date, as we’ve been too busy out in nature to keep this updated!

The out dated pages have been hidden and we will rebuild, we are most active on facebook so find us there!

Sylvan Bear’s eastern European tree tent testing road trip.

Sylvan Bear’s road trip to Germany and Czech Republic to test the tree tents.

Sylvan Adventures had just taken delivery of some Tentsile (http://www.tentsile.com/) tree tents and as I was off hiking and camping in eastern Europe I swung by Sylvan Adventures to collect a three man tree tent and the bear himself. if you are going to test some kit why not do it 1250 miles away!?  We were that confident we didn’t pack any spare tents, just bivvi kit.

We drove in a 20 year old Suzuki Vitara to the centre of The Czech Republic taking in various sites along the way. The total trip was 2500 miles (for reference Moscow is only 2000 miles away). It was glorious weather (over 30 degrees) and the little Vitara didn’t have air conditioning and if you opened the windows too far they would rattle and deafen you.

Hopefully you will enjoy the photographs of the little bear enjoying quaint German towns,  https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g635851-Lohr_am_Main_Lower_Franconia_Franconia_Bavaria-Vacations.html touring car racing at the Nurburgring http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/home.html, amazing Czech rock formations http://www.czechtourism.com/c/adrspach-teplice-rocks/as well relaxing in the tree tent. We also took the time to explore some of the military history of the area but we left Sylvan Bear relaxing at the campsite that day.

We tested the tent in glorious sun as well as short but heavy rain showers and it did amazingly well. It drew lots of attention from the other campers who all wanted to check it out.

It was quick and easy to put up although finding three good trees the right width apart was the hardest job. It went up quicker than a normal tent (non pop up) and its pack size was good, comparable to a three man tent, lighter if you only taken one tensioning set (rather than all three). The weight is even better considering you probably don’t need roll mats or camp / air beds and the floor of the tent is more than comfy enough. We did find we had to tighten up one of the straps each day to ensure we didn’t start creeping towards the floor but it takes seconds and you only need to do one.

Getting in and out took some getting used but it wasn’t difficult even though we placed it at the maximum height recommended. The novelty off being in a tree tent didn’t wear off, especially on warm days when you could remove the fly sheet and watch the sky.

With two people in a three man tent we did find we occasionally ended up playing footsie as we gently slid towards each other. We considered using our kit to provide a counter balance but didn’t need to as it wasn’t really a problem.

With the rain cover and optional walls on we and our kit stayed dry and the tent still felt roomy and secure. The walls do however make the tree tent look less cool almost like a normal tent.

If you camp a lot in places with trees we strongly recommend these tents as they are comfortable, easy to carry and cool as heck. Do consider where your equipment will go and where you will cook but as experienced campers that shouldn’t be a problem.

Sylvan Bear gives it two paws up!

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Off Grid festival and Hennock Fayre.

Last weekend the webmaster got out from behind my keyboard and headed down to Devon to help out Sylvan Adventures in person.  Unfortunately I live over two hours away so am not able to help in person as often as I would like. 

Off Grid festival

Off Grid Festival

On Saturday we were on the road bright and early to help at the Off-Grid Festival.  Sylvan Adventures ran the Wild Wood area. The Wild Wood was a quiet, cool haven set away from the main festival. The weather was glorious so the shade of the mature trees was lovely and the area was busy all day with some folks just relaxing in the trees and nets or continuing to develop their skills with the shave horses in constant use. Throughout the weekend there were scheduled activities including bug hunts, green woodworking, shave horses, twilight nature walk, fire making and bat walks.

Off Grid festival Wild Woods and shave horses

Off Grid Festival firelighting and camp fire stories

 

Off Grid festival Wild Woods and shave horses

Off Grid festival Wild Woods chilling in the nets

Off Grid Festival Feedback

I taught archery all day mostly working one to one with children and adults to not only ensure they had a good time but also to help them improve their skills and technique. We had several regulars who kept coming back and they came on leaps and bounds with their skills and hopefully left feeling accomplished and satisfied. The day wound down with a twilight bat walk, fire twirling and marshmallows and stories around the camp fire led by Dan

20160813_105530Off grid festival teaching archery

Up early on Sunday we headed over to Hennock Village Fayre to teach archery. Another glorious day had me don a funny hat (better that than sunburn). I was on the go all day teaching everyone from 3 year olds and up. Once again aiming to deliver skills and fun and more often than not I guided the young archers to get a gold on their last one or two arrows which would lead to a round of applause from the spectators.

20160814_124726 Hennock Fayre archery range 20160814_112004

Hennock Fayre archery range, family shooting bows

Overall an excellent but tiring weekend!

This will be the first of a series of blog posts from me detailing what I have been up to over the spring and summer. Even though I don’t often work closely with the Sylvan team I aim to get out in nature with my camera as often as I can.

“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”
William Shakespeare

http://www.hennock.org.uk/

http://offgrid-festival.co.uk/

 

 

Spring cleaning the website!

Spring is here so it’s time to spring clean the website, if you notice any errors give us a few days. If they are still there in a week let us know!

We have some new adventures and activities blooming watch this space!

Daffodils

 

Summer Here.

Well the summer holidays is here and what lovely weather we have had so far.

Chilling in the sunshine
Chilling in the sunshine

So with schools out for the holidays, our activities have  also changed from Forest School sessions to outdoor play sessions and community workshops. It started with a beautiful sunny day for Preston Picnic, where we were helped at the event with young people from our Nature Explorer Project. The activities on offer included clay creatures, tree medals and whittling, we were busy all day long with excited children and young people.

For the rest of the holidays we are busy supporting outdoor  play sessions for a variety of organisations including:

Outdoor play sessions at  an adventure playground in Torquay for Play Torbay.

Birthday parties and woodland holiday club for A Touch of Wild.

Last couple of Nature Explorer Sessions in Torbay, a project funded by New Wave Torbay.

A Wandering Whittling craft workshop for Centre Peace in Paignton.

 

Sylvan Bear getting our workshop ready.
Sylvan Bear getting our workshop ready.

And lastly on bank holiday weekend in  August, we are organising and delivering the outdoor play session with Outdoor People at Exhale festival. More details to follow.

 

 

 

 

Nature Explorer project

Where can a year take you in the playwork field?

Well for me it’s been a full circle, as this time last year I was here in the same little eco-cabin on Little Arthur Farm on St Martin’s drafting a nature play based John Muir Award and I am here again working on another nature play based John Muir Award. I am feeling like a writer that retreats to a writing den, were they are inspired by the peace, tranquility and natural beauty of the Scilly Isles.
Last year I was delivering a cross generational environmental play based Discovery level John Muir award for Play England’s Exploring Nature Play Southwest project, where families were engaged in discovering and exploring local wild places through nature play activities and end up with 14 participants gaining a discovery level John Muir Award.
Two of the young people were so inspired and infused by their time with Sylvan Adventures on this project that they have asked to do their Explorer level John Muir awards with us and especially do an overnight wild camp, which of course I was over the moon to hear. However that left us with the problem of how we could fund such a project?
Then a few months later along came the New Wave funding opportunity for young people to organise and deliver projects which were creative and cultural based in Torbay, that they wanted to see happened. Jacob and Chelsea with the support of their parents were successful in securing a grant.
So now I am here and really excited to be am to facilitate a two tier John Muir Award based Nature awareness project, which they have called “Nature Explorers”. This is going to involve Jacob and Chelsea and few other returning discovery level John Muir award holders working towards their Explorer levels whilst they design and co deliver the activities to another group of young people, wh are working towards their Discovery level John Muir award.
For more details please contact Dan Best at danbest@sylvanadventures .org or check out our Facebook page or website.

Spring Forest School SW Gathering

night sky        Well it has not been our normal winter, warmer but wetter and windier.

However spring is in the air with sighting of Snowdrops and other flowers have been seen and enjoyed. I am also excited about it being spring, because it is nearly time for the Spring Forest School SW Gathering (May 10-11th) and this time is being held in Torbay.

I know this, because Sylvan Adventures has the pleasure of organising and hosting this gathering, which is a networking and skill sharing meeting of Forest School practitioners and like mind people. The last gathering was held at Hallr Woods in Somerset and was enjoyed by 30 or so Forest School practitioners, with loads of skill shared. we also agreed to be an affiliated regional group of the Forest School Association.

This gathering is happening over the weekend of 10-11th May, were we will be meeting on the beach Saturday morning to learn about beach school, discover new activities as well as enjoying the sea and sand. Then it will be off to a nearby wood for some wild camping, with meals cooked over a campfire for more and of course more outdoor fun and games. The gathering finishes with a meeting of Forest School SW group.

The whole gathering is not a training event, more an informal social event, were practitioner gather to share skills, meet old friends and make new ones. This is why the fee for the  gathering is £30 for non Forest School Association for the whole weekend and £25 for Forest School Association members.

Please contact us for more details and a booking form.