A Shelter Suggestion

In order to survive when a person is lost in the bush you need to be warm, dry and have shelter from the wind, rain, snow and so on.

One way to do this is to dig a hole and hide in it.
I knew a man who was lost in the bush who killed the horse he had, gutted it, ate the meat and slept overnight in the stomach of the dead horse. As I remember he had at least one child with him and they both survived.

A lean-to is popular. In reality though as long as you can find a place to keep warm your body heat and other people’s body heat can keep you alive.

There is the true story of a boy in one of those railroad cars that the Gestapo in the Second World War used to transport people to the concentration camps and a young male saw an old man suffering with the freezing cold in the cattle car which had no warmth. The boy hugged the man with his whole body while rubbing the old mans skin all night. The boy dozed off and woke to find everyone in the railcar dead from the cold and he and the old man the only ones alive. It was the young mans constant movement and body heat along with the older mans body heat that kept them both alive.

I remember a boy and his mother getting lost if n the New Zealand bush and they died after only one night in the bush. I couldn’t understand why at first, but the reality is that they had no idea about survival and didn’t even construct a rough lento to protect them from the cold night, they just huddled in the cold out in the open. Not a wise choice, but they had no idea so they didn’t try. They probably thought that they would wake up in the morning chilled but not too bad off.

Don’t dig a hole in snow and fall asleep. I have read a few times that this is a bad choice because in the hole the person does not feel the wind and chill so feels safe and warm and falls to sleep only to be frozen alive.

A fire is always a good idea for a few reasons. One is to help keep you warm and dry clothing and the other is that at night it cam be a light for planes to see, and during the day the smoke may be seen, so it is wise to try make the fire as smoky as possible, putting dry leaves on the fire can do this.
Find a place where the wind is low. Make a circle of rocks, and around them on the outside dig a small trench, you can even put water in the trench if you are near a lake, river or stream and water is easy to get at, then built the fire inside the rock barrier.
If you have to leave the fire make sure it is well put out.

Once on security patrol I had to evict some campers on private land out in the forest area that the campers  were illegally camping on.
The campers, young and irresponsible, had a big fire going and when I told them that they had to leave they were angry, threatening and abusive. I asked them to put out the fire because it was dangerous and they didn’t have permission to have a fire especially on someone else’s land.
I waited on the road in the security car for them to leave and then they left.  I went into the area that they had been camping and there was no wood on the fire but in the dark with no torch on I could see a large area built up of hot embers and I had to put that out before there was a forest fire.

These people were drinking alcohol and getting stoned on drugs, they were very foolish and careless.
Please don’t be like them, respect other people’s property, respect nature, respect the weather, and take all precautions necessary.