Be The Jam

Wanted

Robust individuals with good level of physical fitness, plenty of determination, good sense of humour and love of the outdoors to join an expedition to South America in 2007.

We are looking for volunteers to come out for 1 or two month sections of what will be in total a 12 month trip to live in the forests of South America and raise money for Rainforest Concern through sponsorship.

The Challenge

Stage       Details

1.    Survival training and living deep in the jungle
2.    living deep in the jungle on our own
3.    living in the jungle next to the beach, time for a bit of surfing.
4.    Living in the Cloud Forest - quite nice I hear.
5.    Living in the Polylepis forest, at altitude - cold, time for some climbing perhaps
6.    Living in the flooded forest
7.    Punting down the Amazon and surviving in the jungle
8.    Visiting reforestation projects etc run by Rainforest Concern
   

Contact with the outside world will be kept through email and satellite phone. 

I have never been to the jungle or even South America, from what I understand this promises to be a rather testing undertaking.

Requirements

You will need to be well organised, motivated and to be able to cope, or at least put up, with physical discomfort, periods of boredom, crisis and possibly having only one other person to talk to for a month or more at a time.

Most travel will take place via truck or canoe. However, things could go wrong and so you should be prepared for a long walk back to civilisation. So you should be able to swim and walk long distances with a rucksack.

It will be your responsibility to ensure that you have all the relevant vaccinations and medications for the trip.

It will be necessary for all members of Mission Improbable to take an expedition first aid course or prove they have such skills already.

It would be really useful if you spoke Spanish.

Survival knowledge would also be really useful, at a minimum you must be able to make a decent cup of tea.

Test

We will be running a "team building exercise" sometime in the middle of winter at as bleak and dismal a location as we can find. There will be a number of arduous physical challenges as well as some survival training and a test of navigations skills. Whilst some of the  tests will have time limits the spirit in which the attempt is as important as actually meeting the deadline.

Costs

Including flights I would guess it would cost around £1200 - £2000 depending on a number of variables - such as which section you are coming out for. Some equipment has been promised to us and I'm doing everything I can to bring the costs down. Any help with finding a backer for Mission Improbable would be much appreciated.

Rainforest Concern

The whole point of Mission Improbable is to raise money for Rainforest Concern http://www.rainforestconcern.org/ who are working to protect the rainforest and so we ask that all members of Mission Improbable undertake to raise as much sponsorship as possible for them. It's going to be a lot different than running a marathon.

Application Form

For an application form please email me at hugh.sawyer@gmail.com with the words "Application Form" as the subject. Please be patient as I haven't written the form yet and it will take a couple of days to come up with the appropriate questions.

I spent the last three days in the woods on my own with the radio, a ten kilo sack of rice and a couple of bags of flower. I learnt a lot, mostly I learnt about boredom.

I have mostly been eating rice for the past couple of weeks, I'm really bored of eating rice now.

I'm not at all bored of making bread over the fire, hot bread and butter can really cheer you up when you are bored.

There is quiet often nothing on the radio worth listening to.

Woods are all very well but they can get a bit dull after a while.

By the time night comes a state of zen like calm descends and everything is good.

Rain gets tiresome after a while.

Those mushrooms are not poisonous, I was quiet relieved about that.

No matter how boring sitting around doing nothing becomes the idea of going for a run does not become any more appealing.

It is quite hard to get a 100 litre rucksack into the top of a tree (for safe keeping).

What goes up must indeed come down, rapidly.

A burst tupaware container full of home made lentil and mushroom soup inside a rucksack provides plenty of cleaning up to do.

Being bored is better than cleaning lentil soup off a sleeping bag with your last clean T-shirt.

Catapaults are fun at any age.

After five hours it is possible to get quite good with a catapault.

Sometimes the stone bounces straight back from the target and hits you in the hand.

Making arrow heads from flint is not easy.

Sharpening a knife to be sharp enough to shave with is hard.

Sharpening a knife to be sharp enough to cut your face but not sharp enough to shave with is relatively easy.

Leaving the radio out in the rain over night does not do the radio much good.

Only being able to listen to one local commercial radio station whilst sat under a small bit of tarp in the pouring rain whilst smoke gets in your eyes and slugs launch another attack on all you hold dear is almost as much fun as going out clubbing.

So things are going quite well, on the living in the woods front at least. Everything on the organisational side of things is falling apart, not as dramatically as that chair that I tried to make but unravelling nevertheless.

 Where to start? Well I was feeling a little down when I got back to the woods, there were a few things playing on my mind and life amongst the slugs and the damp - for it is raining a lot at the moment - doesn't necessarily cheer one up. So having thought things though as much as they could be thought through I decided against sitting and wallowing and set my self to being busy. My SAS survival guide (ug factor 10) was retrieved from my rucksack along with a length of para cord, having established my self comfortably on my rucksack I turned my attention to learning some more knots. But what was this? I could make a chair out of a few bits of stick and some string, I had already had some sting in my hand and looking about me I was delighted to discover that the woods is in fact full to the brim with sticks. The design was so simple that it only took one short paragraph to explain how to make it. Three hours later I gave up on making a chair, sat on my perfectly comfortable "thank you very much" rucksack and lit a fire. Not only had a little activity lifted my mood but along the way I had learnt a number of knots, some of them I learnt many many times, and I now had a number of carefully crafted lengths of stick - I'm sure they will come in useful one day.

 Yesterday it mostly rained, and for some reason I decided that I was going to put the hammock up and be comfortable in it. So I put it up, then I moved my bed into it and this meant that I now had a sleeping area and another area that is dry as well. Having a second area makes a huge psychological difference. Having knocked through into the trees next door I was left with an area of shelter that was distinct from the sleeping place (let's hope I can sleep in the hammock I thought to myself) and suddenly my wet weather home is twice the size and I don't have to do all my cooking, eating, writing etc whilst sitting on my bed. So I lit a fire, drank some camomile tea (which I had picked myself), made some bread and then gathered some rainwater from the tarp which I heated and had a sponge bath. Then it struck me, I'm getting reasonably competent at this living outdoors thing. Sure I might not be able to make a chair yet but this time last year I had to use about a litre of petrol and a box of matches to light a fire, all it takes is practice. After that I was rushing about the place getting things done. I dug the dumb bell weights up out of the earth oven and scraped off the rust and most of the dirt and attached them onto one of the lengths of stick left over from the incident with the chair and did a few exercises. Getting carried away I decided to make a gym and shimmied up a nearby tree to run a rope over a branch so I could heave heavy weight up and down - going to need lots of heaving strength in the jungle I bet. Half way up the tree I was surprised to see three big yellow mouths opening and shutting, there was a nest with three fully fledged Starlings (they looked like Starlings any way) hoping to be fed. I chose another tree. 

Then when I did eventually go to bed - after another bath in hot rainwater - I was amazed to discover that it is possible to sleep comfortably in a hammock! This bodes well as sometime soon my Clark Jungle Hammock (tropical) will arrive and that will by my home for the year in the jungle. I'm very excited, it even has a place to store your pistol!  

 I have a couple more stories to post on the web site but this computer says no, I hope to be updating it soon.

I'll be changing that picture of the Caiman with all the teeth at the top of the page, I have started dreaming about it. I think maybe I'll change it to a picture of some flowers or something.

So I am back in the woods after a couple of weeks luxuriating in one of those new fangled houses. The ground seems harder to sleep on than I remember, jeans no longer make such a comfortable pillow as they once did and the smoke from the fire is much more acrid than I ever remember it being before.

I remember as a kid being told to throw my apple cores and the like from the car window on journeys with my parents, "you never know an apple tree might grow" and so I would humour them and throw the core from the window, more in the hope of hitting a cyclist than planting a tree. It seems though However, there are some plus points as well. I found three apple trees and a number of plumb trees by the side of the road on the way back home. For breakfast this morning I had stewed apple and blackberry with plumbs stirred through with organic honey. Save for the honey it was all completely free! I had forgotten I had the honey until I had a look in the hollow tree to see if I had any water hidden away so that was kind of free too. I also gathered some wild basil and some camomile. The only edible fungi I have found is jew's ear and that really doesn't look appetising at all - I left that on the tree.

Well it was hot for a while, very hot, and now it is cooler and wet. Just the occasion to go out and look for edible fungi. Check out this guide, its amazing.

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

Check this link, it's a documentary based on the idea of "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5262494.stm

Another thought just struck me, again whilst watching TV.

It's amazing how much of our shared experiences in whatever social group we are in come from watching TV, I haven't really seen much of it over the past 14 months and I have been alienated from a lot of conversations as a result. Admittedly I have been quite happy to have missed out on some things, Big Brother, The Apprentice and Dragon's Den are all programs that I heard about but was happy to miss. However, there are programs on TV that truly captivate, instances of pure genius, shows that capture the mood of the moment, the spirit of the age. There are iconic moments captured on film that are burned into all our memories, the moon landing, the Iranian Embassy siege and the Coronation to name but three. Whilst I have cut away the programs that mean nothing to me with them have largely gone my connection with those moments of significance. So can someone please tell me when channel 5 got a new weather girl?

We will be mainly based in Ecuador and over the course of the 12 months will be doing the following

Survival training and living deep in the jungle
living deep in the jungle on our own
living in the jungle next to the beach, time for a bit of surfing.
Living in the Cloud Forest - quite nice I hear.
Living in the Polylepis forest, at altitude - cold, time for some climbing

Living in the flooded forest
Punting down the Amazon and surviving in the jungle
Visiting reforestation projects etc run by Rainforest Concern

Occasional trips into town for re-supplying and beer

What the Mind Can Perceive the Body Will Achieve*.

Orb Sample

I had, just now, what I believe would be known as a moment of clarity. Suddenly for a brilliant moment I could see the full ramifications of my current situation, peculiarly it was television that led me to this.

Allow me if you will to place this revelation into some form of perspective before going into details.

Firstly it is perhaps necessary to mention that I have now got used to living in a house, I am acclimatised, I like being clean and sleeping in a bed. My consumption of food has decreased dramatically and although I am feeling even more unfit than I did a couple of weeks ago I am feeling rather content with my lot. It is perhaps the fact that I am now at ease with my new situation that allowed me to consider things from this new perspective.

Secondly I think that my activities over the past few days have helped me come to this deeper understanding. I have had, for the first time in a very long time, uninterrupted quiet access to a computer. This has allowed me to spend my time fruitfully in planning Mission Improbable; I have been learning about solar power, satellite modems, hammocks, freeze dried food, rainforest survival, shipping costs, survival kits and any number of other things that I shall not list for fear of boring you to tears. I have also been looking for a companion for the trip, it looks as thought there will be a number of people coming out on rotation, a month or two each seems to be the idea. This in turn throws up more logistical problems from insurance to training. I think all this work set the seed in my mind that I might in someway have to be responsible.

I have seen on TV a couple of episodes of serious survival; a CBBC program in which a bunch of children are taken to live in the Rainforest and care for Orang-utans. I have watched this with great interest as you might imagine, the impression I get is that the rainforest is somehow both less intimidating than I imagined and worse. It seems that given the right knowledge, equipment and attitude it a perfectly fine place to be. Then again to be reliant on myself to provide the right equipment and attitude and take in the requisite knowledge and then maintain myself and be responsible, at least in part, for the well being of another is a daunting prospect. I have over the course of my life got into a few tight corners (one of the best was Windsurfing in a thunderstorm, I couldn’t swim at the time and the only thing sticking out of the sea was the three meter carbon fibre mast that I was holding on to) and somehow I have always come through. Perhaps I have got a little blasé, I think the fact that things have always worked out for the best led me to not even think about the implications of going to live in a rainforest. The decision making process didn’t go much beyond, that sounds like a good idea, I’ll do it!

Which leads me rather neatly to the revelation I had, it’s almost as though I planned it this way. I was watching a program on TV just now about the re-enactment of the race to the South Pole, a very good program it was too. Bruce Parry was leading the British team, interestingly he was one of the leaders on the serious jungle program as well, and it was interesting to watch his leadership style and here it being analysed in comparison with Scott’s. Ranulph Fiennes was interviewed as was a survival psychologist by the name of John Leach. Listening to them talking it suddenly occurred to me that going to live in the forests of South America for a year is a very serious undertaking and I should really start treating it as such. I have very few of the relevant skills and I could be just ever so slightly out of my depth here. I am responsible not just for the wellbeing of myself but also those that come with me and anyone that might be called upon to look for us if I make a mistake and things go wrong.

 It looks as though I am going to have to tap into a previously untapped vein of maturity in order to pull this off. I knew that the jungle would be tough and was relying on belligerence and luck to get through that, I never realised that things would get tough before even leaving the country. Somehow I’m going to have to learn skills and personality traits that I don’t have, that’s cool though for they are things that I would like to possess.

* I’m not sure who said that. The Orb sampled it on one of my favourite albums and it has been my motto ever since.

I think next week will be my first voyage of discovery into the world of living off the land for a week. I have mixed feelings about this, part of me thinks that this will be an excellent challenge which will increase my knowledge and self sufficiency no end, part of me thinks that it will suck. I suppose, as with so many things, it is the attitude that is the key. I have been reading a lot of survival books recently and they all say that a good positive attitude makes the difference when the going gets tough. I'm going to be living off roots and berries for a week whether I like it or not so I may was well enjoy myself. The other thing is that at this time of year it is perfectly possible to go a week without eating without sufferng any ill effects so there is nothing to worrry about. Besides, I have some rice and some balsamic vinegar stashed away somewhere and if that's not the ingredience for a fine feast I don't want to know what is.

In September I'm going to head to Cornwall to meet up with a bunch of like minded people for a few days of living off the land. There will be fishing, catching crabs, gathering berries, picking nuts and catching the odd rabbit or two as well. By the end of it I might have picked up some useful skills and can't help but be good training for the jungle.

I had a go at shaving with a recently sharpened knife again today, it didn't work, I just can't get a blade that sharp. I forgot that I had got sunburnt a few days ago so all that happened was I scraped off a layer of dead skin and now my face has started to peel. It is very attractive, you should try it.

Just in case, fingers crossed, you are tempted to send in a bit of travel writing the following advice from actual proper grown up travel writer Mark Moxon might be of interest.

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