We have - improbable as it may seem - a jar of Bovril signed by the great Ray Mears to give away. It's one of only eight, so in years to come, it's certain to become a rare and prized artefact.
To win Ray's Bovril jar, all you have to do is tell us, here, how Bovril might save your butt in a desperate survival situation. The most entertaining and creative idea wins the Bovril. Closing time is midnight on Friday 14 November, 2008.
Does this mean he might do an advert for them for the telly too then maybe? Taking up the mantle of old perhaps there, from that other great outdoorsman Chris Bonnington.
"At the summit of Everest, we drank beefy Bovril." - Chris Bonnington, Bovril tv commercial. circa 1970's.
Sorry, I was just brewing some Bovril to take with me on my nightly extreme fell running expedition. Erm, no, there's no 'adults only' category, I'm expecting folk to treat this competition with the high level of seriousness it deserves.
For example, you might surmise that because - for argument's sake - frozen Bovril has a lower specific density than water, you could use it in a polar emergency to fashion a large boat in which to flee fierce polar bears. That's completely true by the way. I've seen it done.
If you win the Marmite jar he has signed and sell it on Ebay, you will likely have enough funds to buy the whole bleeding PHD production line, Sean mate!
What a fantastic photo of Raymond there too! A most unusual Ray Mears posed photo this one - and I should know, I'm a Woodlore nut! He controls - or the corporate organisation at Woodlore does likely rather I suppose - his image very tightly indeed over the years, so one does not much see pics like this of Ray, as he has lways outside of Woodlore seemed to like to remain a very private individual. So it is a bit of a rare treat I think seeing this one there. Certainly not the usual Ray Mears picture subject for sure. Even though I'm a big Ray Mears fan, I've never been able to afford a course there myself though, as I've been out of work due to my depression illness on and off for the most part of a decade or more now sadly. I was a Ray fan when all we had was Tracks on tv, and what a fab show that was! That was worth the licence fee on its own that was! I still have my proudly owned copy too of one of the so called 'Green Books' even, from around that time. Fabulous book too! I actually love Bovril too, as it happens, so this competition here could have been made for me!
There seems too there, at the link to the great photo of Ray with his camera, to be a bit of an invitation to supply a funny caption to the picture?
If so here is mine.
'It took Ray but a half an hour at his secret stakeout location, to capture evidential photos of Bear Grylls spending another long, hard, Born Survivor night out in a 5 star survival hotel!'
Just wanted to bump this thread back up for tomorrow so more people see it and maybe want to enter over the weekend. I'm going to enter tomorrow myself most probably. I was writing the entry up in note form earlier, so will try to transfer my entry in here tomorrow or sunday most likely. It might get me totally disquallified straight away though, as it is so long and detailed that it might take up two full posts on OM or so, to get it all in, as it's so involved in possibilities there for Bovril survival capabilities! My disquallification will be for waffling of course! But that is ok, as I will only be entering for fun, and not to win really. And too as a big Bovril fan myself as well, I know it goes great with toasted waffles anyways!
'For example, you might surmise that because - for argument's sake - frozen Bovril has a lower specific density than water, you could use it in a polar emergency to fashion a large boat in which to flee fierce polar bears. That's completely true by the way. I've seen it done.' - Wrote Jon.
Hang on! I missed that bit before, think we already have the winner here! Yay!!
First of all you would have to light the fire the way Ray teaches and once lit boil the water for the Bovril. Next add water to the Bovril stir and drink whilst watching the world go bye, preferably in the Pennines.
I'm still writing my entry sadly, as did not feel so good earlier on today so took back to my bed with an orange disprin drink. My entry will be split into three parts now probably on thinking of it ong and hard now. Firstly covering the 'will to survive' in the survival situation being so faced, secondly the uses of the product jar, and lastly the uses of the jar contents being the actual Bovril itself!My entry will cover the more obvious practical uses of the product within a given survival situation scenario being so encountered, and too the not so obvious uses.
As the main one on here, I suppose, somewhat always banging on about outdoors survival skills, wilderness survival, improvised kit outdoors, real true life survival tales, Bushcraft, Ray Mears, Born Survivor, Survivorman and Bushtucker Man and books and films touching on the subject of survival etc etc too, then you might guess that my entry is a rather involved affair consequently overall.Thus therefore, considering all of this I guess that maybe I should be the one to kick off a longer style entry here then. I suppose I'd better as I would kick mysef later on otherwise if I did not do so, since this cometition could welll have been written for survival nuts like myself!
As I say, I'm only entering for fun really essentially here, and like as not will not win, but wanted just to be the one to try to set the bar of competition high for those to follow on,; and to get folks thinking of uses for this great product in a real encountered true life survival situation!
Covering Uses of the Actual Bovril Product Itself.
Depending a lot upon the environment type encountered, that one might well find oneself stranded in perhaps lost, and needing rescue.
Bovril product mixed in with a little water, mixed to thin paste, and applied to skin as an improvised emergency sun screen application product. Useful in survival at sea situations aboard a life raft, or for use in tropical situations and too for desert survival scenarios. Anywhere where one's survival might well be threatened by exposure to a blistering heat/hot sun environment.
The product in this way similarly too could be similarly applied to possibly successfully act as a makeshift insect repellant cream.
Uses as a paste too in traps to catch small animals, as bait.
Use as a paste in a fishing baitball to flavour it, so the flavour spreads out into the water to attract more fish from in the surrounding water. Use on liferaft survival fishing occasions or in hobo survival fishing practically anywhere in the world.
Food flavouring uses outdoors in a survival situation -
Useful for flavourng will edibles and foraged edible wild plants in many ways. For example a few ideas here below.
1. Flavouring to wild harvested nettles cooked and eaten, or used in nettle tea.
2. Flavouring to add taste to rather otherwise unpalatable traditional plant survival foods, such as common harvestable water lilly plants etc.
3. Added flavouring for use with pan fried dishes from common earthworms to other insect types - pound for pound a higher survival protein food content than even high grade beef!
4. Added flavouring for use with foods such as wild rabbit, pigeon, squirrel etc. To help avoid a basic meagre survival diet becoming too bland, in a long endured survival situation perhaps over an extended period of some weeks.
The lid inner recess is perfect for mounting an improvised heliograph use material to fashion an emergency heliograph device for use in signalling one's position to possibe rescuers, ground to air, or ground to ground too to attract in SAR teams to one's location deuring daylight hours. Any bit of brightly shiny metal foil or a mirrored surface could be usefully cut to fit there into the lid inner. Say rubbish found in the area, or wreckage from a plane, car wreck or whatever one might have there to hand in the situation.
Couple this fashioned emergency improvised lid signalling heliograph with the lantern used jar mentioned above - burning pine resin for instance for a bright flame - and one has a signalling device to use at night as well quite possibly.
Remember - That most rescues outdoors the whole world over are effected by using heliograph type devices, either factory made or improvised emergency builds.
Baitball uses - mix the Bovril in with sawdust, mud, sticks, tied all up with twine or natural cord, to hold the improvised fishing bait ball togerther, and to make the Bovril go further in survival uses.
The natural fat content of the Bovril product.
Useful to add into fires in the wet quite possibly, mixed in with pine tree resin or other easily natural combustible materials gatherable. As an extra fire starter for firelighting muixed in with tinder, or for use in the improvised candle lantern mentioned before, or for use too with the pine resin mix in fashioning lighted torches for nighttime uses and to ward off wild animals at night from your camp. A stick, wrapped around with natural plant fibres coated with the combustible resin/Bovril mix, allowed to dry, would burn well at night as an emergency torch.
Snow marking uses -
One could also mix the Bovril into a watery dark coloured paste to use in the marking out of easily seen large emergency SOS or other ground to air rescue signals on snow, and on ice.
In any survival situation you are only potentially limited by your own limits to ingenuity.
As Clint Eastwood says in film Heartbreak Ridge, "Improvise, adapt, overcome!"
Food uses - continuation. Adding flavour/seasoning to wild game/ mushrooms or anything to eat basically.
As a basting additive to add more flavour to small cooked wild foods, meat or mushrooms. Either for pot cooking or for cooking over an open fire, wrapped in leaves. Similarly that kettle spoken of before too, is placed n an open fire wapped inside of protective thick leaves, or used thus over hot rocks taken from a fire. Both foods and water can be boiled up/cooked in this simple way quite successfully.
Remember, that beach survival, utilising the skills of a combing of a beach or shoreline too will turn up many tasty wild edibles such as shellfish. A rather bland thing to have to eat similarly as a survival food too, without a good bit of flavouring from something like a cook in Bovril sauce maybe. I'm a big earthworms or lungworms fan myself, as bait for beach fishing. Any sea or freshwater fish with a bit of Bovril cooked in would be nice too I reckon!
As I said you can too also just pan cook the shellfish, or cook over an open fire's hot coals. Similarly too, any earthworms or insects edible you mightbe lucky enough to find, all which would benefit if cooked from a Bovril cook in sauce. Some shellfish, plus too insects, and eartworms all pound for pound good protein content for a survivor. And in many cases more higher nutritionally balanced protein suppliers than red meat to a wild survival diet.
Those water lilies - all parts of the plant being edible and bearing calorific value as an emergency wild food, plus a good source of necessary dietary fibre too. Water lillies spring to mind first off for me there since the plants certainly could do with something added to the recipe to make the whole dish much more palatable and easier to consume. A cook in ingredient such as this Bovril would be a real godsend in a survival situation I feel, to add better flavour to any wild foragable edibles encountered, be they of plant, animal or insect food types origins.
nb - One must of course take good necessarycare here though over the correct identification of wild fungi edibles outdoors. It is easy to get the identification wrong and pay dearly with one's life. Many folks die each year the world over making mistaken identification of wild mushrooms.
End notes - I'm not completely sure that Bovril, as such a strong smelling beef based product, would be useful in all of the above ways, like the traps setting as bait use bit above there, especially so. It might well work though being strongly scented, to draw in inquisitive ground critters like marmot or squirrel, investigating the strong smell, or indeed attract other animals. You might well too though just end up catching more insects that are edible however, stuck to the Bovril in the trap. So take this as a disclaimer just in case here!I do think though that in a survival situation anything is worth a possible try, and one might just get rather pleasantly surprised!
Lastly, back to that first 'Will to Survive' idea for the use of the actual Bovril jar label there.
I was surmising that one could make use potentially as an aide memoire to survival and the will to survive, by first - if lost, and needing rescue perhaps - thinking on the initials of BOVRIL to recall to mind important points. And too to remind onessel of things one want to return alive to in one's everyday world.
B - Banish fear and panic. Banish all negative thoughts and feelings too. Try to think only positive thoughts instead. Try to stay focussed on the tasks of survival at hand.
O - Organise yourself to survive, taking best stock of your situation, and too your available equipment to hand to use to survive. Orientate yourself - use map and compass if you have one, to try to locate your position on the map. Use local landmarks clearly visible. Use signs in nature too to orientate yourself upon the map, to discover your exact probable location.
V - Verify your position - you may well find you are not quite as lost as you first thought and feared you were. Vital survival lore, try to recall it to mind. Think on addressing firstly the key priorities of survival - being, shelter, water, food, fire and signalling for rescue help.
R - Remain where you are for the moment, stay put, unless of course doing so would place oneself in further imminent danger. Ration food and water. Try to put things in perspective and seek to remain 'cool, calm and collected' - 'undue haste makes waste'. Resolve to try to remain positive no matter what!
I - Improvise, adapt and overcome the situation, to Survive alive. Inspiration - take inspiration from whatever you can recall to mind that is useful to the situation, so resolving to be inspired and outstanding in your adversity.
L - Lay out best plans in advance to action in your mind, thinking clearly first before you act! Call to mind the best plans to action, best relevant to the situation at hand. Be realistic in expectations - one may well not be rescued immediately, so don't give in and don't give up hope. Remain calm by trying to motivate yourself to think of all the things, you wish to return to like home, loved ones, pets, friends and good things you love to do. Level head - try to keep one.
Try to formulate and lay out best conidered plans in advance to actioning them. To prevent 'headless chicken syndrome', of running around to no constructive aim or end gain result.
Groooaaann!
