Northern Wilderness

To tie-in with a major six part BBC2 series, Ray Mears heads into the wilds of Canada bringing us a unique combination of bushcraft, landscape, history and adventure.

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Northern Wilderness is a stunning celebration of one of earth's great wildernesses. Ray Mears journeys on foot, by canoe and by snowshoe through mountains, forests, tundra and ice in a land where roads are still scarce. He explores the vast Boreal Forest and its rich animal life from beavers to bears. He travels across the Hudson Bay by canoe, and tells the story of the fur trade and trappers who traded with the hat manufacturers of England. Ray follows the paths of the great early northern explorers, Samuel Hearne and David Thompson, who survived through their knowledge of what we now call bushcraft, as they trekked across the tundra and the Rocky Mountains. He explores the frozen north and learns the ways of the Inuit, who teach him how to combat snow blindness and build shelter. This book is rich in bushcraft, as Ray explains the unique survival techniques of the Native Canadians and the Inuit, as well as how the prospectors in the gold rush used bushcraft skills to survive in this inhospitable but awesome landscape.