Find out all about living on the wild side and learn the ways of survival.  The Brecon Beacons National Park is an area rich in vegetation, wildlife and woodland.  It’s where the elite SAS army go to learn about survival, and the mountainsides, forests, hedgerow and rivers are full of wild foods that are quite edible.

Foraging 
Explore the beauty of the Brecon Beacons whilst gathering food that’s fresh, tasty and free. The landscape in the Brecon Beacons is perfect for foraging. Better still, you can learn from the best – friendly experts with unsurpassable local knowledge are waiting to help you learn food foraging and outdoor skills, giving your fitness levels and practical abilities a hearty boost along the way. 

Brecon Beacons Foraging:
Hello! I’m Adele. You might have come across some of my books, including ‘The Hedgerow Handbook’ and ‘The Garden Forager’, both beautifully illustrated by Lizzie Harper of Hay on Wye.

Brecon Beacons Foraging, for me, is the exciting end product of a long-term dream! After living in a really remote and inaccessible location until recently, my move to Llanfrynach, a couple of miles east of Brecon, which is much easier to get to, has meant that my wish thatWales should have the first dedicated foraging centre in the UK – and that I should run it – has come true.

Although I love travelling all over the UK to teach people about wild plants (as well as the unexpectedly edible cultivated species in peoples’ gardens), I firmly believe that Wales and the borders offer the best foraging in the UK, as well as the most glorious, supermodel landscape that money just can’t buy. Because, of course, foraging, as a complete sensory experience, is not restricted to simply harvesting ingredients for the dinner plate!

I offer several different courses.

• A one-day course, which includes a foraging walk, a 12 course lunch cooked by our chef and using lots of foraged ingredients) followed by seasonally-appropriate workshops. Costs £80.00 per adult.
• Wild Wednesdays – an ambling, rambling forage walk, followed by lunch and a garden tour. Costs £50 per adult
• Foraging for Kids – children are natural foragers and I believe that it is very important to encourage that instinct whilst making sure that our younger foragers have a healthy respect for plants, fungi and their powers. Costs £35.00 per adult – one adult needs to be present for every 4 children. Adult pays £35.00. Lunch is cooked outdoors.
• Cocktail Foraging – a foraging walk showing how plants can be used to make cocktails, with lunch and plenty of samples (designated driver advised)! Cost £90.00 per adult.
• Bespoke Events – How about a forage as a gift for a special occasion? Or a tour of your garden or land, to show you all the edible species there? Whatever you have in mind, I’ll do my best to accommodate it.
• I also give discounts for group bookings.

I thought I’d give you a little insight into my foraging day courses, which generally take place every Saturday (there are a few instances in which they happen on a Friday or a Monday instead – view the calendar on my website www.breconbeaconsforaging.com).

The course starts at 10am and runs through until 4.30 (or, usually, beyond) and it’s amazing just how many different plants there are to be found in the slow mile or so that we walk. The walk lasts between 2.5 and 3 hours and is in no way strenuous. And occasionally, if we’re really lucky, we may spot something unexpected and wonderful, like the slow worm which we found basking in the sun just across the lane from my house. Or the banks of a stream, covered in wild daffodils, seen by no-one unless you’re walking a dog there…or foraging!

Read more about Adele Nozedar and Brecon Beacons Foraging here. Or why not view Visit Wales guide on 5 tasty Mushrooms you can find right here in Wales!-Here

Or how about booking a bushcraft guide for the day?  Here in the National Park you won’t struggle to find a knowledgeable guide who can take you out into the wild and teach you the ways of survival. Some include:

Mountain and River Activities run by an ex- Royal Marine are one the activity businesses who offer a range of courses on bush craft and survival.  These Bushcraft/Survival Courses are designed to give you an insight into what wilderness survival is all about, learning the skills needed to live in relative comfort in a sometimes hostile environment,using methods of our ancestors. Construction of brushwood shelters, finding collecting and sterilization of water, fire lighting without matches, introduction to collecting edible plants and fungi, uses of medicinal plants, traps and snares, game preparation, backwoods cooking, map and compass, survival navigation, river crossings, abseiling,S.O.S. The Bushcraft, Survival and Falconry courses are run in the Brecon Beacons National Park . Courses start from £90.00.

The Bear Grylls Survival Academy partnering with Mountain and River Activities Ltd was launched April 26th 2014 in the Brecon Beacons at Pontneddfechan /Ystradfellte near Neath. Now in its second year the partnership is going from strength to strength providing 24hr Adult and Family Courses. Techniques taught includes, learning how to build and light a fire, how to navigate at night, best ways to use a knife for survival, foraging for grubs and rodents, building a shelter, extreme weather survival and river crossings!

Read our blog about how you can have your very on Bear Grylls Mission Survive here

The Bushcraft Academy 
The Bushcraft Academy is run by Gary Mapletoft, who has a passion for nature and leadership. Following 22 years as a Royal Marine, Gary moved into the Human Resources arena and therefore has the necessary skills and life experiences to develop individuals, teams and outdoor survival enthusiasts across a wide variety of training courses.

At The Bushcraft Academy, we put nature and the elements at the centre of all that we do to provide you with experiences and training that is unique. The great outdoors will provide you with a challenge that will inspire you and give you access to sights that will fill you with awe.The Bushcraft Academy teaches skills in a sustainable, respectful and friendly way, sharing our knowledge and instilling a healthy respect for ‘tools’ to use in nature, so we can be more comfortable in the great outdoors, be able to create a camp to enjoy the wilderness without leaving a permanent scar on the landscape, and being to practice in a safe and natural environment.

Click here for more info

Sbri Cymru-Bushcraft & Survival Skills in South Wales

Warm yourself by the campfire and learn some of nature's secrets to surviving in the wilderness! As you explore the mountain summits, deep gorges and native woodlands of the Brecon Beacons National Park, discover a world rich in flora and fauna. This picturesque landscape provides the perfect location for developing your survival skills as well as your understanding of the natural world around you.

During this activity you will learn skills such as:

• Friction Firelighting
• Trapping
• Tracking
• Foraging
• Navigation
• Shelter Building

Hawk Adventures-Wilderness and Survival Skills
Bushcraft is all about using the natural world around you, not just to survive, but to thrive. Common elements of our Bushcraft activity include fire lighting, shelter building, foraging, using a knife and other tools and wilderness cooking. Our Bushcraft activities last for either a half or a whole day and will be run by an experienced outdoor instructor with excellent wilderness and survival skills.

We use the best sites across South Wales for our Bushcraft activities, from the coastline of the Gower Peninsula to the forests of the Brecon Beacons National Park. We can even bring the wilderness to you and deliver a skills session at a site of your choice. 

We have blended classic approaches to Bushcraft that are tried and tested by orga
nisations like the Scouts and the Military and combined them with modern thinking by people like Ray Mears and Bear Grylls to make our sessions practical, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable.

So embrace your wild side and head to the Brecon Beacons to become an expert on all things bushcraft!