wild wise
WildWise Director Chris Salisbury.
The gift of nature connection
A postcard
PAY it forward bursary fund is created for Call of the Wild 2021 programme
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ILDWISE’s Call of the Wild year-programme is an extraordinary call to adventure and deep connection with the natural world that has been running at Schumacher College since 2013. The programme is a rich mix of activities and enquiries into mentoring nature connection for others. The community of students experience an immersive experience of learning bushcraft skills, creative interpretation and narrative skills, Fieldcraft and outdoor leadership and facilitation skills. The programme is the brainchild of WildWise Director Chris Salisbury, and has been phenomenally successful with waiting lists for places a tribute to the depth and meaning experienced in the journey. “I’d spent my whole career in outdoor education and training, and I wanted to offer a programme to introduce all the processes and practices that are required to broker a
meaningful connection to nature”, says Chris. “I’d gathered so many skills and experiences from here, there and everywhere and curating a programme that could introduce these in a structured learning journey made a lot of sense.” Perhaps the most eloquent statement about the value of the programme is a new bursary fund that has been raised by past alumni of Call of the Wild to support applicants with less Finance at their disposal to be able to apply for the programme. “In a post-Covid economy, it felt very important to open the door wider to those who are more financially challenged, and the generosity of our community is inspiring. They believe so much in what this programme can achieve, they have dug into their own pockets to raise £5000 to offer a number of subsidised places. It speaks volumes about the quality of this experience if past students are willing to do that, and I am very
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moved and humbled by this.” Another new and exciting development is that after a frustrating Covid-induced year out, this nationally acclaimed programme is shifting its centre of gravity to Embercombe, near Exeter along with various locations on Dartmoor and will begin again in March 2021. “Apart from partnering with an amazing team of people at Embercombe, what has been particularly pleasing in this shift, is a reduction of the course fees by nearly a third, even though we’ve added more content, making the course even more substantial.” Call of the Wild graduates range in age from 21 to 61, and come from all walks of life. Some have professional interests, to develop a whole new skill-set to integrate into their working life. Some arrive in a deep enquiry about a career change, others simply because they aspire to deepen their personal connection to the natural world. Most have gone on to engage more purposefully in all sorts of ways, in all aspects of their lives. There’s no doubt that the programme prompts and provokes deep questions in a time of change, and we are proud of our alumni for meeting the challenges of
today with many inspiring initiatives, projects and lifestyle changes. The door is now open at Embercombe for 2021 applications, and a warm and wild welcome awaits you and your journey back to the natural world. l For more information see wildwise.co.uk and embercombe.org/call-of-thewild.
INCE writing for Reconnect la like the whole world has chan And my own world has chang because I view it from the perspect little Andalucian village in Spain’s province where I now live. This summer, after spending severa in the pleasant tourist town of Nerj decided to move onto the land bes next village, Maro, and went off-gr had a finca (country property) to lo as well as a wonderful dog, Mia. W comes from the spring, power from and food - tomatoes, peppers, aub figs, lemons, papaya and bananas - from the garden. But paradise comes at a cost. Ants, mosquitoes, lizards, spiders, rats, and even a wild boar late one night have been amongst my visitors, whilst temperatures in the high 30’s (without the benefit of a fridge, air-con, or even a fan) has meant adjusting my lifestyle, slowing down, finding shade, and taking long siestas. Of course, life here is not just abo relaxing. Spain has been hit hard Covid19 and whilst most rural reg the south in general have been sp the worst of the pandemic, many p are facing hardship and uncertain asking serious questions about the live. Here on the Costa del Sol, th questioning the sustainability of th model which is such an important Spain’s economy. The issue is par relevant for Nerja and Maro as th lives from seasonal tourism, the se from agriculture. When it became apparent during o lockdown that demand on the loca bank was massively outstripping su a few of us decided to take matters our own hands. I rounded up some farmers while a friend launched a
The scientific history of our red sandstone HOW often do you consider the dynamics and physical history of the county we live in? To tie-in with Sidmouth Science Festival GRANT SHERMAN founder of Hartstongue, the Green directory for Devon, creates a ‘Dao of Geology’ perspective of Reconnectland.
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HE Earth lives as a statue, poised mid-step, hand upraised. The whole course of human history - vast empires, slow in their growth and demise - are but a blink to her. She breathes out and in, climates change, climates return. Lands and oceans move, joining and separating. The red soils around Exeter are a testament to these cycles of change. These soils are formed from desert sandstones dating from the Permian and Triassic periods. Devon was close to the equator during the Permian (300250 million years ago). All of the continents had collided to form the supercontinent Pangaea. One part of this collision had raised mountains in Devon and Cornwall. The granite of Dartmoor and Cornwall solidified under the mountains and
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volcanoes erupted around Exeter. Around this single continent was one “Panthalassa” the universal sea. The experienced extreme variations of he were monsoon conditions and flash-f rainforests of the preceding Carbonif leaving behind vast regions of desert favoured conifers, ginkgoes and cyca which could better cope with these d dominance in place of their amphibia Rocks weathered, rusted and redden into angular fragments that were car the ‘breccia’ cliffs Teignmouth. Smalle vast drifts of windblown sand which Dawlish. The Earth’s most severe extinction eve the Great Dying, formed the bounda and the Triassic. Up to 96% of all ma of terrestrial vertebrate species becam this extinction? We have many theori may have played their parts.
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