Lesson on Survival

Waking up at 7am to get into a 4WD with 3 Aboriginal health workers for a 3 day Aboriginal Mens Camp doesnt really sound like my normal work week does it.. An hour later, we were bashing through the Aussie outback where I could hardly see any road trails. These guys sure know where they are going. Anyway, without going into too much detail, Aboriginal people have a dramatically lower health status as compared to the rest of Australia. During white colonisation, many were centralised into camps and gradually lost their skills of being a hunter gatherer. The camp was organised for us health professionals to discuss issues of smoking, alcohol abuse, sexual health and of course, nutrition. But it was also for the Aborginal Elder to teach the younger ones the ways of hunting (and being physically fit).


Heres the billabong where our main source of water is. Me, after going through the National Service, you'd think would be more survival savvy. But I got told off when I was asked to get water. Well, I take pail, go river, grab water; how hard could that be.
Apprantly, I had to tie a rope to the pail and stand behind the tree to do it. Why????
Cos the locals have seen a 4m croc lurking in these water!!!!


Task 2: Shooting a flying target, namely duck of geese with a double barrelled shot gun.

A: "So Gerard, have you ever shot a gun?" (I think they were expecting never as the answer)
Me: "Yes, I did"
A: "Woa, you should be pretty good at this then. What gun have you shot before?"
Me: "Urrr...just the M16" (Hey trust me, I was being humble here, at least I didnt give the full list of M203, section assualt rifle, GPMG, bazooka)
A: "What the?!? we got a terrorist here! Are you serious?"

Heres a pict of the boys waiting for geese to fly overhead.
The Boys with the kill.And heres lunch within 1hr. Freshly shot from the sky, plucked and cooked over wood fire.

Well, as for me, I did not get one. And needless to say, heres the joke of the camp. "Hey Jerry, you didnt get any! You just missing your M16 right"

Next Task: Fishing.

All these kids have is just a reel and a rubber fish bait. When they lost the bait, they just tied a small piece of plastic bag to it and were still reeling them in!

Heres another task which I failed terribly. Theres only these words to descibe it.

Outclassed, Outcast and Outlast. For something so simple, you would not think that there would be any technique involved. But hey, you gotta pull the line in at such a speed whereby it reassembles a fish swimming?!?

Outcast: By the time I had cast and pulled the bait in 2 times, I reckon the Aboriginal kid beside me had already cast his forth or fifth time.

Outlast: Its Australia. The sun is FREAKING HOT. Even with suntan lotion, I'm not standing under the hot sun just to hook a barra!

Think in the end, they taught me more about survival than I did with them on nutrition.