Woodlife Trails

5 years ago, I decided to go on a tracking course at Shadowhawk Tracking School. I’d been tracking for a long time. My first tracking book was the 1988 edition of Brown, Lawrence and Pope’s Animal Tracks and Signs and it was new. At the same time I purchased Lofty Wiseman’s SAS Survival Guide, but I just wasn’t progressing in the tracking world. There’s only so many times you can identify a deer track without wanting to know something more about it.

After the 4 days course at Canonteign Falls in Devon, I wasn’t just hooked. The course hadn’t just changed my outlook, but had literally changed my life. But I wanted more. And more. And more.

I kept coming back to assist on the courses as a mentor to learn not just about tracking, but about camp-craft and bushcraft. You can’t learn to track and not learn bushcraft skills. I was determined to stand the other side of the circle and become a Shadowhawk Tracking Instructor. It was only my injured ankle that stopped me going to a couple of courses. I hobbled to the next one without fail, climbing the steep Canonteigne path to the camp 200 feet above the car-park.

Like tracking, where there will always be set-backs, there would mental blocks, frustrations and even tears as I was pushed to the limit. The highlight of this frustration was last years’ Advanced course where I can honestly say, that I hadn’t been that pushed physically and mentally since my Physical Training Instructors Course in the Army. I was told that if I didn’t find that track and describe the story it revealed, I would be busted back another year. At the last minute, it all came together. Just!

I don’t pertain to be a great tracker, nor a great instructor but a passion for both plus a determination to go the whole way I guess is what it takes. If you are not one of the 4 people who have completed this 5 year apprenticeship, I’m sorry to offend, but I would be very dubious of your ability to teach others how to track.

Of course, it has helped to have a training and instructional background but although reasonably confident in front of students, I hadn’t formally taught for about 5 years and of course, the subject matter was hugely different to what I was used to. Enthusiasm might not be enough.

This weekend was Instructor check-out and I was responsible for the whole of the 3-day Module One course with another colleague undergoing the same process. Luckily we gelled quickly, and everything from camp set-up to dealing with students’ issues to delivery of the all important sessions went reasonably smoothly. This was despite the fact that none of the full instructors were present to guide us because of one reason or another (I still think it was a conspiracy!) Only the uncompromising presence of the boss, Ian Max Maxwell, was there to throw in the odd low-baller.

Late nights, early mornings and a few extra stand-in sessions at short notice for the Module Two session left me totally exhausted. I stumbled around the camp to smooth out the leaves at every individual bivi area. If there was any trace whatsoever of 3 mentors (who I can’t thank enough for their assistance) and 8 students, we know we would have failed despite the preceding 4 days instructional work. Waiting in the wings to find something amiss was arguably the Northern Hemisphere’s or possibly the World’s greatest tracker.

All fell silent as the students disappeared. England’s highest waterfall was the only background sound as Shadowhawk’s newest tracking instructors walked away from the woods.