WITH the country brought to a standstill during lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak, many people have learnt to value our green spaces more than ever.
We need the wilderness as much as the wilderness needs us – that’s the message from bushcraft and survival expert and television star Ray Mears.
And while the author, businessman and presenter, 56, is more used to exploring the most remote corners of the earth, he is actually heading out on a UK tour in 2021.
He is bringing his new show ‘We are Nature’ to the Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe on Friday, March 19, 2021.
In this fascinating, inspirational, and educational show, Ray will be demonstrating and explaining techniques that will help us improve our senses and highlight the problems nature faces today.
He says it is time to “cease being frustrated and act now to prevent crimes against nature and the environment”.
The show will be a celebration of the importance of the wilderness.
Ray grew up in the south of England, spending much of his childhood camping out in the North Downs, where he learned to track foxes in the surrounding woods.
His ambition had been to join the Royal Marines, but that dream was shelved after he fell short on the eyesight requirements. After leaving school, Mears worked briefly in an office job in London, before founding Woodlore, The School of Wilderness Bushcraft, in 1983.
Mears has an encyclopaedic knowledge on the subject and has written a shelfful of books, including The Survival Handbook: A Practical Guide to Woodcraft and Woodlore.
He has become a well-known face on our television screens since his debut in the BBC series, Tracks, in 1994.
In a 2001 programme, Ray Mears’ Adventure Special, he took the actor Ewan McGregor into the Honduran jungle on the trail of a lost civilisation of prehistoric people.
His 2008 series, Ray Mears Goes Walkabout, saw him tour the Australian Outback.
Other shows since then include Survival With Ray Mears, Wild Britain With Ray Mears, Wilderness Walks With Ray Mears and Wild France With Ray Mears.
Tickets to Ray Mears: We Are Nature at the Wycombe Swan on March 19 at 7.30pm are on sale now.
To buy, go online to www.wycombeswan.co.uk.
Tickets are priced at £29.50, £22 for under 16s or £98 for families.
