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RJ ... it took me long enough didn't it?

That it did!!

Rangerboy_mkuze,

Getting back to the grasshoppers (sorry, wasn’t online last night).

Ospomatic – what does that mean? I can’t get it in a dictionary or Google here at work? I think I know what you mean, but please explain? What is the correct word please?

(Remember, this quiz is purely for learning, so rather than mentioning “warning colours”, explain what you mean by that please. Not everybody knows.)

Also, as far as the head turning, I’ve got it different than what you said. Turning it 360 degrees a couple of times is going to turn it off. I’ve got it that you only turn about 180 degrees and then gently pull it out. Actually haven’t tried that yet since I heard it recently. When I ate grasshoppers as a kid I didn’t really bothered with the innards – just toasted them on hot sun-baked manhole covers and ate away!

Getting back to the colours – bright colours should be avoided. Yellow. Red. Black. Even a bright green. And combinations of these colours.

Spotted Cat, thanks for all your work and dedication on getting that. The problem is that the guy gave a talk at the hunters' meeting, mentioned that there's three and then gave only two names, and I don't really have a way of getting to him again to get the other one. And THAT is frustrating.

So I really appreciate your hard work. Now, next time I'm out, I'll have to ask the farmer whether I can dig out one of his marula trees' roots to check how this really works, and how much water one typically gets.

great info guys!
always to learn!

I didn't think of the lense but good answer ecojunkie, unfortunatly it is not the one that I wanted.

Big to Spotted Cat for determination

ospomatic - my bad. Got the spelling wrong - aposematic - it means warning colours refering to contrasting colours like bright green on black, red on black, ect. Nice thing to remember is that if you can see it easily and the bug is not trying to hide you probally shouldn't eat it.

As far as head turning goes, you pulling gentle while turning so it comes out pretty much when its ready to, I don't think there is an exact science to it. When I was on survival we didn't actually eat many hoppers stuck to things that provided a bit of a bigger meal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aposematism

Thanks RM, that helps! What I was trying to explain.

As far as starting the fire with a torch. With the battery and very fine steel wool? Not sure if a normal torch battery has enough juice though?

I think that a torch battery will not have enough power for steel wool. maybe test it.


The search continues...

Heck Rangerboy - fascinating stuff indeed! I had no idea there was sand that could suck you in in South Africa! I'll be much more careful in future, and always carry a stick with me! Actually, I saw a British guy on TV recently demonstrate getting out of quicksand exactly as described. It was hard work, but at least it worked.

Back to lighting/starting a fire with a torch...

Lofty Wiseman's SAS Survival Handbook says:



This doesn't seem that it will work, as I'm not sure that normal torch batteries have enough power. If this is not the answer you'll have to educate us please, because I can't think of anything else.

I also remember being told that you can put tinder in the silver bowl part which holds the bulb (after dismantling the torch of course). You then angle it to catch the sun, and it should light.

We tried it, and the lens method I gave earlier - the lens method worked, the other did not!

Ecojunkie

Silver Bowl it is.

Strip the torch down and remove the bulb from the silver bowl (reflector). Roll fine grass and tinder up into a cigar shape and insert it through the hole left by the bulb. Angle the relector towards the sun. Presume this is as far as ecojunkie got. Keep moving the reflector untill you see a ring of sunlight appear around the cigar, normally towards the base. When you see the ring hold the reflector steady.

I tried the reflector method and go it to work, lense method worked as well but it will only work if you have a convex/ concave (which ever way you hold it ) lense, if you have a flat glass lense you won't be able to concentrate the light on a single posistion. Hence it becomes quite handy to know how to use the reflector.

The reflector helps as well by starting the fire all around your cigar forcing it to burn in and up the length allowing you a longer time to get the fire going, my biggest problem with the lense was getting an actual flame, most of the time it just smoldered and when I did get a flame most of the time I landed up putting it out when I placed the tinder on top . With the cigar the tinder is in the middle and can't avoid the flame .

OWN - I do not know the exact definition of Quicksand. So I am not to sure if what I was in can be defined as it but whatever I was in was by my SA standards, Quicksand. I can only describe it as so much sand floating around in water that it looked solid, it didn't even have a puddle on the surface.

WOW Rangerboy - fascinating stuff indeed! Thanks for the excellent info; keep it up!

How do you guys feel about discussing ways of catching animals for food?

It can be a sensitive subject as some people don't like it but at the end of the day we are doing this to broaden our horizons and we aren't actually going to go out and do it .

The reason I asked this is when I was teaching survival techniques to kids, one guy went home and made a spring trap....

...they had a cat (need I say more).

While we think about it. Here is an easy one.

How do you find north at night? (in the southern hemisphere)