Ray Mears' Bushcraft

As far as Mears is concerned the birch bark canoe is the best vessel man has ever created. He has always wanted to construct one and in this programme he works with Algonquin canoe maker Pinock Smith, one of the few people left who know how to craft them using traditional methods.

In Mears' view, the canoe is the most natural way to travel and to get close to wild places. To demonstrate this, he paddles down the Missinaibi River, a river as unspoilt today as it was three hundred years ago when it was the essential route for the fur trade canoes.

Mears takes a journey into America's past as he travels in the footsteps of Jim Bridger, one of the mountain men who opened up the route to the Pacific Coast of America. Ray makes a bull boat using willow and buffalo skin and spends time with the Shoshone.

One country where the ancient skills of bushcraft are alive and well and in daily use is Sweden. Mears sees how pine tar is made and used on traditional skis before spending time with the Sami people in the north where he takes a dog sled journey into the snowy wastes.

Mears shows the viewer how bushcraft brings a new perspective on the countryside and its changing seasons. He points out the foods and plants that are available, from pig nuts to lime leaves. He observes wild badgers and deer and explains his interest in sleeping outdoors whenever he can.