Homelessless Morning 2

Before going into the wilderness we went to a public toilet one last time to relieve ourselves and wash. It was nice to have clean hands, it would be the last time they would be washed in the next twenty four hours. Having left our fire escape we set off foraging and searching for shelter. The objective of this day was to live off of the wilderness in order to see whether it was possible to live in Oxford without people or business' help.

Gerald brought two survival books with him. One was a small book on the wild flora and mushrooms we could eat, the other was a survival guide. We spent most of our morning familiarising ourselves with every berry, fruit and leave we came across. I remember spending five or ten minutes trying to identify a small black round berry. We decided we couldn't eat it and should move on, then noticed there was a crab apple tree immediately above us. We ate the crab apple and it was bitter, but offered some nutrition. We spent the entire day foraging and searching for shelter, taking a total of seven hours before we eventually found a place to sleep.

We started off in a wood near the Botley Health Centre . Here we found blackberries, hawthorne, elderberries and a crayfish which we didn't manage to catch. We put everything we did manage to catch into a plastic bag and carried them with us for the rest of the day. Near the river there was a large tree. To climb it we took a leap of faith by jumping into the river and catching the branch before we fell in, then climbing along the branch and back down. The tree was a fun thing to climb that I had done before and enjoyed doing again (although it was a long way down once we were up). Gerald particularly impressed me when he jumped and climbed it because it turned out that he was scared of heights, and struggled with it. Climbing the tree in retrospect was probably a bad idea because we cut ourselves on the bark, particularly along Ger' arm.

We passed through a park along the Osney mead business park. here we had our first quiet time (where I was able to read and pray a bit). because we were both exhausted from our late disturbed night we had a sit down and chat, but fell asleep in this park for an hour. After a rest we carried on searching for a place to sleep and bumped into some friends from my church back in Stanford. They told us there was an apple tree near Botley. We followed there advice, but found nothing there. On the way, however, we found runner beans growing out from a garden onto a public footpath and a different apple tree in a public place. We took four small apples and some runner beans, and put them into our bag.

the things we ate: runner beans, cooking apples, crab apples, eating apples, blackberries, Hawthorne berries/ leaf, dead nettles, stinging nettles, the outside of Yew berries (do not eat) and elderberries

We carried on walking up along a footpath towards harcourt Hill (where we took three cooking apples growing out of a garden onto a footpath). On the way up the Harcourt Hill we found the Raleigh Nature Reserve. In that reserve there were lots of blackberries. It was 4pm by this time, and we needed a sleeping spot before dark (8pm). We saw a large Hawthorne tree and decided to sleep underneath it. We cleared a patch of ground about 7" across from debris and built our shelter on top of it against the tree. It took about three hours to make the shelter, including breaks. We leaned large sticks up against a tree with smaller sticks woven or laid on top of them. When we had created a firm foundation we laid grass on top from the ground opposite,  as well as on the floor we slept on. the grass would keep us comfortable at night, warm, and stop as much rain getting through.

At about seven we made a fire and cooked what we had foraged inside some tin foil with a little bit of water. The apples, blackberries, runner beans and elderberries were lovely; whereas the nettles and hawthorn were tasteless or nasty. We ate inside our shelter using chopsticks which Gerald fashioned from twigs. After the first course we relit them embers on the fire and cooked a second course of apples, blackberries, elderberries and water (which was much nicer). We laid in our shelter laughing at how peculiar it was that we were eating these things in the middle of nowhere. At this point I became increasingly aware of the provision we have in nature, and still more appreciative of my usually evening meals.

After the meal we played with an old deck of cards I had brought for an hour until it got dark, and we were unable to play. It was strange settling down to sleep at 8pm when we were used to staying up late with the unnatural lights in our home. Being homeless there was far less to do at night, and so we settled down. The night was a lot colder than the day before and Gerald became very itchy. When we were picking grass for our shelter something was biting us, and Gerald  got bitten the worse. On the last day we counted thirty five bites on him, and three or so on me. Despite the cold I managed to sleep from 8pm-8am with only a few disturbances in the night; we were thankful that there was no rain. In the evening we could hear both animals and cars going by. When we woke up at eight we heard birds singing and saw a rabbit hopping through the grass in front of us. We have a beautiful world, and it was nice to be a part of it here. In the morning we had an eating apple for breakfast and then headed out into town to start. Town will take thirty minutes to reach from our shelter, and I remember spending the whole walk feeling strangely scared about begging.

Update:

Since starting this blog I became a Counsellor. You can read more on blog on subjects like Therapy at:

 www.simonslistening.co.uk