An adventurer is likely to spend many days of his life in third world countries, maybe even outright warzones if he funds his adventures by working as a private security contractor, bodyguard or anything of the like. So, to survive beyond your first adventure in the third world, you have to be smart, and stack the odds in your own favor. That includes learning, learning and learning – learning as much as you can, and never stop learning. Because when it comes to useful knowledge – math not included – knowledge truly is power for an adventurer. The more you know, the likelier you are to survive. This is what we call stacking the odds in your favor.

Personally, my life has over the years adapted a rythm of working a regular gig for a year or two and make money, head out on a short- or longterm adventure, and rest up for a while, up to a few months before going at it again. It’s easy to fall into laziness for those few months – or even weeks – of rest, which will inevitably result in your body deteriorating and losing the physical edge necessary to maintain for an adventurer. The worst enemy of an adventurer is taking it easy, because often this is exactly what happens. While this goes for everybody, it’s especially important for people in the tougher paths of life because our lives rely on our physical abilities.

This is why an adventurer should never stop learning. I’m currently engaged in my resting phase for about three more months, that I’m spending with my girlfriend in Springfield, USA, before I’m returning to my home country, Sweden, to get back to working. Due to a lack of a car and license, I can’t really do much during the days. I make up for this by working out regularly, but more importantly, by taking up classes in Krav Maga (Israeli hand-to-hand combat), which is aside from its self-defense capabilities also an excellent workout routine, and parkour. Both are useful pieces of knowledge in our line of work.

When I go back to Sweden, the notion of never ending the learning cycle still holds true. I’m hoping to get a job as a miner in northern Sweden, learning how to mine for precious metals, something that will no doubt aid me in my future endeavors in the third world. I’m also planning participation in a tactical bodyguard training course with a Swedish company called DynSec on my free time off, to allow me a better chance of future work as a bodyguard. It will also help me better develop my shooting skills (which is extremely hard to do as a civilian in Sweden because of retarded/strict gun laws), and other useful techniques, which will no doubt help me out on my many exploits in the future.

If you're smart, this is you.

Tactical courses in general is something that I personally feel all adventurers should take once in a while. Even if you’re former military, after a while your skills get dull. Not only does tactical courses help develop and maintain your combative/self-defensive skills. But it also allows you to make new contacts, gain confidence and sharpen your mind, not to mention lighten your wallet.  There are many courses offered aside from simple courses in executive protection – gun handling, evasive driving, even armorer know-how. It all depends on what company you’re looking at, and what you want to learn. Whether it’s DynSec in Sweden, or Academi/Blackwater in the US, both have something individual to offer, and one does not exclude the other, as both have many different skillsets to teach you.

Similarly to never ending the learning cycle when it comes to combative skills, you should, as far as possible, never end the learning cycle when it comes to more practical skills such as in repairs, navigation, and anything else that falls under that category. Combative skills may save you when you’re being shot at, but repair skills will save you when you’re stuck in the middle of the desert, threatened by dehydration because your car broke down.

The basic idea is that you should use your time wisely. Even when you’re in a period of recuperation after an adventure, don’t let it go to waste. Spend it picking up some kind of skill, or at the very least, staying fit. Some kind of martial art is ideal because it combines physical exercise with the learning of self-defensive skills. And when you’re working, try to find a job that will allow you to develop your skills and learn a new trade, something that will give you back as much as you will give it and the employer. Stay away from the enemy – the apathy in life where you do nothing but play on the Xbox and let your belly grow.

It’s a mental thing as much as a physical one. While your body deteriorates, so does your will to do anything beyond playing World of Warcraft, in your mind. You lose ambition, and before you know it, you’re living back in your mother’s basement. For some it happens easier than for others. But we’re all seceptible to this when we do not engage in some kind of hobby, learning or simple physical activity. The danger for an adventurer is the lack of structure in his life – some like me never have a job for a longer period than a year or two, and thus have no routine in their life. Because of this, it requires a lot of self-discipline not to fall into the trap. Self-discipline, and a will to continue the circle of learning and growth.

That, to me, is one of the most important traits of any adventurer. The willingness to always continue learning.

Not every adventure yields vast dangers and giant treasures. Some of the best experiences I have had involved no fiscal rewards at all. For me it was the journey itself that was payoff. The mere fact that in a small way I was part of a larger story spanning history, connecting with people I have never met and that came before me left me with a sense of belonging. A sense that I am not merely going through life, but living it. One of my favorite personal examples of this began almost 40 years before I was born.

May 10th, 1940- Germany invades the Netherlands. The Dutch declare war against the Germans and the rest of the European Campaign is well documented in all the history books. However, 5000 miles away at the same time the tiny island of Aruba, part of the Dutch West Indies, did its part to fight the Nazi intruders. The island sent a detachment of Dutch Marines to take control of a German U-Boat supply ship docked off the southern coast. The Antilla was a brand new ship in the German’s fleet. And rather than risk a confrontation the Captain acquiesce Aruba’s request and asked if he would be allowed enough time so the crew could remove their personal items from the boat. He was granted 24 hours.

But this was a time of War. Rather than see his new ship in the hands of the enemy, the Captain heated the engine boilers until they were red hot and ordered seawater pumped into the engine compartment. The result was a massive explosion fatally crippling the ship. In eight minutes her deck slipped beneath the waves leaving only her communications tower above the surface as the sole marking of her final resting place.

Fast-forward to October of 2007. My wife and I take a family trip to Aruba. We sight-see the island and enjoy cold drinks on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. But as always I need a microventure to satisfy my soul. (A phrase I came up with to describe small day or two long adventures [micro + adventure = microventure]. Plus with kids a mircroventure is often the best you can hope for). So I sign up with the local dive agency and schedule a trip to the Antilla.

I board a 28 foot dive boot with typical accommodations; an open deck, a marine toilet, and the standard crew of young, adventure seekers living the good life on tips from generous vacationers. We steam along the coast for about 30 minutes and clip into a buoy marking the wreck. From the surface the entire ship is visible in the crystal clear Caribbean waters. At 400 feet long she lies on her port side at a depth of 55 feet, split in two, with debris scattered around. Rigging still clings to the tower strewn to the wreckage below. After a short briefing it is time to enter the water.

But unlike a reef dive or an empty modern ship sunk on purpose, entering the water on this wreck is different. The giant stride needed to clear the boats swim platform represents more than standard dive technique. It represents a step back in time. A time when the wreck was frozen and kept the exact way it was left 67 years earlier.

Beneath the surface the serenity of the scene is almost indescribable. The blue of the water is unmatched. The sun sparkles off tiny particles in the sea giving the appearance of a sunbeam in a dusty old room. Sea life is abundant and immune to the human significance of their relatively new home. The image is awe striking and impossible to take it all in at once. To me it is a time portal akin to looking at the light of stars only reaching earth now and knowing that they are long since gone. But unlike the stars, the Atilla is tangible. I touch it and can’t help but feel a connection to the men who stood on her decks decades prior.

45 short minutes later the time comes to surface. I leave the time portal and ascend back to reality. At 15 feet we make a safety stop to vent any excess gases that may lead to the bends. For three minutes I am alone with my thoughts and feel that sense of belonging, knowing that although it was a brief moment, I too was part of this ships history. And to me that was worth its weight in gold.

As for the Captain and the crew of the Antilla, they were taken into Dutch custody. Since Aruba had no prison they were transported to the neighboring island of Bonaire. The Captain found the stay, in prison, so nice that after the war he purchased the prison and turned it into a resort. Proving once again real history is better than anything Hollywood can make up.

So, I was going to originally do an article series on survival. But I realized that for various reasons, it would be easier and more time efficient to simply provide links to some blog posts that detail the various subjects of the survival aspect. Mainly it’s because of my laziness, but also because the links describe it better than I possibly could. In the end there are four subjects of survival, besides the ones already covered, that are important to humans; Food, water, shelter, and heat. So, those are the four I decided to find the best articles I could on the subject of, to help my fellow adventurers.

Now, it should be said beforehand… Like with the article series on first aid, no technique can be fully learnt by reading alone. There was a time when I thought reading about various fighting techniques would give me an edge in a fight. My first Krav Maga lesson here in Springfield taught me how wrong I was, and that I was really ”out of shape” when it came to fighting. Similarly, my first first aid course in the Army taught me that I really needed to brush up on my first aid skills. Which I did. The point is, reading about a field like first aid, close combat or survival is all fine, but if you really want to learn it, do so practically – take a course.

That said, when it comes to first aid and survival, unlike with fighting techniques, reading about it actually does give you somewhat of an edge when you need it, which is the reason why I wrote an article series on first aid, and share these links on survival techniques here, but do not write an article on hand to hand combat or self defense. (Such an article would in any case only be relegated to ‘kick him in the nuts’, ‘break her nose’, or ‘use improvised weapons when possible’.)

Now, on to the links.

1. Food

Food is the most important aspect of survival, some would say. While untrue, it is the most noticeable aspect at first sight. When you’re hungry, your brain becomes slower, your body has more trouble regaining heat or resisting illnesses, and soon, an experience taught to me during extreme exercises in the Swedish Army, it will start to ache with every step you take. Pure and simple, it’s muscle ache. Because your body does not get new nutrition, it can’t repair the muscles as easily after a workout or during the physical strains of being stuck in the wilderness.

I link you on this subject to a website suitably called Wilderness Survival. It comes complete with a whole survival guide, so you should definitely take a look around the website beyond the two pages I link you to.

Animals for food

Trapping and snaring

2. Water

Water is the most important thing when it comes to survival. The body can last up to thirty days or more without food. It can only last for a few days without water, less even than that if you’re travelling in the desert. When we were in the Army, a friend ran out of water during an extreme exercise. He refilled his canteen from a narrow river that we crossed, but didn’t purify it. While somewhat foolish, he didn’t get sick. Sometimes it’s okay to take the risk. Most of the time it isn’t. If you have puritabs that’s the best bet. Boiling the water also works, though this does not remove heavy metals or chemicals from the water, so be observant about where you take the water.

I link you to two links here. The first deals with finding water and filtering it. The second deals with finding water in the desert.

Survival skills – Water

Finding water in the desert

3. Fire

When the night comes, cold comes with it. A fire is, almost always regardless of where you are, a necessity during the nights. In the jungle, a fire keeps the predators away. In the arctic, it’s obvious that it keeps you warm. Even in the desert, the temperature drops to freezing levels during the nights, and trust me, you’ll sleep a lot better with a fire going. Most people are fortunate enough to be able to, given their own time and pace, light a fire as long as they have stick matches or a lighter, or even tinder. The problem is, what do you do when you do not have any of those three? Your best bet will always be to keep stick matches, a zippo (or even better, gas) lighter, AND lots and lots of bic disposable lighters on you at all times when you’re going out on an adventure. That way, you will never run out of some way to light a fire, and you will not have to exhaust your energy trying the methods I will now link to.

How to light a fire

4. Shelter

Protection against wind, rain, and, to a degree, cold, makes shelter an almost necessity for longer periods of survival situations. In the Army, we were told to make a survival shelter and light a fire one evening, and then we got to spend the night in them. It was cold as hell, and I literally woke up shaking from my sleep at least twenty times that night. However, it would have been even colder, and even more sleepless a night without the shelter. If you want to end up in a survival situation anywhere, for this reason, it is in a pine tree forest. There is nothing better for making shelters than pine. Firstly, because pines grow thick, which makes an excellent foundation for building a shelter. I did just that, placing myself at the foot of a pine, sticking sticks in the ground around it, and weaving cut off pine branches into the pine and the branches in the ground, creating a thick mesh that became a shelter for the night. Had I been forced to stay there longer, I would have made an almost impenetrable (by sunlight and rain) shelter to stay in.

The second reason is because pine, when put on the ground, is an excellent isolate to keep the ground cold away. Not only is it that, but it’s really soft to sleep on additionally. Placing a thick carpet of pine branches under you when you sleep will likely save your life, and your night’s sleep.

Remember, however. When it comes to shelters, the simplest one is usually the best, simply because in a survival situation you want to save energy, and not waste it needlessly by building a villa for yourself to survive in. A mesh hut created under a pine tree is excellent – easy to make, does the job, and does not take long at all. Because of this I am somewhat reluctant to link to a site for this, but in the end, it is better to know other types of shelter as well, since not all places have pine trees to hide under. Remember, however, the golden rule of survival; Keep it simple.

Types of shelter

5. Navigation

Not really part of the bare necessities, but survival is important, because there are times when you simply won’t get rescued. In times like that you have to make your own fortune. You have to find your own way back to civilization. There are many ways to navigate. Magnetizing a needle. Going after your wristwatch. Navigating via the stars. Moss usually grows on the north side of a tree, where it’s shadowy and murky. Something as basic as being able to read maps can save your ass if you’re lucky enough to have brought one. A GPS is worth gold in some cases, yet useless in others. It won’t do you any good unless you have a radio and can transmit the coordinates to someone that can come and pick you up. In other words, keep it simple, again. When it comes to navigation, technical doesn’t mean ”useful”.

Navigation for survival

6. Signalling

Like the above, not one of the bare necessities, but something that should be remembered nonetheless. When you make a survival camp for yourself, the order of priority is; Food, water, shelter, fire (with a heat shield directing the heat to your shelter), and, a signalling torch. I’m not talking about a small torch now. I’m talking about a bonfire. Tie three wooden logs together in one end to form a sort of teepee shaped foundation, which you fill with flammable material that will provide A LOT of smoke. In the bottom, you put the easily burning stuff such as birch and dry grass. Then, you fill up to the top with a mix of easily burning wood and something that will produce lots of smoke. When you hear an airplane, for example, light the bonfire. That will produce smoke, that will serve as a signal for the pilot that someone down on the ground need help. This might save your life one day.

I also link you to Wilderness Survival once more, which has a good article on other methods of signalling.

Signalling

Conclusion

These are the most basic things that you should learn if you want to survive in a situation where you are lost. An adventurer is far more likely than any other person to end up in such a situation, and so it’s foolish not to take any chance you can get to learn how to survive it. Personally I live after the belief that even after undergoing SERE A, I know nothing of survival. It’s better that way. If you always strive to learn more, you will find when you need the knowledge, that you know a lot more than you have to to survive. And that’s when you survive. Always strive to learn more. If there was any creed that all adventurers should heed, then in my opinion, that would be it.

That’s all for today. Thanks for reading!

//Henrik