Rainforests (part one): How to survive

 Next Friday we are taking a trip to the Living Rainforest, so today was our training day.

After completing some column subtraction and work with doubles (you need maths skills everywhere, even in the rainforest, much to Ferdy's dismay) we packed our bags with vital equipment.

In case anyone was wondering, a net bomb is a bomb that can be thrown at a bad snake and it will trap it in a net:

Then, with Mowgli (the quintessential jungle survivor)'s wise words as our soundtrack, we set off for our rainforest training ground.

Essential preparatory activities included: spotting caimans and piranhas and therefore not swimming in the water; tunnelling; climbing; crossing some very wobbly rope bridges and navigation through a maze.

We also realised that it would be important to try our feet out on different surfaces, as we may end up in the rainforest without any shoes (no one included shoes or clothes in their survival kits), so the barefoot walk was a very good test for this. Ferdy and Gil concluded at this stage that Mum was not ready for the rainforest and would need to do some more barefoot walking practice before next Friday.

Later on, Ferdy wrote his ten steps for survival in the rainforest.

1. Keep away from piranhas and caimans.

2. Have someone else with you.

3. Have food and water with you.

4. Have some courage.

5. Make a hut out of sticks.

6. Make friends with the animals.

7. Keep a compass with you.

8. Identify the animals.

9. Don't be poisoned.

10. Stay fit because a predator might chase you so you need to be fit.