Now because I live near the sea I have taken this golden oppertunity to see how hard it is to survive in costal regions<br>and came up with a couple of questions <br><br>Apart from regular oiling do I need to do have any other routines to conserve the quality of my knives in consideration with the salty air and water? <br><br>What can I eat? My survival books didn’t tell me a lot, apart it must look healthy, the shell animals must hard to pull of the rock or else its ill, and got hardly any info on eating sea weed. How can I positively ID edible shell animals and sea weed.<br><br>There are no trees near the beach to tie my basha onto. Now I got a great basha kit wich turned a few heads (an (ex)-para taught me how to make it when he was a cadet instructor) but its incomplete. The only thing I still need is retractable tent “sticks” to about 60cm in height for it to be a “stand-alone-basha”. I don’t really want to make my dad’s tentkit incomplete by nicking his tent sticks. So any one got some info where/what/who sells/swaps them?<br><br>BTW my thoughts in the end were not so hard at all, plenty of fresh water, bushes for shelter, lots of edible things and makes good navigational points. <br><br><br>reinhardt

Reinhardt: I don't have anything to say about your original question, but I'd really like to hear more about your "great basha kit"!<br><br>Bear

Reinhardt, Just keep an eye on your knives and sheaths for trouble. In maritime climes I use beeswax on carbon knives and leather sheaths. If you prepare food with one petroleum products do little to enhance palatability. There are some poisonous shellfish and some are poisonous during different seasons. You need a definitive regional guide. Food folklore, while a good guide, is often based on cultural considerations ( example, during a judaism course the Rabbi quizzed why swine and shellfish were not kosher. There were all manner of practical and reasoned answers. I wrote " yahweh said NO". OY! the goy guy is right. Do I get to blow the shofar? NO!) Most seaweeds are nutritous. I only know a few California varieties. Perhaps a websearch of seaweed and Japanese cuisine will give further information. Is there any driftwood on the beach? Here is your chance to improvise some basha stakes. It also makes wonderfull fires, the salts and minerals producing wonderfull colours at night.

Dchinell,<br><br>Ok well hear it is then. First of all I can’t remember the dimensions nor the name of the knots but you can work them out for your own needs.<br><br>6 tent elastics<br>6 tent pegs<br>long length of para cord<br><br>What you do is get your self 8 lengths (must be same length for each one) of paracord. On 4 of these lengths tie on one end a loop. On the other end tie the tent elastic. With the other 4 lengths of para cord tie it to the tent pegs and on the tent elastics too. These are for the corners of the basha. Put the loop of the cord through the basha eye lid and then through the loop the tent peg with the para cord. That is how you attach it.<br><br>Now on the width of the basha you do exactly the same but make the para cord longer make the para cord longer.<br><br>Hope this explains clearly enough<br><br>reinhardt <br><br>(PS if you are reading this Mike Jarmain please add extra info e.g. names and lengths)<br><br> <br>

I'm just interested, where in UK did you live before you moved to Portugal. Also where do you live in Portugal? I don't really know Portugal so no specific names - North, South, West?<br>Cheers.

Thanks! Clear enough for me.

ditchfield,<br>In the UK I lived in West Wales for three years and in Herefordshire one year.<br><br>I live 100 K's above the Algarve on the West coast.<br><br>reinhardt<br>