Survival (16 page)

If setting out into the tropics, plan ahead as much as possible – we always did so in the SAS – and try to know what you might be faced with. For example, why not try and learn about the types of animals and insects that live there before you go? If you wake up in the morning with a spider walking over your stomach, it would really help to know if it was poisonous or not! I always take a basic survival kit with me if I'm going anywhere my survival might be at risk.

MY BASIC SURVIVAL KIT
(stored in a waterproof box or tin)

1. Matches

2. A flint

3. A magnifying glass

4. Needle and thread: several needles, and coarse thread

5. A compass, the luminous button type

6. A beta light: this is a light-emitting crystal the size of a small coin. It's good for map-reading at night and for fishing. Expensive, but everlasting.

7. Beef stock cubes x 2 for drinks

8. Medical kit: aspirin, water-sterilizing tablets, plasters, butterfly sutures (once, I had to stitch up a guy's leg. It had been cut very badly with a machete and we couldn't get medical assistance because the helicopter couldn't come in for two whole days, so I stitched up his leg to stop the bleeding. Eventually, the helicopter arrived and he was taken to hospital where the wound was cleaned and healed); a condom (it makes a good water-bag, holding 1 litre of water), antiseptic cream and cotton-wool

9. A mobile phone, though not in my SAS days as they weren't available then. Nowadays, though, a mobile can be a life-saver

10. A small pocket-knife

If you make a kit for yourself, let an adult check your kit and that you can handle a pocket-knife.

It's easy to panic when things go wrong, but panic wastes energy and helps nobody. Stay calm and assess the situation. Check what materials you have available – wreckage from a boat or clothing, and what is available around you – e.g.: good dry sticks for building a fire etc. Then begin working on the most important things first.

Our basic needs in any survival situation are:
WATER FOOD FIRE SHELTER

Guess how long the average human can go without food? The answer is three weeks. But you can only survive three days without water. (During the Gulf War, I was in the desert and was starting to deteriorate very quickly due to lack of water. Without water, the body just stops functioning. I started collapsing and passing out. Finally, after three days, I managed to find some water to drink in the River Euphrates, and I started to recover fairly swiftly. As soon as you give the body water again, you can start to function as normal fairly fast.) In any survival situation, finding fresh water is therefore our number one priority.

TO KEEP FLUID-LOSS DOWN TO A MINIMUM:

1. Find shade. Get out of the sun, and don't lie directly on a hot surface; place something between you and the surface.

2. Limit your movements (just rest whenever possible).

3. Eat as little as possible as food requires water for digestion.

4. Keep talking down to a minimum and breathe through your nose, not your mouth.

5. Never drink seawater.

Game trails should lead to fresh drinking water as animals also need water to drink. You can spot a game trail by the animal tracks on the ground and the way in which the undergrowth is pushed back by regular passage.

When you find fresh water, do not drink it immediately. There may still be bacteria in the water and you should first boil it to sterilize it, or use water-sterilizing tablets if you have any. A mate of mine once drank unsterilized water and puked non-stop for over forty-eight hours! And if you've got really thirsty, don't guzzle it down, take only small sips or you might just vomit it all up again.

If you've been used to a couple of good meals a day, a survival situation means you will almost certainly feel hungry pretty quickly. Although you can survive for a long time without food, we do need food in order to maintain energy in the long term and build new tissues within the body.

ON A TROPICAL ISLAND, YOUR MAIN SOURCE OF FOOD SHOULD BE FROM THE SEA.

1. Wait for low tide and then check tidal pools and wet sand. Rocks along beaches often bear clinging shellfish and molluscs. Do not eat shell fish that are not covered by water at high tide, and only eat bi-valved molluscs that have opened their shells when cooked (bi-valved means there are two parts to the shell). And be aware that mussels are poisonous in tropical zones during the summer.

2. Seaweeds can be dried and stored for several months.

3. Coconuts. Watch out for these falling and hitting you on the head! Don't drink milk from very young coconuts (green) or old (dark brown) as these give diarrhoea. And believe me, you do not want diarrhoea when you're a hundred miles from the nearest bit of toilet paper!

Within the rainforest, most fruits will grow up near the canopy.

If you scout around near the base you may find food that animals have dropped such as berries and types of fruits and, in extreme emergencies, you might have to try and climb up to get this. However, if attempting to eat any fruit or berries you find, you need to be very careful not to eat anything poisonous. Better to wait, if possible, for rescue. But if it is a real emergency and you must try eating something, take the time to check out whether or not it is OK to eat. It could save your life! First look at the food and see if it appears slimy or rotten in any way, then smell it (an almond or peachy smell is dodgy), then rub a small piece onto your skin and wait fifteen minutes to see if there is any reaction. If not, rub a piece on your lips, again wait another fifteen minutes and, if no reaction, continue in this way, gradually increasing your exposure. Touch a piece with the tip of your tongue, place a small piece within your mouth but do not swallow. Spit it out after a few minutes, and if there's no reaction, try eating a very small piece, no bigger than your little fingernail. If there is still no reaction, you are probably safe to eat it but, to be extra-sure, wait several hours before trying a larger amount. And remember – only attempt this in a real emergency as it's not foolproof as some people react differently to others. You might know someone who has a nut allergy for instance.

If you have been sweating a lot and begin to feel dizzy, sick and tired, you could be lacking salt. A pinch of salt in a pint of water is enough, but if you haven't got any salt tablets with you, dilute a little seawater in lots of fresh water and drink, or leave some seawater out in the sun so that the water evaporates and you are left with some salt crystals.

A fire can:

– keep you warm and dry

– be used for cooking

– be used to boil water to purify it

– be used as a signal (see Tip 10)

A good point to remember with fire is the fire triangle.

Without one of these elements, your fire will go out.

A shelter can protect you from the sun, wind, rain and insects. It can make you feel better too and this will help increase your will to survive.

You'll need to pick a site where there's plenty of material to build it with, and remember to make it large enough and level enough for you to lie down comfortably.

Try, too, to camp on the edge of forests so that you can see anything approaching.

Places to avoid building your shelter:

1. Hilltops exposed to the wind

2. Valley bottoms (could be damp)

3. Near tracks that look like ones that animals use regularly

4. Always look up into tree canopies for dead wood that could come crashing down when it is windy. A big branch could kill you!

5. Keep away from solitary trees that may attract lightning

One further point: a latrine. Make sure this is some distance away from your camp, downwind. It's not just hygienic; inquisitive wildlife could come and check it out!

Even the smallest scratch can cause you problems in tropical conditions. Wash thoroughly in sterilized water, then use antiseptic cream if you have it. And wash your own hands in sterilized water first if you are treating a wound on someone else – it's easy to pass on infection. Don't try and be a martyr; if you have a blister, deal with it before it becomes a problem. In the SAS, we had to cover miles sometimes with heavy bergens (packs) so, believe me, I know all about blisters!

Not all tropical islands have komodo dragons on them, but there could be wildlife, and it may not all be friendly. Be aware of noises, be careful when following a game trail, and try not to attract attention to yourself unnecessarily by shouting or moving too rapidly over terrain with which you are unfamiliar. At night, if you are part of a group, set a watch to alert everyone to any possible danger approaching.

In any tropical situation, there will almost certainly be lots of insects. There's not much you can do about it but do try and cover bare skin so that they have less access to your body and – I know it's hard – try not to scratch if you do get bitten, as this will often make a bite itch even more. If sleeping in your shelter, try and organize a way of sleeping off the ground to cut down on the amount of creatures that might treat your body as a stepping-stone. And if you've taken your boots off, shake them out before you put your foot back in there – you could find something like a centipede has decided to make a home for itself in there!

In swampy areas, sucking creatures like leeches could also attach themselves to your skin. They will drink their fill and then drop off. If you try and pull them off as soon as you see them, their heads will become detached from their bodies, remain under your skin and can start up a poisonous reaction.

Unfortunately, survival situations don't usually come with maps, but there are lots of ways you can find your way about by interpreting the signs on the ground and in the air. And if you explore a tropical island, you can make your own map as you go, marking anything you might want to find again, like a river or a good place for fuel for your fire.

As a general rule, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Even if you don't know the exact positions, just this fact alone could help you decide how to position your shelter. And if you know anything about the stars, you can use these to help navigate too.

Look up to the sky, too, and watch how the clouds change as these can give you a very good idea of what kind of weather is approaching. Tropical zones have lots of sudden storms and it can help you to survive if you can predict when bad weather could be coming. A storm is not the ideal time to be climbing trees, for instance!

To maximize your chances of rescue, build a signal-fire so that, at the first sign of any rescuers, you can draw attention to your position.

Keep green and damp wood/fuel for daytime-signalling as it produces a lot of smoke. Keep dry fuel separately for the night-time as this produces light.

If you can't light a fire for any reason, why not try arranging pieces of seaweed on the beach into a message that can be read from the sky. Or polish any piece of metal with sand so that you can flash light into the sky to attract attention. And morse code is known all over the world.

Dot, dot, dot dash, dash, dash dot, dot, dot

= s.o.s.

BE SAFE!