Backyard Bushcraft - Walking With Ants

You don’t need a special place or setting to practice bushcraft. All you need to do is enter your own backyard. There are numerous creatures and plants in your own backyard that can teach you some of the true secrets of nature. You need only take the time to learn the lessons of survival that nature provides for us. When you take the time to study the creatures of nature, you will begin to understand just how amazing they are and realize that nature will show you the way to survive.

Although ants are one of nature’s smallest creatures, they can also teach us some of the most valuable lessons about how to survive. There’s a simple way to discover these secrets and all you have to do is learn how to walk with the ants.  

Ants have a definite way of getting your attention, especially if you get in their way. Put your foot on or next to the wrong place and you will get a serious amount of attention from ants. In no time at all, these small creatures will get you to move that big foot of yours that has become a threat to their survival. Perhaps you’ve already learned this lesson about group survival and the strength in numbers. This can quite often be a painful lesson but its nature’s way of teaching us. Most of the lessons nature teaches us can be a rather shocking experience if you aren't paying attention to what nature is trying to tell you.

Learning to walk with the ants can teach us an even more valuable lesson. Ant trails are normally quite small but you can easily walk alongside them without much trouble. Now try to stop them as they move along this path towards their destination. Place a rock, a pebble, a leaf, a stick or any other object in their path and you will discover an amazing secret of nature. Despite the fact that this huge obstacle (to the ants anyway) is in their way, the ants will find a way past that object and continue on their journey with a fierce determination to get where they are going. They quite simply will refuse to be swayed from their goal. They will go over, under or around objects placed in their path. And if that doesn’t work, they will gather together as a unit and simply move it  completely out of their way.

Ants realize what is necessary in order to survive. It's a simple lesson taught by nature.


You never quit and you always seek to reach your goal...regardless of the obstacles in your path.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker