Bowdrill Fun_Saga Wood

Friction fire (Bowdrill) using materials from around the neighborhood...

It was a cloudy, damp and windy day. So it was a little tricky to get an ember, and making sure the smoking dust didn't blow away.Nevertheless, we did get a fire going, and had a great time just being outside, playing with sticks and grass.

 

Family hiking, seaside, fire and wild foods (October 2014)

It's been awhile since I've posted here as I have been posting through Kawanbike Penang Facebook. Now I'm looking at a backlog of blog posts in my draft folder and I thought I should start posting...


Penang island is truly blessed with many natural attractions. Regardless of where you are living within Penang, nature is just a stone's throw away. 

I've been introducing my children to the natural world since their early years and I'm glad I did. I love to see them running around, exploring, getting dirty, discovering seashells, and sampling wild edibles...  

 

As usual, gathering as we hike...  Fishtail Palms are abundant along the trails. The core is edible and the fibrous bark on the tree makes extremely good tinder for fire starting.

 

Children are natural foragers... 

They enjoy wandering in nature, collecting and gathering. They are so good and 

took no time at all gathering up these wonderful shellfish from the sea as I was 

busy building a fire.

The ultimate wild finger food...  

Foraged shellfish cooked in the embers of a fire at the beach itself. Simply natural!

 Sea Almond... 

One of my favourite wild foods. The nut is very delicious, tasting almost like almond. 

Most people don't realize it's edible, but I've had this since I was a child.

Sea Almonds are often quite easily gathered in large numbers with very minimal effort. 

They are often found littering the ground beneath the tree.

A Beautiful Merdeka Day 2014

We, ourselves and us...
Celebrating true freedom, peace and joy in harmony with nature. 

Shampoo Ginger... Wild man’s shampoo that grows along the stream banks.
A simple squeeze out of this flower gives you a natural aromatic shampoo that cleans and moisturizes the hair after a long day in the stream. 100% natural and it's free! What could possibly be better than this?

 Plenty of free snacks available too... The jungle Duku season is at its peak.

Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta)... Another useful wild plant that grows around there.

This is one of the most useful wild plant every outdoor kaki should know. Locally known as Senduduk Bulu, the medicinal value of this plant is well known to the kampung folks. The berries are edible, taste sweet and succulent, a bit like a deeply flavored blueberry. The leaves can be used for washing dishes and can be crushed and applied to cuts and wounds or rub against leech bite to stop bleeding.

 DIY Superlight Wood Stove in Hexi burning mode in action...
No picnic is complete without a hot, steamy pot of noodles. Yumee!

Hari Raya Fun 2014

A little bit of “kampung feel” hari raya fun at home...
Made some toys, cooked some nice BBQ and made a lot of noise. Popp!!!

 

"Caplong" The classic kampung's toy gun... They can play all day long with this.

 ...and we makan all night long too! Juicy Ayam Percik Fusion, finger lickin good!!

DIY Superlight Wood Stove

Ooops!... I did it again. 

For whatever reason, I just can’t get enough of stoving...

 

 Click here to see more!

Let's climb trees

Did you climb trees? I bet you did. Do you remember the fun and the fear of climbing higher and higher for bird's eye view, or swinging from branch to branch to reach for fruits and eat them straight from the tree? Climbing trees is an activity that seems synonymous with our childhood. Unfortunately, the reality is very different for today's children. Most of them have never climbed a tree.

Why does this matter?

Climbing trees not only helps children develop physical and mental well-being, it also helps children to form connections to nature... After all, who is going to be bothered looking after the planet if there's no one left with any understanding of, interest in or connection to their natural environment?

 

 Let them climb trees...

Wien & Iwen (not pictured) climbing their first tree in Pantai Kerachut.

When was the last time you climbed a tree?

Bushcraft Whistle

Once again, as if the kids are not having enough whistles to make enough noise to be heard around the neighbourhood, i made them more whistles from wild Fig tree that the kids and me harvested from the bush near our house. It's great fun to make, and they are annoyingly LOUD! The kids love them, i love them, but i doubt my neighbours feel the same way we do.

A great find on the material...

 The young Fig tree branches are hollow, soft enough to be easily cut with a knife and just hard enough to hold the plugs tightly at both ends of the whistle. 

 Well, apart from the risk of being labeled as "annoying neighbour", 

it was fun to have a little bushcraft project like this to share with the kids at home nevertheless.

 

 Sorry neighbours..... Fweeeeeeet...!!  Fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet...!!!

An unplanned holiday well spent

Naturally, Balik Pulau is the first place that comes to my mind when i try to avoid crowds during the Agong’s Birthday holiday weekend...

...and this is where we ended up. A quiet family retreat in the foothills surrounded by tropical fruit orchards. Thanks to Ah Boon, a super friendly kampung folk that brings us to his favorite childhood playground. It's the "number 1 water" according to Ah Boon. A natural outflow of ground water, the source of the "spring" water stream.

 I'm stuck in a moment of childhood...

There are so many things we can do... and we can do it all day long.

Geocaching off the path

 Thanks to Geocaching. A little piece of paradise was found when we wandered off the beaten path while hunting for a geocache. A lovely quiet little spot with "postcard" view, perfect for the kids to explore and enjoy the abundant wildlife. Watching feeding birds (swiftlets i think) skimming over the water surface was truly amazing. We even spotted our first wild Tiger Barb (fish) in the water with plenty of healthy, beautiful aquatic plants. Wow!

Off the beaten path they go... the boys are really getting the hang of it.

East...West...South... Where's the treasure?

Even though we didn't find the geocache, we found something that was no less exciting than finding a cache.

A good walk...a surprise find...a great day out for the family.

Something we've been missing...lately

It’s been a long time since we’ve been Geocaching. I don’t think we went at all last year. It's time to put the GPS device into good use. The kids are more ready than ever for their next treasure hunt adventure.



~ Little Indiana Jones at work... checking out the "loot" found hidden in a tree.




No idea what Geocaching is? Check this out!