I Watched Ray Mear's excellent BBC documentary last night.

He does bushcraft survival etc and last night he built a birch bark canoe outdoors in Canada with an expert native craftsman.

The canoes are made from bent up bark for the hull, thin bent spars of wood shaped with hot water to let them bend, and tied to the bark with strong twiny roots, and some gunge for sealing made from wood resin and animal fat...and that's it....

Mears reckons this is the ultimate in human technology - to make something so functional from such basic ingredients.....and I don't think I could disagree with him.

Truly beautiful.

Dave L





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