Male

I run Five Senses Orkney Tours and Survival Skills courses - something very special, with my wife Rachel. We live in Stromness in the Orkney Islands, off the northern tip of Scotland, surrounded by the remains of a Stone Age village and standing stones - the World Heritage Sites Skara Brae, Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe, plus many lesser known sites I use.

I teach "Five Senses Eco-Survival". That means how to live happily, with your family and friends, making the world a better place, safer and free of the polutions and stresses of modern life. We are inspired by the ways people lived here, 5,000 years ago, coping with strong winds, rain and a lack of trees or obvious shelter. Yet, what at first seems a wild and tough place to live - by our pampered western ways - soon becomes rich, beautiful and life giving, when seen through pre-industrial smart thinking!

On a practical level, one of the main skills we teach is survival fire making, without any modern technology. Making fire by friction is difficult for people accustomed to matches and electronic switches - but try it without even a knife, in the treeless, wet and windswept islands of Northern Scotland! Now, if you can do it here, you can do it most places - and that makes a big difference, to you!

These are not macho, survival courses by an ex army guy. There is no camouflage or the usual male-bonding. No beer or sexist stories. I prefer to connect with the planet, so much so I teach people to walk barefoot, to connect themselves with the earth, literally. This can be on a wild heather moorland or whilst beachcombing. The point is, it is breaking the rules, fun, opens your senses and starts a new way of thinking.

I may also be teaching the art of navigation, whether by the sun, stars or map and compass - it is all about Five Senses awareness! This is the secret not only to outdoor survival but to contentment, happiness, self actualisation and the survival of our ecosystems, humanity as we want it to be.

Practical lessons can be about shelter building, wild foods, prehistoric tools or "what to do if" scenarios and emergency action. We also look at lifstyle, making your own soaps, spinning wools, natural cleaning products, recycling and improvisation - the sort of stuff you may well need to relearn, and quickly. Who knows when the power supply will be cut off or when the banks will crash. We teach the necessary mental skills needed to actually cope with the unknown future, and in so doing give confidence, independence and a sense of fun that makes today a wonderful holiday, whatever you may be doing.

You see, for it to really work, it has to be fun! It has to be relevent to today and tomorrow. Five Senses makes life fun - that is why we also offer tours of the sites and nature of Orkney, for people seeking a well needed holiday / vacation, fresh air and solitude. The way we live life ignores advertising and the pressures of a consumerist society - instead we just get on having fun, and so the tours explore local coastlines abundent with seals, birds and history. We visit local craftsmen like potters and silversmiths, we sample the best foods, like homecooked soups, cheeses and salmon, maybe some single malt whisky or beer - all locally produced on the Orkney Islands. We use all our senses to find the best possible experiences for our guests. We pay attention to detail, to the little things that make a big difference. We care!

We hope you do too and I hope to see some of you hear, for a life changing experience!