The Bushcraft Bus founders on fires, foraging and finding freedom outdoors, words by Angela Symons
Does seeing Kent’s woodlands strewn with litter make you angry? Maybe you’re looking at it all wrong.
“When you go out to Tunbridge Wells Common, for example, you’ll see a bunch of BuzzBallz, a couple of cans of cider, a half-burnt stick, a carrier bag, and you can instinctively get a bit annoyed,” says bushcraft instructor and conservationist Jim Todd.
“But if you think a little bit deeper, those are just kids who are actually trying to do something really nice… something that humans have always done. They’ve gone to the common to congregate, and they’re trying to do it around a fire, but they don’t have a clue what they’re doing.”
With a retirement home soon to open on Tunbridge Wells’ former cinema site and many local youth clubs closed under Kent County Council’s 2024 funding cuts, the outdoors is one of the few places teenagers have left after dark.
Could teaching bushcraft skills help protect our green spaces for everyone?
“A lot of people don’t learn about the woods anymore. So from a very young age, you’re already disconnected,” says fellow outdoor instructor Tom Young. “I think if you can give people some of that knowledge and awareness, they’ll naturally start caring and appreciating more about those spaces.”
After Kent’s hot, dry summer left grasses and woodlands tinder-dry, wider knowledge of fire good practice could have helped prevent some of the hundreds of blazes that broke out locally. Skills like safe fire-lighting and foraging also make time spent in the woods more enjoyable, says Jim, who grew up in Tunbridge Wells.
Eager to empower people of all ages to respect and reconnect with nature, he teamed up with Tom to launch the Bushcraft Bus: a mobile classroom for wilderness skills and nature education. I spoke to the pair by video call from their woodland camp in the Cotswolds.
Private woodland is ‘such a vibe crasher’
Some people who join their workshops have never even set foot in the woods before. Knowing where to go - or where you’re allowed to go - is the first hurdle.
“Literally, my least favourite sign is ‘Private Woodland, Keep Out’,” says Jim. “It’s such a vibe crasher.”
In Kent, where at least 85% of land is privately owned, it’s a familiar sight. Even many spaces that are preserved for the public, for example by the National Trust, charge a fee for entry. “So again, that adds another element of separation,” says Tom.
Then there’s the rigid split of the outdoors into two ‘camps’: military green, male-dominated survival school types, or the wellness crowd of sound baths and forest bathing. This is something Jim and Tom want to challenge.
“If you don‘t identify with those two groups, then maybe you feel a little bit lost,” says Jim.
I’ll admit the survivalist camp has its pull. Since living through the great Tunbridge Wells water outage of 2025 - when 24,000 homes ran dry - I’ve begun stocking my cupboards with bottled water and canned food. Learning water collection and purification is next on my list (alongside making a tinfoil hat).
But bushcraft skills aren’t just for the apocalypse-fearing among us.
Tom says he was “feeling lost” and wondering what to do with his life as a teenager before he started exploring the outdoors. It has since given him “what feels like a purpose”, giving his confidence and mental health a “massive boost”.
“The more curious you get, the more you get from it,” agrees Jim. “Now, I couldn’t imagine not going out at least once a day for a quick walk, even if it’s just 20 minutes.”
Where to get lost around Tunbridge Wells
Around Tunbridge Wells there are “nice little pockets of woodland everywhere”, says Jim - if you know where to look.
“It amazes me how many people don’t even know they’re there. We’ve got beautiful woodlands like Nap Wood and Saxonbury, and there’s never anyone in there.”
Jim hasn’t always appreciated the place he grew up in, though: “I didn’t really notice how good those areas are until I got a bit older,” he admits. “My family always took us out. But when I was younger, I begrudged it a little bit because there were more exciting things that I wanted to do, like go to Wetherspoons in Tunbridge Wells.”
Gradually, Jim says, he started looking for a different way of experiencing life. “I started taking myself off for walks on my own… it was like a relationship that started and the more you feed it, the more it builds.”
For many kids these days, screens have replaced the pub, but the result is the same: a feeling of separation from the natural world.
“But if you do get out in it, you very quickly feel this connection to it,” says Jim. “And when you add in skills that you can use outside, you just build that self-reliance confidence that you can handle yourself.”
From foraging walks to woodland cookouts, Bushcraft Bus runs affordable, family-friendly events across the south of England. It’s also available for school visits and workshops.
INFO: bushcraftbus.co.uk
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