Watatoad

BRIEF BACKGROUND

I have always been a pretty keen angler, camper, backwoodsman, hunter, outdoorsman, thoroughly enjoying the countryside both the solitude of being alone in a natural environment and the friendly camaraderie of evenings around a campfire sharing food and experiences. Ever since that very first day so very many years ago, I have been filled with a love and wonder of the natural world and all the creatures who inhabit it. From mountain to seashore, babbling brook to deep ocean, green pasture to desert. I am an English man who loves his country and all of the British Isles from green pasture to seashore, from moor to marsh, babbling brook to tidal river, from forest to mountain, from City to hamlet and all between.

Ever since the first day I was taken out into the English countryside to fish and spent a few nights under the canopy of beautiful stars while starting to explore the ways and secret habitats of fish and being shown the secrets of the many edible wild plants growing around us. For in me that day triggered a lifelong passion to learn and wonder at the Majesty of my surroundings and the creatures that inhabit it. Even today, so many years later I am always trying and ever ready to learn new or old methods, to explore new places and discover new things, find out more about the ways and habits of the wild creature on land as well as in the water.

When out angling, anyone can see that I am a great believer of river craft and or water craft skills which go hand in hand with an understanding and respect for and of nature, biodiversity, environmental issues, the weather, fish species, or whatever else you want to call it.

Equally when out in the forest on the seashore up a mountain by a lowland river or in a disused quarry or railroad track or sadly deserted industrial site I believe that observation is a wonderful and essential aid to learning and that by perhaps imitating the natural wild creatures and making my time in the wilds both more comfortable and less intrusive, walking lightly and leaving no trace of where I have passed. Looking to nature to help provide me with the sustenance I need to survive while respecting the environment I am in and being careful not to be wasteful.

I use whatever fishing or camping or backwoods technique I feel or think is appropriate at the time and the place I find myself in while considering the approaching weather and respecting the environment and the creatures in whose natural habitat I find myself in. I have fished and or hunted everything I could on land, in the air on water and underwater.

I believe very much in observation of all things in nature and life in general. I have been very fortunate to have been shown and taught many things by men and women now long past, people who also have seen and done many things. People who learned from their forefathers who inhabited a very different world than the one we inhabit today. Living as they did in a simpler, slower world, living closer to nature and understanding the importance of nature in the world surrounding them and the need to work with nature and not fight against it.

Please don't think my personal knowledge and experiences have stopped at the British coastline for I have been fortunate to have travelled extensively and have survived hurricanes, typhoons, tornado's earthquakes, a volcano's eruption, white outs, floods, civil unrest, military putsch's, civil war, d'état’s and much more.

I have no time for any who would add unnecessary rules, laws and regulations with the aim of reducing peoples rights. Just as I have no time for the hypocrites who would stop peoples freedoms or take peoples rights away while claiming to only be doing it for the good of the very people they are denying rights to, while they satisfy there personal desires, egos, their pockets and ambitions.

Nor do I accept the idea and concept of the I can't do it or the I am depressed brigade believing both to be nothing more than excuses for laziness. Depression is not found in primitive cultures who remain isolated or free from the interfering and involvement from the so called modern civilized societies with their so called gooders and greedy profiteers. Nor can I find any historic reference to it. Throw in the new British culture of people wanting to avoid any responsibility and determined to be nannied.

Respect for oneself along with respect for ones fellow man has gone right out the window, throw in respect for society and or nature and you will not find many standing up to be counted.

To walk quietly and softly touching lightly upon the places we pass and the people who enter our sphere of interests, leaving the places as they were and the people happier for knowing us.

© R Kiddy 2011.

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