Testimonials for Wilderness Survival Skills and Joe O'Leary

The guys at Wilderness Survival Skills are great, and we always love having them at our River Cottage events. Spending time with them is a fantastic way to learn new outdoor skills and discover more about the living environment around you. You'll be having such a good time you'll barely notice. They are brilliant with children as well as adults - my son Oscar had his 10th birthday party in the woods with his friends, doing bushcraft led by Joe and Glenn, and it was a huge hit - "one of the best days ever" he said. We joined them for a good part of the day and had a pretty fine time ourselves!

"Get to grips with meat" - Mat Follas, 2009 Masterchef winner and restaurateur (The Wild Garlic, Beaminster) recommends our Deer in a Day course in a spring issue of Olive Magazine.
Mat Follas calls tutor Joe O'Leary the UK's unsung wild-food hero.

His course is brilliant. It's all out in the woods. You each get to skin a whole deer then cut it into easy-to-cook joints, as well as prepping venison jerky and burgers to take home

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Thanks again to you, Glenn & Antony for an excellent course and you all deserve a huge pat on the back. Even for someone who's been around the bushcraft block a fair bit before, it was a thoroughly worthwhile experience. Those six days learning and living in the woods are something I'll always treasure; somewhere to retreat to in my head when real life is being a bugger. I've therefore only got two gripes with the course; it wasn't long enough and I'll never get to do it again.

Hi Joe, just wanted to let you know that I had an excellent time on the bushcraft weekend (4-5th April).
I was very impressed with the whole relaxed, nothing is too much trouble attitude from yourself and your fellow instructors Kev & Glen, which made the whole thing very enjoyable and appear as if it was One - to - one instruction.
I really want to visit on another trip so I will keep an eye on your web site for forthcoming trips.

We really enjoyed our few days and wanted to say thank you for your hospitality and patience with everybody!

Hi Joe, We haven't edited the film yet, but the footage looks great. Thank you very much the course was very helpful, the woodlands were amazing, Antony was really helpful. We're currently planning the island, we'll be going there in a couple of weeks. We will let you know how it goes.

I'd like to take a moment (probably a few by the time I've finished) thank you formally for the amazing course.
Why was it so amazing? well... firstly your friendly banter creates a relaxed, light hearted and enjoyable atmosphere. Also the food was GREAT! I have done a few bushcraft courses with various companies and if I were to compare the quality (and quantity) of food on a scale of ten you would score 10 and the closest would be around 6!
I eat a lot of venison and what you cooked in the pit was fantastic, possibly some of the nicest venison (certainly the nicest Roe) I have had. It is nice to see that you are far from stingy with the serving size. I felt very well fed!
What also adds to your course is that if a relevant topic pops into conversation that would normally be featured in another of your courses you are keen to expand and describe the technique or concept where as others will withhold the information saying it is covered on another course. This adds to the learning experience and I feel adds value to an already good value for money course. An admirable quality.
You also unknowingly fulfilled one of my ambitions by having a flint butchering tool handy. I really wanted to butcher a deer with a flint tool, now that I have, my life is a little bit closer to being fulfilled (yes sorry, I am a simple lad) and unexpected bonus. All I need to do now is to make my own bow, arrows and buckskin suit and harvest a deer using my creations.
You have impressed me greatly with your knowledge and also how you run your courses. If the dates are suitable and finances allow I will most certainly look to attend further courses with you.

Dear Joe, Glenn and Anthony,
I just wanted to say a BIG thank you for a fantastic time during last weekend's Wild Food Forage (Fri 8th to Sun 10th May).
We had a really really great weekend and thoroughly enjoyed everything we did. On looking through the photo's we took, we packed so much into the two days that it's impossible to say which was our favourite part. The knife skills and foraging knowledge were really valuable and we were pleasantly surprised to have remembered a lot more of the plant knowledge you gave us than we'd expected to. We also really enjoyed the food preparation & cooking and certainly didn't go hungry!!!!!
All course tutors were really nice and we found all to be very knowledgeable, friendly and interactive. We thought pace of the whole weekend was spot on and whilst all the people attending the course were encouraged to take part, no one felt they had to do anything they did not want to which was great.
We have recommended Wilderness Survival to lots of people already and will definitely look to come on another course as soon as we can.

Hi Joe,
I just wanted to say a huge thanks to yourself and Glenn, who made the whole experience fantastic, the team have not stopped talking about it since, you were both friendly and approachable, and a bloody good laugh too !!
Thanks again to you both.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you, Guy and Scotty. Firstly from me, thanks for making it run smoothly and for dealing with the group in such a relaxed professional way. Secondly on behalf of Dan who said it was exactly what he wanted and it ticked all the boxes. Thirdly from all the other guys some of who might not have found themselves in that situation otherwise, some who I think may have a new hobby now and from all of us for making a weekend such an enjoyable and worthwhile experience and one I am sure will be remembered for a very long time.
You and your team did a fantastic job, all our guys came up to me before leaving and said they had a great time and that they learnt loads. They said it in that very pleasantly surprised way!!! So, job done well done you guys!
Again many thanks and hope we can come and learn more form your team in the future.
All the best with the rest of the season.

Hi Joe
Thanks so much for the photo, it's great! We all had a fantastic day on Saturday, definitely a 70th birthday to remember. Thanks to both you and Matt for all your help and enthusiasm.