I caught an episode of one of his series (Ray Mears World Of Survival) on UKTV G2 today and ended up watching it and the following one.

Not crap.

Not crap, but very very odd.

His must be a lonely lot. I mean, I'm sometimes appalled at modern urban life, but you imagine that after a quick walk through a modern city, Ray must be desperate toget 200 miles from the nearest human, make himself a nest out of birch twigs and chow down on some body-reheated goat droppings with lychen garnish

I dunno, he seems like a perfectly likeable fella to me.

I like the man and I wish I knew the stuff he knows.

Perfectly likeable and affable - no smear on Mr Mears from me!

All I meant was that given what he knows, and the sort of life he must have led to learn it, a lifestyle he clearly loves and cherishes, modern urban life with its novelty ringtones, celebrity Big Brother, all night McDonalds, Playstations etc must seem even more tawdry to him than it does at times to the rest of us.

I saw him walking up The Strand after what appeared to have been a shopping trip to Bond Street. He's much skinnier when he isn't foraging for batshit in subtropical climes. I imagine he chubs up prior to a series to help him cope with the reduction in calories/exposure to cold/whatever he's expecting, but I'd rather believe that he's just a greedy fucker and likes to eat his hosts out of their mudhuts.

"Please, Mr Whitey, you have skinned and spitroasted virtually all of our ferrets, we won't be able to make it through the winter!"

"Yeah, but now you're on TV - and it's not like you'd have got famous for these stinky animal hides you have the audacity to call 'clothes'. Now fuck off and find me ketchup to go with these twatters"

I love Mr Mears, not many people like him with such an enthusiasm for what he does - and it's just all practical knowledge - no bullshit from the man.
Trivia attack: He has his own brand of knife you know, that sells for shit loads on ebay..

One day I'm going to take a salt-shaker down to the beach and catch me some razor clams. I love those things.

Ray seems like an affable guy if a little obsessed - the last time I saw him on TV foraging for grub he was nibbling a little bit of compost from the Pleistocene era that had been pulled out of a lake in a silt core. Also, whenever I see him I always think of Bob Mortimer scratching his arse against a tree stump in his 'Forest Survival' sketch from Shooting Stars.

He's a proper dude. I'd like to live like that, some day I'll sell all the crap I've accumulated and move to a cabin in canada. Just gots to find me a woman to take with first I think. I'll write to Ray for a good natural tranquilizer recipe

cjh wrote:the last time I saw him on TV foraging for grub he was nibbling a little bit of compost from the Pleistocene era that had been pulled out of a lake in a silt core.

I saw that one the other week, couldn't really figure out what tasting it prooved, surely you can tell if it has sand in or not by rubbing it between your fingers Odd.