French Renault together with British industrial designer Ross Lovegrove presented a new concept car Twin'Z. A promising car was shown at the Milan furniture exhibition (Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano) - according to its creators, the concept should “unite two worlds where design plays a vital role: interior and cars.”

We had to walk with our faces covered in dirt so as not to stand out in the area. Having smeared myself, I relaxed

Mealworm Snack

Surrey Survival Academy welcomes entire families

Neville Hawcock

05.04.2013, 11 (343)

It would seem that there is no boy whose heart would not start beating faster during the Bear Grylls program “ Survive at any Cost”, who would not watch with shudder and delight as the chief scout of the Scout Association, which includes 28 million people around the world, snacks on caterpillars and raw meat. But there is such a boy. This is my 12-year-old son Thomas, who loves deadly situations - but only in virtual reality, where he fights zombies without experiencing hunger, thirst or cold.

This is probably a sign of progress, but is it really a good thing? Still, the boy needs physical activity in the fresh air. The proposal to go on a hike to banish the gamer pallor from his face did not arouse much enthusiasm in him: a desk rat and a bookworm should keep his opinions to himself, he objected to me.

But I still managed to attract him to the Bear Grylls Survival Academy, where they teach the basics of survival in the wild. Last year, courses for adults opened here, taking place in the mountains of Scotland, and now whole families are accepted here.

As the weekend approached, I began to worry. The weather forecast was depressing: cold, wind and rain. My colleagues looked at me with pity. On Saturday, as the train was taking Thomas and me to Surrey , I noticed that the tops of the Downs were hidden by low clouds.

However, the lessons at the Survival Academy began quite harmlessly: in a large room, where there was nothing else except a presentation board, we were served sandwiches, chips and drinks. If this was a survival technique, then it was quite familiar to me. I chatted with the other members of the group - four adults and four children ranging from 10 to 17 years old.

I also met the instructors: Scott, John and Bruce, dressed in gray fleece suits, sturdy boots, and weather-beaten faces. Even their names sounded reliable and reassuring. As it turned out, their leader, Scott, used to be a Marine, and he also provided security for Grylls during filming, so, given that the TV presenter has all the limbs, he knew his job well.

At the end of lunch, we put our hats, gloves and spare pants in our backpacks, grabbed water bottles and knives and, listening to the squelching under our feet, headed into the cold forest. We had to walk the way Grylls does: with our faces covered in dirt so as not to stand out in the area. Having lubricated myself, I relaxed; and at first the mud was cold, and then it dried and tightened the skin on my face.

From time to time we stopped under the dripping pines and listened to instructions: how to find north, how to find out the distance traveled on a plain or on a slope. And what else you can eat - I must say, the choice in Surrey in mid-March is small. Our guides took this into account by grabbing a few mealworms to try: such snacks are Grylls' specialty. With what surprise I watched as Thomas, a very conservative eater, carefully chewed the grub.

In the evening we reached the camp where we were to spend the night. It was a piece of land that no one would notice, but it had everything you needed to survive: it was in the middle of a hillside, not too far or too close to the water, downwind and more or less level. While it was getting dark, we built a shelter for the children - with low walls made of logs and a roof made of film and spruce branches, which we laid on long poles. The walls were also covered with spruce branches. They also put the spruce branches on the ground - very cozy.

Meanwhile, our teachers lit a big fire and boiled water. When the construction was finished, we sat on the logs by the fire and drank sweet milk tea from aluminum flasks, watching the sparks fly into the night sky and listening to instructions on how to start a fire ( Thomas quickly surpassed me in the art of extracting a spark with a knife) , how to navigate by the stars, how to make and set snares, how to skin a caught hare and cook it - this information became a dubious appetizer for the main course: chicken and vegetables and bouillon cubes. Of course, it was very tasty - there is no greater pleasure than satisfying your hunger in the cold next to the fire.

The children carefully removed their muddy boots and outerwear and climbed into the sleeping bags laid out in their spruce bunker. The sleeping bags turned out to be excellent: they were cozy and warm even for the parents, who didn’t get any spruce branches at all - we just covered ourselves with foil. And although the temperature dropped to zero at night, I only felt it in the morning.

Breakfast consisted of army dry rations - self-heating packets of high-carbohydrate sausage-and-bean-flavored soup, which we washed down with sweet tea. Then the training continued. We were told how to overcome water obstacles: over a fallen tree, using a rope crossing, or simply wading.

The highlight was the trek across the lake, chest-deep in incredibly cold water. Thomas didn't mind - I couldn't stop looking at my boy. The bottom was a thick layer of silt through which we half walked and half swam all the way to the shore, where we finally loaded our wet and shocked bodies into two waiting Land Rovers, which took us to the starting point, hot tea and dry clothes.

It’s unlikely that I learned how to survive in the wild, but when I returned I felt invigorated despite my fatigue, full of information, energetic and self-confident. Thomas admitted that he didn't think the weekend would be so good - coming from him that's high praise.

A few minutes after returning, he again plunged into his virtual abyss, but did not wipe the dirt off his face. Still, all is not lost for the good old real world.

www.beargryllssurvivalacademy.com , £398 for a 24-hour survival course for two

FT, 03/22/2013, translation by Sergei Petrov

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