Fire & Water: Survival's 2 Essential

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Related question: If one were to take a survival course in North America, and get the basics down, would that person be prepared for survival in say a tropical place, like a Pacific Island, or an Asian jungle, or, would you need to learn an entire new set of survival techniques, since you would be facing different arrays of plants and animals and overall conditions?

[Trout Hound]

I think the key is to focus on fundamentals. You are not going out there to live in the bush for several months in a loincloth. You're not even getting dropped out of a chopper intentionally half-prepared like Bear Grylls (don't get me started). Your objective is to stay alive while a rescue team searches for you along the pre-planned trip route that you left with someone. In the vast majority of cases, that takes less than 72 hours. Do enough research to have adequate clothing with you, and have a basic working knowledge of the local terrain, flora and fauna, and any special considerations that could get you in a mess. Bring your own improvised shelter and fire-making supplies. Have a way to collect and purify drinking water. Bring extra food, and use common sense about eating in the wild. Don't eat red berries or purple frogs. Stay hydrated and you can go hungry for that long anyway. Is it possible that you could someday end up in a Cast Away situation spearing fish by hand and talking to a volleyball? Yes, but if you do the right prep work before your trip, the chances of that become very small.

[chuck_roxas45]

5 drops of betadine per liter and stand for an hour. Not totally effective but would do in a pinch..

[JD Spydo]

Related question: If one were to take a survival course in North America, and get the basics down, would that person be prepared for survival in say a tropical place, like a Pacific Island, or an Asian jungle, or, would you need to learn an entire new set of survival techniques, since you would be facing different arrays of plants and animals and overall conditions?

That's a good point you bring up "SEF" >> Which is why I tried to confine this thread to being about making fire without conventional means and making water safe to drink. So I won't even try to address it to any detail. But there is a guy who has a school by the name of Christopher Nyerges who writes for a lot of the survival and wilderness type publications. I"ve found a lot of his wisdom to be very sound.

Again I just want to mainly try to learn more ways of firestarting methods in demanding situations and finding other ways to make water safe to drink in a survival or disaster scenerio,. But that is a good point because every different environment brings up a completely different set of circumstances and problems to overcome.

I've been told there has been a lot of new technology with oxygen tablets for water purification that has gone to market recently. I'm hoping somebody will know more about that. And I know there are probably about 100 different ways to start a fire in dire situations as well.