The Survival School Level 3 Indigenous Jungle Bushcraft Exped – NCFE CQ Accredited Course – Guyana

Journey into the Guyanese rainforest for an extraordinary 12-day immersive jungle bushcraft experience, developed through a collaboration between The Wild Tales Inc and Back to Wilderness, working alongside experienced Makushi instructors and jungle guides from the region.

This isn’t simply a jungle survival course. It is an opportunity to spend meaningful time in the rainforest, learning practical skills alongside people whose knowledge of this environment has been developed and passed down through generations.

Learn to make traditional bows, arrows and natural string; develop confidence and proficiency with the machete; weave using locally gathered materials; make fire using traditional methods; fish, track and explore trapping techniques; and discover how the rainforest provides materials, food and resources for those who know how to read it.

For 2027, we’re also delighted to be joined by Will Lord, internationally known for his work with prehistoric technology and ancestral skills. Will will be joining the experience as a fellow learner, bringing his own fascinating perspective on traditional technologies while exploring the living skills and knowledge of the Makushi.

The result is something genuinely unusual: traditional skills, modern bushcraft and living Indigenous knowledge coming together in one of the world’s most remarkable environments.

Location

The course takes place in the Surama region of Guyana, within the extraordinary landscape of the northern Rupununi.

After travelling from Georgetown into the interior, the journey takes us from Surama Eco Lodge by river and trail to our jungle camps, where the rainforest itself becomes the classroom.

Throughout the experience, our Makushi instructors and guides introduce participants to the materials, plants, wildlife and practical knowledge of their environment. Rather than recreating skills from the past, you’ll encounter knowledge and practices that remain part of a living Indigenous culture.

What you’ll learn

This is a highly practical course. Expect to spend far more time doing than watching.

Working alongside the Makushi team and course instructors, you’ll explore skills including:

• Safe and effective machete use
• Traditional bow, arrow and string making
• Fire lighting, including traditional friction-fire methods
• Natural materials and plant knowledge
• Traditional weaving and basketry, including jungle carrying systems
• Fishing techniques and the preparation of catches
• Traditional trapping principles and practices
• Tracking and reading animal sign
• Jungle campcraft and expedition living
• Sourcing and using rainforest materials
• Understanding local flora and fauna
• Moving safely and effectively through the jungle
• The relationship between skills, resources and the rainforest environment

There will also be opportunities to accompany our Makushi guides into the forest, including after dark, experiencing how tracking, wildlife observation and knowledge of the landscape come together in practice.

This is not about pretending to be stranded in the jungle.

It is about learning how people who understand this environment work with it.

An Accredited Learning Experience

The programme also forms the basis of the Level 3 Indigenous Jungle Bushcraft Custom Qualification, delivered through Back to Wilderness under licence from Survival School UK Ltd and accredited through NCFE Custom Qualifications.

That means the experience combines genuine expedition adventure with structured learning and the opportunity to work towards a qualification.

Participants will be challenged, but the emphasis remains on learning, practising and understanding rather than simply enduring hardship.

What to Expect

Your 12-day journey begins in Georgetown, where you’ll meet the rest of the group before travelling by airplane and 4×4  into Guyana’s interior.

From there, you’ll make your way to Surama, where the transition from travelling visitor to jungle participant begins.

After preparations at Surama Eco Lodge, we travel deeper into the rainforest to Rock Landing, our first jungle base camp.

Over the following days you’ll begin building the core skills required for living and working in this environment. You’ll make equipment, practise machete techniques, learn about useful rainforest plants, work with fire, fish, weave and begin developing your understanding of the forest around you.

But Rock Landing is only the beginning.

As the course progresses, we’ll move further into the jungle and establish an expedition camp, putting what you’ve learned into practice in a more remote setting.

Daily life becomes part of the course: maintaining camp, gathering materials, preparing food, fishing, tracking and working together as a group.

You’ll have opportunities to practise the equipment you’ve made and see how traditional skills function in the environment for which they were developed.

And throughout it all, you’ll be learning from people who know this landscape intimately.

Guyana 2027 – Joined by Will Lord

The 2027 expedition has an additional dimension.

Will Lord will join Ray Chin of Back to Wilderness, Anders and The Wild Tales Inc team, and our Makushi instructors for the journey into the rainforest.

Will’s lifelong interest in prehistoric technology and ancestral skills creates a fascinating opportunity to explore the connections — and differences — between reconstructed ancient technologies and skills that continue to exist as part of a living culture.

How does a bow designed and understood through prehistoric archaeology compare with one made from materials gathered directly from the Guyanese rainforest?

How does our understanding of fire, tools, hunting, fishing and natural materials change when we learn from people whose knowledge comes from generations of experience in that landscape?

Those are some of the conversations we hope will emerge naturally during the expedition.

Most importantly, we’re going to Guyana to learn.

Leaving the Jungle

On Day 11, we’ll begin our journey back to Surama.

After days living beneath the rainforest canopy, there’ll be time to clean up, organise equipment, enjoy a well-earned meal and reflect on everything we’ve experienced together.

The final days take us back to Georgetown before participants continue their travels or begin their journey home.

You’ll leave with considerably more than a collection of new bushcraft techniques.

You’ll have made your own equipment, lived and travelled in the rainforest, learned alongside Makushi instructors, tested yourself in an unfamiliar environment and experienced a part of Guyana that relatively few visitors ever encounter.

And perhaps most importantly, you’ll return with a very different understanding of what jungle bushcraft actually means.

Could 2027 take you to Guyana? 🌿🇬🇾

For full course information, dates and booking details, visit the Guyana Jungle Bushcraft booking page.

If you’d rather talk through the expedition first, you can arrange an online consultation with Anders or contact Ray at Back to Wilderness on +44 7833 182 180.

You can also read The Wild Tales’ Jungle Survival Skills 101 for more about the skills and experiences involved.