One of the most overlooked preparations when getting ready for an RV trip is learning new survival skills. You must be prepared for the possibility of your RV breaking down in a remote area where civilization is far away, and this means learning basic yet effective survival skills to pull you through until help arrives.
Here are the top three survival skills to learn before you embark on your next RV trip:
How To Build A Fire
Knowing how to build a fire is one of the most essential survival skills to know. This is because fire is the only thing that can provide you with light, warmth, and a means to cook food or boil water simultaneously. The very act of building a fire will be a huge morale booster in a life-or-death survival situation.
According to Outdoorsy.com, there are many different ways to start a fire in a survival situation as well: you can simply get one going using traditional fire starting devices such as a lighter, matches, or magnesium flint striker; you can rub a battery against steel wool; you can use chap stick or hand sanitizer as kindling as both are flammable; or you can build a fire bow drill.
How To Signal For Help
Another critically important survival skill to know is not how to walk back to help, but how to bring help to you. This is where learning basic signaling techniques can save your life.
There are a variety of techniques you can use for signaling for help: polish the bottom of a soda or beer can and then aim it towards the sun to reflect the sunlight, burn green boroughs to create a strong smoke signal, aim a mirror towards the sun to also reflect the light, or actually spell out ‘SOS’ or ‘HELP’ using sticks and rocks in a clearing.
How To Purify Water
You can only survive for three days without water, and you’ll feel the negative effects of dehydration after going just one day without it. Therefore, knowing how to purify water you collect to make it safe to drink is critical.
Easily the safest way to purify water is to boil it. Boil the water in a clean metal container for a minimum of fifteen minutes and then allow it to cool before drinking. If there are any visible substances such as dirt in the water as well, you will need to remove those substances by filtering your water.
You can make your own DIY water filter by taking a bottle, puncturing holes in the bottom, and then making layers of sand, pebbles, leaves, and charcoal, with each layer being a minimum of an inch deep.
Learning New Survival Skills
While there are many more survival skills out there for you to learn, these three will be the most critically important for you know for your next camping trip should anything go wrong.