Phase 01 — First days: water, fire, shelter / About year 1
01.01
Base camp site
chosen near fresh water, above the flood line, out of the wind
AWhat it needs
No other product. It is made from raw materials alone.
BWhy
Everything else is built here. A bad site floods, freezes or makes people sick. Choose once, with everyone agreeing, before the light goes.
CYou need
- Daylight
- People walking in parties of at least three, never alone
DSteps
- Split into three parties. Each walks a different way for the time the sun takes to move two hand-widths across the sky (about two hours), then turns back.
- Look for fresh running water first. Follow it upstream a few hundred paces to be sure nothing dead lies in it.
- Find the flood line. Dead grass and twigs caught in the bushes show how high the stream has risen. On the shore, the line of dried seaweed shows the highest tide. The camp goes well above both.
- Choose level, firm ground that drains: slightly raised, not a hollow, never a dry stream bed.
- Look up. No dead branches and no leaning dead trees over the sleeping place.
- Feel the wind. Put a hill, a rock face or thick trees between the camp and the wind off the sea.
- Check that firewood, straight poles and large leaves are within a short walk.
- Stay off animal trails and away from standing water, where biting insects breed.
- Meet, compare what each party found, and agree on one place.
- Mark out the camp before anyone settles: fire in the middle; sleeping places where the smoke does not blow; drinking water taken upstream; washing downstream; latrine downhill, at least sixty paces from the water and from the camp.
EIt worked if
- After the first heavy rain no water runs through the camp or pools in it.
- Smoke drifts away from the sleeping places most of the time.
- Water can be fetched and carried back in a few minutes.
FWhat goes wrong
- Too close to the water. Cold damp air, insects and flood risk. Move up the slope.
- The camp is chosen by the first tired person who sits down. Hold to the rule: nobody settles until all three parties are back.
- A party does not return. Agree a turn-back time and a loud call before anyone leaves.
GIn the story
Adam will not let anyone sit down. Omar finds the stream and walks up it until he is sure of it. Tane reads the shore and shows them the seaweed line. They choose a shelf of ground above a bend in the stream, a few minutes from the beach, with a hill at its back.
