Wilderness camps
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One week in nature
with kids and teenagers aged 12-18
Current wilderness camps
We are currently planning a camp in autumn 2024 and Pentecost 2025
Review
We look back on three great wilderness camps in fall 2023 and spring 2023 and 2024. Thanks to everyone who was there!
Our vision
We want to go to the forest with the kids! In spring and autumn, whatever the wind, sunshine and fog.
We camp in the open air, explore, sneak, camouflage, play forest games, learn survival skills and local herbs, cook over a fire, listen to stories and make music. We immerse ourselves in the rhythm of nature. We experience community and circle culture, but also always have time for ourselves, for retreat and being with nature.
A day at camp
A typical day might look like this: we have breakfast together and maybe get our bodies moving somehow, before there are opportunities for workshops, activities and forest explorations throughout the day. Some want to make bows and arrows, others want to make music together, delve into creative writing, cook on the fire, learn about knots and camp building, collect resin balls, paint ourselves, learn to fight, wrestle or dance, chill out, enjoy the time for ourselves.
Once a day we go into the forest together and play really cool, adventurous and large-scale forest cooperation games with camouflage, sneaking, making arrangements, sometimes speed and sometimes cunning. In the evening there is enough time to look at the stars in the sky, to make music together in the yurt with the rustic forest educators (guitar, drums, flutes, lots of singing, lots of songs from all over the world), to talk about important and unimportant topics in life, to tell stories or simply to listen to the crackling of the flames.
Some of you will then retreat to your tents, some will sleep in a tepee by the warm fire, some may have built a group camp under the stars. Like other tribes who live close to nature, the week amidst the trees, stones, plants, weather conditions and animals gives us a common focus and rhythm.
The Vision Night
This stream leads us into the vision night at the end of the week. You decide for yourself how you want to set off on "your night alone in the forest". Tents and fires are taboo, however. And you also have the option of staying with the vision keepers in the camp or returning before sunrise if the idea of being alone in the forest at night still seems too extreme for you. We end a week like this with a broad grin, dreams found, lots of time lived and anticipation of the next time when the wildness calls and we happily walk barefoot across the moss.
Participate!
Participation is open to everyone who wants to embark on a wonderful adventure in nature for a few days. Once there, we collect cell phones and other communication devices (social media detox) and experience ourselves as truly living beings.
Your teachers
Laureen (26, nature and music teacher), Julian (35, home and wilderness teacher) and many more!
Our educational principles
In connection with global future issues of sustainable development (ecology, economy and social justice), the participants in the wilderness and experiential educational experience spaces dealt in different and direct ways with issues of a forest-based living environment (ecosystems, flora and fauna, forest use and survival/survival training).
Workshops are offered in small teams in natural areas (forest, meadow, river and lake), hikes are undertaken between camp and meeting points, and keynote speeches (forest games, sense of community, communication and bushcraft/carving/working in nature) are given by associated educators and discussed on an equal footing with the young participants of the wilderness camps and weeks. Nature education is an important pillar in counteracting the effects of nature deficit syndrome, overconsumption of media and its devices, as well as issues of childhood, adolescence and puberty in a protected and regular setting.
Participants at the camps are between 12 and 18 years old. Electrical devices are not used, with the exception of the sparing use of flashlights and watches. Comfort is used very consciously and sparingly in order to create experiences that promote growth but are also beautiful and empowering. The shared activities include, first and foremost, forest games, cooking together and making fire safely, safe use of simple tools such as a pocket knife and building camps, water and wild herb knowledge, making music, learning and internalizing forms of movement, communication methods and sensory and attention exercises.
First and foremost, the shared experience of such an offer should be fun and also promote the personal and character development of the young participants in many ways and be good for them and their environment. Our participatory offer is created with the wishes and ideas of the participants and is particularly suitable for promoting responsible and independent behavior as well as solidarity, attentiveness, cooperation, reliability and respect towards other people and nature.
Furthermore, physical health is trained in a playful way, involving the entire human musculoskeletal system, from large to fine motor skills, impulses and knowledge about healthy eating and lifestyles are given, and existing individual talents are strengthened and encouraged. The shared fun and joy that our methods convey are not just an end in themselves, but have a healing effect on the participants' psyche and also guarantee a long-term and motivated integration of the experience.
Our long-term goal is to promote authentic and lively individuals who are also prepared to take responsibility for themselves and others.