Andrew takes you up the rivers of Norway to explore Nature at her best. Exploring in a Canadian open top canoe and pitching his hammock in the woods, he forages for wild food. He shows how to light a fire with Birch bark.

To join the canoe trip in September 2010 drop an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 The oldest recovered canoe in the world is the canoe of Pesse (the Netherlands)^. According to C14 dating analysis it was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC.This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands.

The earliest canoes were made from natural materials:

• Early canoes were wooden , often simply hollowed-out tree trunks (see dugout). This technology is still practiced in some parts of the world. Modern wooden canoes may be wood strip (also, "stripper"), wood-and-canvas, stitch-and-glue, glued plywood lapstrake, or birchbark built by dedicated artisans. Such canoes can be very functional, lightweight, and strong, and are frequently quite beautiful works of art.

• Many indigenous peoples of the Americas built canoes of tree bark, sewn with tree roots and sealed with resin. The indigenous people of the Amazon commonly used Hymenaea trees. In temperate North America, white cedar was used for the frame and bark of the Paper Birch for the exterior, with charcoal and fats mixed into the resin.

Parts

1. Bow
2. Stern
3. Hull
4. Seat (whitewater canoes may have a foam 'saddle' in place of a seat)
5. Thwart - a horizontal crossbeam near the top of the hull used to increase hull strength. Often serves the secondary purpose of providing a lashing point to secure dry bags and other gear.
6. Gunwale (pronounced gunnel) - the reinforcing strip running along the top edge of the hull to which the thwart(s) are attached, usually made of wood, aluminum, or polyester.
7. Deck (under which a flotation compartment or foam block may be located which prevent the canoe from sinking if capsized or swamped)

Optional features in modern canoes (not shown in diagram):

• Yoke - a thwart at or near the center of the boat to allow one person to carry the canoe, often molded to the shape of the shoulders. The yoke is often positioned slightly ahead of the boat's centre of gravity so the bow tips slightly up when being portaged, allowing the carrier to see where they are going.
• Keel - a structural element that runs along the bottom of the canoe's hull, from the bow to the stern, serving as the foundation or spine of its structure and, depending on its depth, providing some directional control and stability.
• Flotation bags - inflatable air bags to increase buoyancy and prevent swamping (by reducing the boat's internal volume) in whitewater
• Spraydeck - a cover to prevent water from entering the canoe
• Painter's ring - ring used to attach ropes
• Skid plate - piece of Kevlar glued to the bottom of the canoe for protection against abrasion from rocks and the like.

The portion of the hull between the waterline and the top of the gunwale is called the freeboard.