Youngsters get bug-filled pancake size taste for adventure

THE thought of sleeping outside under canvas, creating makeshift shelters from whatever is close to hand and cooking on an open fire with friends is enough to lure even the most sedentary youngsters away from TV and computer screens.

Add to that the chance to make fresh bug-filled pancakes, and then dare each other to eat them round the campfire, and any child with a taste for adventure will find it impossible to resist.

Thanks to an innovative North Yorkshire-based company, children from as young as five are now able to enjoy developing outdoor survival and bushcraft skills, but in the safe and familiar environment of their own school grounds.

Compass Adventure is the brainchild of former Army infantry officer and outdoor survival expert Sinan Osman, an intrepid father-of three whose own adventurous exploits threaten to make those of TV action man Bear Grylls and bushcraft expert Ray Mears look tame.

Compass Adventure is the brainchild of intrepid father-of-three Sinan Osman

As well as canoeing in freezing Arctic waters, trekking through the Belizian Jungle and back-packing in the wilds of Canadian grizzly bear country, Sinan, 47, has completed six marathons in six days across the Sahara, in temperatures of up to 47 degrees, in an event known as the toughest race on earth, the Marathon des Sables.

Two years ago, he completed the world renowned brutal Ironman triathlon challenge - a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run.

Together with his wife, Dawn, a teacher, Sinan has also conquered previously unclimbed mountains in Kyrgystan and the Alps, and used to lead groups on adventurous treks in Nepal, Morocco and Turkey, as well as in Wales and the Lake District. So you do get the sense that he knows what he's talking about.

Family life may have inevitably curtailed many of the more extremely challenging activities that Sinan and Dawn used to enjoy, but the couple have always been determined to instil a spirit of adventure in their own children. And that is what, ultimately, sparked the idea for Compass Adventure.

The couple's son and daughters - Toby, 14, Layla, 11 and Fern, seven - now take challenging escapades, such as climbing England's highest mountain Scafell Pike, then camping out overnight at the top, in their stride.

SINAN argues that it is vital to encourage a love of the outdoors, and all the challenges that brings, from as young an age as possible: "For many of the younger children we deal with, this is their first taste of adventure. I used to take teenagers and young adults on testing treks all over the world, and it was interesting to discover where their desire for challenge began. It has to start somewhere."

Because Compass Adventure set up camp in a school's own grounds or playing fields, children are in a familiar environment: "For those who haven't been on a residential trip before, this gives them a first taste and parents feel reassured, knowing exactly where they are."

It's much cheaper than the average school trip, one of the factors which is no doubt attracting so many primary schools to sign up.

Sinan, the son of a UN statistician, set up the company, initially parttime, in 2012, and ran 15 camps each year in his first two years. This year, he already has 30 camps booked, and many of these are schools signing up for the third consecutive year.

Two trained Compass Adventure instructors, overseen by a camp director, run a camp of around 30 children which, so far this year, are taking place from Surrey and Newcastle to Cheshire and Norfolk.

"They are extremely popular, we just seem to have hit a chord. Every school can do it, " says Sinan, whose can-do spirit is infectious. Due to his father's job, his family moved 27 times before Sinan was 18, which gave him his taste for adventure.

Having been a military cadet while a boarder at Buckingham's Stowe School, which instilled in him a love of sport and physical challenge, he joined the Army, serving as a lieutenant with the Gloucester regiment.

It was during this period that he experienced what was to be themost challenging, and terrifying, experience of his life when he and seven others were dropped from seaplanes into the Arctic wilds of the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada with four canoes and given three weeks to make their way to the Arctic Ocean.

"This was scary stuff. There were grizzly bears, the works, " says Sinan.

On the first day one of their canoes was shattered as they travelled along perilous rapids: "It was smashed in half. We capsized in Arctic water, were suffering from hypothermia and had to chop down trees to build a bridge."

Now they only had three canoes for eight people: "It was a logistical nightmare. We weren't even competent canoeists. But we took on the challenge, and we survived. You have to put your head down and find a way out. You learn from it, that is the important thing, " he says.

It's the sort of experience which has made him well equipped to devise survival exercises for children.

One of the scenarios youngsters learn to deal with on a Compass Adventure camp involves a fictional bus crash in the middle of nowhere, where the driver has broken his leg.

"They pick up basic first aid and rescue skills. They have to improvise and make a stretcher and a shelter from what they have, including bungee ropes and an Army poncho."

AND they learn how to light a fire using friction and bits of steel, before baking their own bread in a cooking pot over the flames: "Theymake a spark and then use cotton wool to get it going, " says Sinan. "In another scenario they have to construct a bridge strong enough to carry their weight."

Leaving the Army in 1993 after beingmade redundant left Sinan initially feeling at a loss about what to do next. But, like a true survivor, he bounced back and went on to lead groups on treks abroad with the World Challenge educational expedition company.

He became UK operations director for the company, establishing a UK outdoor education section catering for 60,000 children annually, and went on to work for a series of other outdoor and adventure companies before setting up his own business.

Sinan, who also runs a triathlon club in North Yorkshire for youngsters aged seven to 16 in his spare time, says: "My philosophy is anybody can achieve anything, but too many people aren't as healthy as they could be."

He has seen how teenagers’ lives can be transformed when they overcome difficult challenges: “I have taken kids on climbs who start out saying they can’t do it end up covering ascents of 2,000m 16 days in a row. By the end, they’re hardened trekkers who don’t want to stop. It gives them a new perspective on life, their parents end up gobsmacked by the change they see,” he says.

Sinan has witnessed children on the Compass camps experience similar breakthroughs when they have overcome a fear or worked out how to survive a daunting challenge on their own.

It was particularly heartening, he recalls, to see a group of children from a special needs school achieve beyond their own, and their teachers’, expectations.

Sinan hopes Compass, which aims to expand into secondary schools with courses including ice-breaker transition days and sixth form induction days, will offer even more youngsters a thirst for adventure.

He has ambitious plans: “We want to become the nationally recognised outdoor provider and eventually run other activities including corporate team building,” he says.

In the meantime, the company’s primary school base is continuing to grow.

One of the most popular activities, confesses Sinan, is the bug cooking and eating. Compass provides a range of edible insects, including locusts, crickets, scorpions and giant grasshoppers, which the children can use to make pancakes or buns, or simply eat as they come.

Not everyone wants to indulge, of course, but they love daring each other. “It’s one of those inspirational moments they’re still talking about at the end of the day,” says Sinan.

Compass Adventure, The Croft, Pine Croft, Winksley, North Yorkshire HG4 3NP. Tel: 0845-459-0709, email: info@compassadventure.co.uk website:compassadventure.co.uk

Bug pancakes or toasted marshmallows, anyone?

Recipe: Bug pancakes

Ingredients

1 measure of flour
1 measure of milk powder
1 measure of water
1 egg
Some crunchy, dried bugs, such as locusts, crickets or morio worms – to add bite.

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a plastic zip lock sandwich bag.

You can add chilli, cheese or sugar for flavour. Shake the batter well, then drop the mixture in spoonfuls, spacing it well apart, onto a hot griddle or pan over your camp fire.

When bubbles rise to the surface, turn over with a palette knife and cook on the other side for around 30 seconds until they are golden brown and ready to eat.

Yummy.