Belgrad Forest survival challenge

Belgrad Forest is forty minutes from central Istanbul and feels much further. Teams of eight to ten receive a map, a compass and a sealed envelope, and walk a marked route of around five kilometres to their camp, collecting equipment at checkpoints along the way.

At camp, our outdoor instructors teach the basics before teams take over: building a tarp shelter that has to pass a bucket-of-water test, starting a fire with a flint striker, purifying water and cooking lunch on the fire. Each task is scored, and a team that skipped the planning usually notices it by the second task.

The day ends around the fires with tea and a short debrief on who led, who followed and how decisions were made under time pressure. We work with the forest administration on permits and leave every camp site as we found it.