I think the tracking courses worked! Out in Colorado we tracked a wounded deer for
half a mile or so (in the Rockies!) before the rain hammered down and ruined all
sign. When we got back to camp the 'pro staff'  who I was tracking with
announced to everyone "This guy can track like a son of a xxxxx!"
It was great to be able to put my tracking skills to use and to realise how
proficient they have made me at tracking compared to professionals.
I think they were impressed with my tracking skills!

I would like to thank you for the tracking I have just done. It was quite amazing
and I learnt so much. It is not only testament to
you and your presence during the course but the quality of your instructors - Dunc
and Steve in particular but none less the other
instructors - all were excellent. . The intensity of being in the zone took me quite by surprise and was a
new experience for me.

I came on your course to learn and understand. They are two separate things. I take
these things very seriously.

I poorly articulated what I got from the course at the end. Its one thing to teach
the technicalities of tracking - of which your
instructors did an excellent job - its quite another to enable understanding on a
fundamental level. The course reached inside my head
on flicked on that switch which resides inside the primitive pathways of my brain.
Tracking is not just a skill or even a sense or an
experience - its all three...and more - its almost like a feeling or an emotion. It
left me feeling quite odd and even 'heady'. I
think I understand now. This is what I was looking for (but not expecting to find it
as I did not know what I was looking for - if you
catch my drift). Its like unknowing unkowning moving to known unknowning becoming
knowing knowing.

Harnessing the senses is most important to me - in one of my 'lives' I teach about
taste and smell (find attached an article I wrote
for a food magazine - for the general consumer as it is basic and mainstream - not
like some of the more technical articles I write)
and how pictures and memory play a part in building a mind map for wine tasting.

I would love to come back and do more courses with Shadowhawk.

Thanks so much for an excellent course. I'm really fired up with the subject and
would like to come on more courses when you are running them. Have you got any dates
yet, you mentioned search and rescue in Jan and wolf tacking in Poland. 
 

Thank you for a great time. I have not come down yet and finding it a little
difficult dealing with work things as I think of the course and what you and your
instructors patiently and gently drummed into us. I feel the minor points are the
most important. We will meet again.

. However, it did get me thinking about search – you’ll be glad and unsurprised to hear. It reminded me of something Ian “Max” Maxwell had said during one of his tracking courses and can be found in his book – Animal Tracks ID and Techniques - about Zoning In.

Once you surrender and become part of your surroundings you will have zoned in. You will now be able to hear every movement, every sound, see everything and feel everything around you…

Once you have zoned in for at least twenty minutes you will know the baseline for noises, bird song, activity, motion and insect life. You will also know the baseline for the ground, trees and shrubs in the landscape around you.

It is here that the tracker will detect any variation from the baseline, be it hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling and taste.

Hi, Max!  Wanted to say "thank you" for your understanding on my natural
spiritual path & the things I see in the spirit, and please tell all your
instructors "thank you" for their understanding & maturity level.  Everyone was
truly professional & each of your intructors were like extensions of you in
terms of knowledge!

Ian Maxwell "Max" - Without a doubt the most influential instructor for me. Max broke down the boundaries of what I thought was possible. Tracking is the aspect of wilderness living that most interests me and that journey would not have been possible without him. Sometimes you just can't believe that what he's teaching you is possible - and then suddenly you see or hear or feel it for yourself. A true master and a damned funny guy to boot. M

Energetically, you and your instructors are some of the cleanest people I have met
in a very long time and it was a pleasure to be with you all

Ian Maxwell, Max is dedicated to his art, his enthusiasm carries you along and when you start to see what he is seeing I think he is happier for you than you are.

Just back from Shadowhawk's India expedition and thought i'd share some photos and do a bit of a write-up.
The expedition was led by Max from Shadowhawk and a small group of us went for a week to Kahna National Park in Central India.
Accommodation was luxurious by bushcraft standards – we stayed in private lodges, each getting our own double bedroom lodge. Meals were provided and we were able to concentrate on the tracking.
This was the first time Shadowhawk have run a tracking course in India and I think the Indian hosts were a bit shocked that we wanted to track on foot in Tiger country. Normally they cater for rich westerners who like to sit in the comfort of a jeep and be driven around to tick off the wildlife in their books. Our arrival quickly disabused them of this idea as we disappeared into the forest in the dark as soon as we arrived. The lodge had their own ranger who accompanied us and loved every minute. By the end of the week he was enthusiastically tracking with the rest of us and getting lost in discussions of tracks, to the horror of his bosses.

Maybe I should set the scene a bit. Kahna national park was the inspiration for Kipling's Jungle Book. It is nominally separated into two sections – a 50,000 acre core area and a 100,000 acre buffer zone surrounding it. Local indigenous people were cleared from the core area into the buffer zone, though in practice the animals come and go as there is no physical barrier between the two areas. The core area is split into west and east sections, with the eastern section being out of bounds to everyone except the researchers and rangers. Temperatures while we were there were in the high 30s, so the day was split into two sections. In the mornings we traveled around the core area by jeep or elephant and in the afternoons we tended to track through the buffer zones and, quietly, into the edges of the core area. The middle of the day was spent by the poolside at the lodge or sheltering from the hammering sun and discussing tracking in general.

The trip was absolutely amazing. We got loads of dirt time through the week and the chance to track some really unusual animals. Max is a legend as far as tracking goes and we all came away with our tracking skills further improved.

Hopefully Shadowhawk will be returning to India next year and I would thoroughly recommend the trip particularly as they are currently negotiating with the authorities for access to the restricted Eastern zone of the park, where we would be allowed to track on foot – away from the eyes of the rich tourists in their jeeps.