Why survival shelter is so important when wandering in the open

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Having a roof above your head makes a lot of differences in living no matter in which situation you find yourself. The roof together with the surrounding walls gives tons of confidence as you stay protected from all possible dangers arising from the elements of nature primarily as well as other harmful creatures. Creating shelter is a trait that remains ingrained in humans as well as animals, birds and other living species which underlines the importance of shelter. The same psychology is at a play when you are wandering in the wilderness to stimulate your adventurist mind as you can never forget the importance of shelter in survival. When you spend some days amidst nature in the wilderness, you should be prepared to build some survival shelter to stay protected.

When you have a shelter in the woods, you get better opportunities of enjoying the outing because you know that there is a safe place to retreat at the end of a hard and long day in the jungle. A shelter in the forest is your biggest asset because it is the source of sustenance that gives you peace of mind besides providing security and safety. Whether to have a permanent shelter or a makeshift temporary shelter depends on your camping goals, but one thing is for sure that you must stay prepared to build one.

Shelters give you a sense of well being as you stay protected from the sun, rain, snow, and wind while co-habiting safely with the other members of the flora and fauna that become your companion in your travels in the wilderness. Shelters provide the much-needed encouragement to survive the odds and conquer it.

Protection from the environment

The environment is the most concerning aspect when you are struggling to survive in the wilderness. The biggest trouble that people face in survival situations arises from the elements of weather that can often make life miserable. It is challenging to take care of your health when you are traveling across jungles and wild terrains, but at the same time, it is imperative to stay healthy. The challenges are many from food to weather, and while you can have some control on the choice of food, you can do very little to counter the forces of nature except for building survival shelter that suits the conditions.

Your body might find it difficult to cope with wet and cold exposures. If you encounter night time temperature as high as 60 degrees, you become highly susceptible to hypothermia that can even kill you. In city conditions, such temperatures are bearable but when you are under the sky in the open, staying exposed can be dangerous and sometimes fatal too.

Heat is a big concern in desert regions because heat exhaustion can have a heavy toll on your health. The threat of heat stroke is very high that can often turn deadly.

To protect yourself from the extremes of environmental exposure you must have a shelter that takes care of all your needs by keeping you warm or cool and comfortable depending on the requirements.

Build a shelter with what you have

No matter how skillful you might be in putting the pieces together to build a shelter, the real trick in building the most appropriate shelter is to identify what is available near at hand that you can use. Which are the things to use and how to use are what you must be able to decide quickly by taking stock of the situation? It is like solving a jigsaw puzzle by knowing precisely what would be the best fit to give your idea a concrete shape quickly.

To overcome the uncertainty about the availability of shelter building materials, it is better if you carry some basic things with you like a sizeable heavy-duty trash bag or a space blanket that should find a permanent place in your backpack. The waterproof surface of the trash bag is excellent to protect you from rain and even provide the warmth to make you feel comfortable.

Know how to improvise

The biggest challenge in building survival shelter is that there are too many variables that are entirely out of your control. You must be ready to tackle the most unexpected situation and have good ability to improvise by quickly assessing the situation and circumstances that you are facing. It is not easy to build a structure with tree branches and leaves unless you have tried it out many times earlier. Practice makes man perfect and to perfect the art of building survival shelter, and you must practice it. Staying prepared is the only way to survive the odds with confidence.

Gather information and enrich your knowledge of building survival shelter because once you have the skills and know the principles, building the shelter becomes easy.