Meet the Three Hungry Boys: Thom

Find out from the Three Hungry Boys what it's like to survive in the wilds of Scotland with nowt but your wits (and Hugh's guidance)

Write a short profile of yourself...

I am a manual person with a manual job and I'm not great with computers. I've spent all of my life in activities to do with fish. I studied Marine Biology at uni, am a PADI scuba instructor, and a sponsored competition angler. My favourite hobby is spear fishing and my favourite food is barbecued barracuda. Also I've travelled the world solely in pursuit of most shark species.

I'm a hugely competitive person, and can never turn down a challenge. I love hunting and spent most of my summers growing up on my grandparents' farm helping out and trying to shoot rabbits for dinner! There is nothing I love more than spending time with my friends.

Why did you write to Hugh?

We were determined to make something memorable of the next summer so we planned a trip, originally around Europe to go to set points where things of interest were happening (food/music festivals, La Tomatina fest, bull run in Pamplona) and, as the credit crunch was on, we wanted to keep costs down as much as possible. This included hunting and foraging, blagging and maybe working in exchange for sustenance. I suggested we get a small camcorder to mess about with and before I knew it Tim had written to Hugh asking if he thought it was a good idea, and trying to get a camcorder! I guess our blagging started right then!

What did the letter say?

I'm not too sure!! Tim wrote it off the cuff one evening. He's very good at ideas and getting the ball rolling. I seem to remember it was quite tongue in cheek, suggesting that at the very least we deserved a reply for owning every River Cottage series on DVD. I think we pitched ourselves as the first generation of people that have watched all the survival expert programmes and just wanted to give it a go. Ray Mears, Bear Grylls, even Hugh to a certain extent, are all specialists in their field and, while it makes good watching, it always made us wonder what it would be like if mere mortals were placed in those situations. And they're always so serious, like it's life or death - well I guess it can be sometimes - but we wanted to introduce a fun element as well.

What did you think might happen?

You never really know with these things. I guess if we thought there was no chance whatsoever we wouldn't have written in. But then again, we're three normal blokes so something actually coming of it was a massive ask and a bit of a dream. I do have a huge amount of faith in our abilities and our personalities, and the more I thought about it the more the idea grew on me - and I thought we may actually be able to pull it off.

How did you feel when Hugh replied?

Gobsmacked but smiling, well, grinning massively to be exact. We bounced a few emails backwards and forwards talking about ourselves and our ideas and then we were asked to head in to meet Hugh and Andrew Palmer (Executive Producer). I think we'll always remember that, driving to River Cottage HQ to meet them and develop the idea. We walked in and Andrew was on the phone so we just started chatting informally with HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL. It was ridiculous. We love this guy - all his programmes and what he represents - and there we were just chatting to him. As we drove home I distinctly remember thinking that my dreams may strangely be turning into reality.

When did you first realise that you were going to Scotland? How did you feel about it?

Well it's hardly Europe now is it? But to be honest it was a challenge and I knew I was going to spend a month with my two best mates, so it didn't really matter where we were going. I've never backed down to a challenge and I didn't intend to start then.

What did you do in preparation for the trip?

We spent a bit of time sorting anything we thought we may need - camping gear, wetsuits etc... - and discussed a lot of ideas between us about what we could do that would generally be fun and get us into trouble. We flicked through books and the internet to get pointers on surviving off the land, but to be honest we didn't want to get too excited. Then we got the call and I don't think I'd ever been so relieved/excited/nervous in my life. If it had gone the other way and they'd said it wasn't going to happen I would have been absolutely gutted that we'd come so close but not gone.

What were the highlights of your month's holiday?

For me, the highlight of the trip was the people we met. The sense of community in the places we went to has to be seen to be believed. I guess with a lot of these places being quite remote, the people have to work to help each other out when problems arise and that forms the basis of their way of life. You can't just pop to the supermarket to sort your problems in these places.

I can remember meeting an old lady on Mull, she came over and asked what we were doing and we told her of our story. Within 60 seconds of meeting this lady she said, 'Oh I'd love to cook for you boys, follow this track down and turn left, my cottage is by the woods. The doors open, go in and help yourself to tea, I'm just off to the village but I'll come back and cook you supper'. It turns out we didn't have time as we were having a limpet cook off with Tom Addy but it goes to show how giving some people can be.

What was the worst point? What did you not enjoy?

One of the lowest points was clearly when we built a raft and went to Carna Island. It was just pure misery. It was much further than we thought and the hour and a half swim over there was a tiring start. We built only a very moderate fire, nothing good to eat, possibly the worst smelling and tasting non alcoholic beer ever produced and the midges could drive you to suicide. Then the weather came in. By the time the sun came up not a single piece of clothing on me was dry. And it all came through my sleeping bag so you can imagine the night's sleep!

What did you miss the most?

It was strange really, I spent the first half of the trip missing all the comforts of home, warm showers, cups of tea, big comfy bed and eating what you want when you want. Oh and I missed ice cream massively. Things then changed and I spent the last two weeks worrying about how I was going to miss all the things I'd grown to love on the trip, time spent with friends, adventure, fresh wild foods and, funnily enough, [the van] Winnie.

What was your favourite meal?

It's got to be the party we had on Tiree. It was not necessarily my favourite food of the trip, but it was definitely my favourite meal. Just meeting new, likeminded people and sharing stories, jokes and food in such a great setting is the best. My favourite food was the roast lamb mutton: it just melted in your mouth. I think Trev cooked it for nearly 4 hours and it tasted even better after eating burnt whelks.

What was your favourite adventure?

In truth the whole trip was a huge adventure and, apart from the 'big' things, I really enjoy remembering all the small, stupid things that happened day to day. Like settling EVERY single decision with a game of paper, scissors, stone. Or 'borrowing' a mix CD from the crew that just happened to have one of our favourite songs on it, which we all belted out whenever we were driving along ('Roscoe' by Midlake). Or driving the van on rotation hoping that your go wasn't on a day when we had a long drive. As Trev put it, the steering was 'very vague'. Or finding out that Tim is basically a magpie in a human's body. His ability to somehow collect all things shiny (and most needed at that moment) in his Barbour jacket, while swearing blind that he hasn't seen it in days, is just amazing. Or just generally not knowing what we were doing from one day to the next added uncertainty to a brilliant adventure.

If you could do it all again what would you do differently?

Not much, maybe the time of year so the midges aren't so bad and I'd maybe swap Tim for a member of Girls Aloud and Trev for Bear Grylls. All in all it was an amazing journey and I have no regrets. Roll on the next adventure.

How did you cope with being cooped up in Winnie together for a whole month? Who got on your wick?

The truth of it is we got on fine just like I knew we would. There were a couple of times where we nipped at each other - mostly my doing - but overall things were fine. Even the crew commented that for three mates living, sleeping, eating and doing activities for a whole month it was quite unusual we didn't get agro with each other more often.

I think with us all having quite alpha male personalities it was important that we had defined roles - and that the others respected that. You can see, when Tim and I are cooking for Trev, he can't help but come and see what's going on to make sure it's done right. Cooking is just his thing. I also remember when we are building the raft, the look on Trev's face when I suggested the front 'T' bar design. I could see he was thinking 'I'm the designer, let me design it'. Likewise though, if anyone went near a fishing rod or a gun there would be some stern faces.

What did you learn from your trip?

I loved learning about foraging and identifying wild mushrooms, I think it adds another string to my bow in the world of a hunter-gatherer. I also loved learning to fly fish and spent a lot of money on new gear as soon as I got back. I learnt that Winnie the campervan is actually a tardis and you can basically fit the whole world inside her. It was always such a strange contrast to be so cramped inside Winnie, but then as soon as you open the door you're in the open wilderness. And I also learnt that the concept of money is bizarre: it's not the be all and end all like you might believe it is.

What was it like settling back into reality?

Personally, I found it very difficult. When you've just had the time of your lives with your best mates, going back to the building trade doesn't seem so appealing. Within two weeks I had already phoned the head game keeper, Ewan, from Kingairloch Estate to see if he wanted any help with the upcoming stag season. In true Three Hungry Boys style I explained I didn't really need any money, just a place to sleep and maybe to be fed but that I wanted to get involved and work for the experience.

That didn't really happen so I guess the next thing to look forward to is planning our next trip, maybe a different country or a different challenge, let's see what we can come up with. It was also very strange not waking up next to Trev and Tim every morning and it sounds odd but I missed that.

PS: Reality and jobs are over rated, if you have an idea or passion, just go for it as trips like this one, I believe, are the adventures that make up 'a life well spent'.