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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, M ay 12 ,2 02 2 | 18 morecoupons,more flyers,more savings. grocery savings at your fingertips. Disclaimer: flyers pictured are for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the current flyers. View the flyer on Save.ca for the current flyer for your location. save.ca/flyers Scan to star t sa ving ! fi i s E X P L O R E R U R A L O N T A R I O An invitation to "escape to the country" is a welcome enticement. "Catch the Culture"provides the roadmap for such an escape, highlighting all that Wellesley and Wilmot townships and neighbouring St. Jacobs have to offer. Featuring details of heritage driving tours, walking tours, local events, businesses and attractions, this glossy magazine showcases diverse rural gems. "Catch the Culture"will be widely available through a QR code digital link and broadly promoted through Metroland's vast community newspaper footprint and associated websites. Copies will also be available at key local locations. catch 2 0 2 2 V I S I T O R G U I D E CONTACT YOUR LOCAL SALE REPRESENTATIVE TO BOOK YOUR SPACE TODAY DistributeDthroughoutontario Canadians are sadly lacking in outdoor skills. That's the consensus by Scouts Canada, thanks to a recent survey by the group. According to Scouts Canada, the country's lead- ing co-ed youth organiza- tion, the average Canadian may be surprisingly stumped by camping basics. Outdoor and camping skills are good for more than just a fun weekend in nature; adventure-based play outside leads to better- developed motor skills, so- cial behaviour, indepen- dence, and conflict resolu- tion skills that support physical and mental well- being in youth develop- ment. The recent national sur- vey of 1,000 Canadians un- covered the following: Key Findings (national): 1) 'BEAR'LY READY: Asked what they would do if they encountered a black bear in the woods, a total of 23.2 per cent of Canadians would do the wrong thing, such as: 'Run' (8.6 per cent), 'Play Metallica on iPhone and live stream ' (5.6 per cent), 'stare directly into their eyes to scare them' (5.5 per cent) or (an ex- tremely bad idea) 'attack first' (3.2 per cent); 14.9 per cent of Canadians simply said that they don't know. 2) DON'T EAT THAT!: Asked which plants from a list of wild plants were safe to eat, 46.7 per cent of Canadians flat-out admitted they had "no idea." A total of 26.4 per cent of Canadians incor- rectly identified wild plants such as winterberry and buckthorn as "safe to eat," however, they are not. 3) CANADIANS ADMIT THAT THEY'RE PRETTY "MEH" AT CAMP- ING: Asked to rate the camp- ing competence of most Ca- nadians respondents of the survey were generally pos- itive with 61.7 per cent an- swering "OK." Twelve per cent optimistically said "high," and 14.7 per cent said "poor." The survey showed that 6.4 per cent said "bad" and 5.2 per cent said "dangerous." 4) CANADIANS QUESTION THEIR OWN CAMPING COMPE- TENCE: Asked to rate their own level of camping com- petence, only 36.3 per cent of Canadians said "OK," while 39 per cent admitted their skills are poor at best, if not outright dangerous (as in, burn down the tent kind, drink from a puddle, couldn't make it through the night kind of "danger- ous"). 5) WET AND WILD: Asked how to properly dry wet clothing and gear: Almost half of Canadians (46.9 per cent) said "they don't know." Of that, 7.2 per cent would make the bad choice of "placing items three inches from a fire." Of the respondents, 4.5 per cent said they would (inefficiently) choose to "flap until dry." There were 3.2 per cent who would "blow on them until dry," (this is not advised) and 2.2 per cent would "wrap in a jacket to absorb moisture." On the plus side, 36 per cent correctly responded "wring out and drape." 6) "TENTS" SITUATION: Ca- nadians generally don't seem confident in their ability to set up a tent. Asked how long they thought pitching a tent would take them, 35.7 per cent said "they have no idea" (suggesting that it might take a while.) Conve- niently, the average Scout can set up their own tent in 15 minutes. There were 15.2 per cent of the respondents who said "30 minutes," while 10 per cent said more than 45 minutes; 11.4 per cent opti- mistically said "five min- utes or less," and 27.7 per cent said "10 to 25 minutes." 7) BONUS FINDINGS, WORST CAMPING MISTAKES: Asked what Canadians consid- ered to be their biggest camping mistakes, respon- dents had a variety of col- ourful anecdotes: a) "Sleeping in a tent and cougars were mating in the middle of the night ... claws through the tent." b) "Eating moss." c) "Forgot glasses." d) "Going to outhouse in the dark." e) Flooding-related is- sues including: "Set up tent facing rain so filled with water." Source: Survey by Scouts Canada 7 CANADIAN CAMPING CONUNDRUMS Scouts Canada has released the results of a survey and the finds are showing that Canadians are not that competent when it comes to camping. Patrick McCaully photo NEWS CAN YOU RELATE TO ANY ON THIS LIST?