About this concept, the business and the people
Learn how to stretch your imagination and physique to survive in an unknown and difficult environment. Be prepared. Build the confidence you need to tackle your next big adventure.
Our courses provide practical survival training, ranging from a one day essentials course to an 8 day castaway Island survival experience in the South Pacific.
Our online encyclopedia to be launched in June 2017 will provide the latest survival information and tricks of the trade.
Your survival expert, Cyril Delafosse-Guiramand was born in Mexico and has lived in the Philippines, Gabon, Bulgaria, Brazil, Afghanistan, France, Australia, Laos and Tonga. Following his passion for exploring the world, he has undertaken several expeditions. For example, inspired by an epic story, he followed a prisoner escape route from a brutal Siberian Gulag, walking 11,000 km across Russia, Mongolia, China and Laos over 15 months with a 10kg backpack. He faced freezing nights, a lack of food and water, isolation, an endless desert, mountains, forests, bears and mosquitoes. His survival knowledge is the combination of real life experience and indigenous know how. Based on this experience, he was a survival adviser during the production of Peter Weir’s 2010 film ‘The Way Back’ passing on his skills and knowledge to empower actors to get into their character. He has also trekked from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, across France, South America, the Himalayan Arc, has driven from France to Afghanistan and sailed around the pacific islands.
Testimonials
Colin Farrell - actor
" You know... Cyril has been doing it a long time and he is a wealth of knowledge about survival and the environment; god he could take any situation and work it to his favor "
Jim sturgess - actor
" We were able to be put in touch with a guy who had actually done the walk for real. A French expeditionist, a guy called Cyril Delafosse-Guiramand. He was an amazing guy. He basically read the book [on which the film is loosely based] 'The Long Walk,' and after reading that book decided he was going to take the trek from Siberia to India himself. [...] "
Before they started filming, Sturgess said the cast got together and learned a few basic survival skills, [...] "It was just building fires and how to find dry moss in snowy conditions and the best way to construct a fire, where to do it," Sturgess recalled. "We skinned rabbits, we did all kinds of crazy stuff like that, we felled trees, and he was teaching me lots of navigational techniques, how to navigate yourself north and south using shadows from sticks, from the sun rising. It was cool. We all enjoyed it "
Peter Weir - director
"He was living in Laos then [...]. So I went up there and we talked for a couple of days and I said, 'Would you advise us? I’ll send you scripts.' Then I began to say, 'Can I put some of the stuff you're telling me in, like this thing about these mosquitoes? This man you met in the forest that has a bark necklace?' He said, 'Sure,' very generously so I put that in.. Then he coached the actors and then was with us every day."