Most holidays are relaxing affairs.
But if you fancy going on a hair-raising adventure and need some survival advice, then you might like to pack the book Man UP! by Paul O’Donnell. It contains 367 ‘classic skills for the modern guy’, including how to shake a tail, start a fire with a condom and evade a man hunt.
Here, MailOnline Travel reveals a few of the book’s top tips for those holidaying in the danger zone.
How to start a fire without matches
If you fancy going on a hair-raising adventure and need some survival advice, then you might like to pack the book Man UP! by Paul O’Donnell . It contains 367 ‘classic skills for the modern guy’, including how to shake a tail, start a fire with a condom and evade a man hunt
You can probably use a magnifying glass, writes O’Donnell, and anything else that can focus light, including eye glasses and even a condom.
But if you’re lacking these he recommends making an indentation on a flat piece of wood and screwing a sharp two-foot-long stick into it until an ember appears.
Then shove this in a pile of dry leaves, twigs and wispy grass. Blow gently until it ignites, he adds.
How to find north during the day
Plonk a stick in the ground and mark the length of the shadow. And again after 15 minutes. Then draw a line between these two lines. ‘This is roughly your east-west line with your second mark at the eastern end,’ writes O’Donnell. ‘If you stand with the west marker on your left and the east on your right, you are most likely facing north.’
Finding north at night
You’ll need some patience here.
Look down the length of a stick, says O’Donnell, at a star. If after a few minutes it moves to the left of the stick, you’re facing north. Should the star move right, you’re facing south. Up, east; down, west.
How to keep bears away from food
Your best bet is to set up a ‘bear hang’. Find a tree no closer than a hundred feet from your tent and tie a length of rope around a rock and throw it over a branch that’s no lower than 15 feet from the ground. Then put your food and smelly items such as deodorant into two airtight bags and tie the other end of the rope around them and hoist them in the air.
Remember, writes O’Donnell, to have a stick handy that’s long enough to pull the bags down again.
How to drive in blizzard
Obviously get all the snow off the car first, and then keep to the very centre of the road ‘where you’ll have the most space to make corrections if you begin to slide toward the shoulder or ditch’.
And go slowly, ‘braking only if you have to’.
How do I evade a roadblock?
If you need to hit a roadblock, aim for an engine-side wheel to push the car out of the way
One way is to execute a 180-degree spin and then drive off, away from the roadblock.
To do this, first of all takes practise. So try the following away from pedestrians and other cars before deploying the tactic for real.
Drive at the roadblock at around 25 to 30mph, put the car in neutral and hit the brakes very hard, then turn the steering wheel one quarter turn. ‘The car will spin in the direction in which the wheel is turned,’ writes O’Donnell. ‘When the car has completed the 180… step on the gas.’
If you must hit a roadblock, approach very slowly to make those manning it think you’re going to stop, then accelerate to about 30mph and hit one of the cars on one of its engine-side wheels to turn the car. If you hit a panel, warns O’Donnell, it will only cause the two cars to wrap together.
Then accelerate to push the car out of the way.
How do I evade a manhunt?
Wanted by the law on a dangerous holiday? Man Up! has top tips for evading a man hunt
So, you’re on holiday somewhere iffy and wanted by the law. Who have dogs.
Here’s what to do.
Buy a whole new set of clothes if you can in a store without CCTV – and if you have time grow a beard. Or shave one off if you already had one.
Move around only on public transport and wear hats until you can change your hairstyle, advises Long Island resident O’Donnell.
Get a wad of cash out as soon as possible and don’t use credit cards.
And keep to deserted areas, moving only after dark.
If the chase is on and the hounds have been released – find water and keep moving downstream so your scent is not lingering on the surface.
How do I know if I’m being followed?
Man Up! is contains a bounty of life skills
If you walk along the street and someone stops when you stop – you’re being followed.
If you’re driving on a highway and you slow to 40mph but a car behind doesn’t overtake you within 60 seconds, you’re being followed.
How to shake a tail
If the person who’s following you seems to be a threat avoid going home as you don’t want them knowing where you live, stresses O’Donnell.
Then go to a police station and explain your predicament.
If you’re driving and you want to lose the tail yourself you can deploy the tactic of speeding away just as the traffic lights go red.
So, wait at a junction with the green light showing, ignore the drivers beeping behind you, then speed off as the light goes red just before the cars start crossing the junction.
O’Donnell adds: ‘If, as you stall at the green, they drive around you and wait for you on the far side of the intersection, turn right.
‘In an extreme situation, stop your car in a crowded area, like a mall. Go into a busy department store – not a boutique – and find a fire alarm and pull it. In the resulting confusion, grab a jacket or other garment of a different color from the one you’re wearing, and try to fit in with the crowd of shoppers leaving the store.’
- This article has been written using information in Man Up! 367 Classic Skills for the Modern Guy by Paul O’Donnell (Workman, £10.99). Copyright © 2011.