PATRONITE – IT’S US AND YOU! Your sup­port chan­ges a lot! Why? Becau­se in our tra­vel busi­ness we value inde­pen­den­ce and fre­edom; witho­ut rigid ver­ti­cal hie­rar­chies, witho­ut enti­ties deci­ding and set­ting the­ir own con­di­tions. This inde­pen­den­ce is pro­vi­ded by loy­al obse­rvers, name­ly you. In full of faith we call this a “WIN-WIN” situ­ation, whe­re two win­ning par­ties take part. WE, who can tra­vel as we wish and sha­re with you eve­ry­thing that appe­ars on our trap­pe­r’s path, and YOU, who can bene­fit from all the know­led­ge, tips and curio­si­ties in the area of our expe­di­tion. But most of all – YOU can par­ti­ci­pa­te in it too! That is why we deci­de to use Patro­ni­te… but not only becau­se of that. Keep in mind that in tra­vel vide­os you usu­al­ly see only bre­ath­ta­king views and hap­py people. Few people reali­ze, howe­ver, the hard­ships of life of a pas­sio­na­te cre­ator-vaga­bon­dist; a tra­ve­ler witho­ut a per­ma­nent address, some­ti­mes hun­gry, witho­ut fami­ly and friends at his side, and witho­ut nor­mal rela­tion­ships. Yes: not eve­ry­one can live like this, but we want to show you that you can take advan­ta­ge of the­se moments and live life to the ful­lest – despi­te tem­po­ra­ry cri­ses! We will show you this reali­ty witho­ut colo­ra­tion, in the belief that this reali­ty will defend itself. Patro­ni­te is also an agre­ement betwe­en us and you, that – with a neces­sa­ry dose of secu­ri­ty and sta­bi­li­ty – we will be able to con­ti­nue to cre­ate films for you, to descri­be you our adven­tu­res and to spre­ad the idea of sim­ple and true life; in natu­re, in per­ma­nent con­nec­tion with the sour­ce. The idea of living bey­ond the reach of civi­li­za­tio­n’s pres­su­re of whims, sne­aki­ly pre­ten­ding to be needs. We are incre­di­bly gra­te­ful for the trust you have pla­ced in us – it is thanks to your sup­port that we can con­ti­nue to do what we love and belie­ve in, whi­le at the same time giving others spa­ce for self-reali­za­tion, and sho­wing you a dif­fe­rent, won­der­ful world…

This was a pla­ce whe­re we could sha­re our know­led­ge and wri­te abo­ut our craft and pre­sent our pro­ducts as well as sell them in a com­pa­ny sto­re. During this time, I led a team of abo­ut twen­ty people whi­le also doing video pro­duc­tions for Leśne Rze­mio­sło, reader’s digest and doing tra­ining ses­sions and even orga­ni­sing nume­ro­us expe­di­tions and nation­wi­de gathe­rings pro­mo­ting tra­di­tio­nal cam­ping. My pro­ject was at the time a very big Polish pro­to­ty­pe thro­ugh which all bro­ad know­led­ge would pass, from natu­re to eth­no­gra­phy, tra­di­tio­nal craft, both short term and long term adven­tu­res, on hor­se­back and fini­shing them by canoe trip and buil­ding log cabins. As the old trap­pers and forest people once touched the bre­vi­ty of time, so did Leśne Rze­mio­sło with its reach, con­si­sten­tly trans­for­ming the pro­ject into a clas­si­cal archa­ic work. Leśne Rze­mio­sło beca­me a time machi­ne of it’s own of the days of yorn in which the forest people could spend time in natu­re. Roman­tic, altho­ugh often seve­re and deman­ding; teaching humi­li­ty to the natu­re aro­und them. Like a time-machi­ne in which most of the equ­ip­ment and clo­thing was made by hand, today, most of the equ­ip­ment I use during my expe­di­tions – as befo­re – has its sour­ce in my work­shop and is made enti­re­ly by me. Wha­te­ver you can read or find here, howe­ver, has its roots in the tar­ni­shed pages of history.

My name is Tho­mas Pater­ski. I was born in Eastern Euro­pe and I am of Polish roots, but I have the spi­rit of the far north. I stu­died Inland Fishing Methods. I am the ori­gi­na­tor and CEO of the Leśne Rze­mio­sło pro­ject, reve­aling the secrets of forest cam­ping and the histo­ry rela­ted to the fur tra­de. Sin­ce high scho­ol, I have been a sco­ut leader and a survi­val instruc­tor at the same time. In addi­tion to fishing and being a trap­per, I also deal with hun­ting, leather­craft and car­pen­try. I have the neces­sa­ry expe­rien­ce and know­led­ge of buil­ding log cabins that I have gained from obse­rva­tions and my own expe­rien­ce; I am also no stran­ger to wor­king with sled­ge dogs and hor­ses. Becau­se of my love for being a tra­ve­ler and unwil­lin­gness to live in the so-cal­led civi­li­zed world, I lived on the nor­thern route, living like the trap­pers of the old days, along with Nano­ok and Wydra. I devo­ted myself enti­re­ly to distant jour­neys into unin­ha­bi­ted are­as of the taiga, thus explo­ring the prac­ti­ce of eve­ry­day life in the wil­der­ness as a tra­vel­ler, trap­per, guide and forest cam­ping instructor. 

Wydra - or the Otter - is a boat for two people, hand-cra­fted with a love and pas­sion for tra­di­tio­nal cano­es. It is made almost enti­re­ly of Cana­dian cedar, and its hand-woven raf­fia ben­ches make tra­vel­ling incre­di­bly com­for­ta­ble. Accor­ding to the Nati­ve Ame­ri­can Indians, Otter is a che­er­ful and care­free rogue. From an ear­ly age, it is dif­fi­cult to look after him or keep him in check, as he will always find a way to get out of the con­trol of his guar­dian. This is becau­se he wants eve­ry­thing done his way, looking to cor­rect and chan­ge eve­ry­thing; it must be admit­ted, howe­ver, that his obse­rva­tions are usu­al­ly accu­ra­te. He is acti­ve, eager to play, has no pro­blems with making new con­tacts and imme­dia­te­ly gains the sym­pa­thy of his com­pa­nions. On the other hand, Wydra’s che­eky natu­re is not always well rece­ived – espe­cial­ly when he gives his pas­sen­gers an une­xpec­ted dip in icy water. In the past, boats of this type made a huge con­tri­bu­tion to the explo­ra­tion and conqu­est of Cana­da­’s wil­der­ness by Euro­pe­an trap­pers; becau­se they made it easier to navi­ga­te the area rich in rivers and lakes. Eve­ry day, Wydra helps me and Nano­ok tra­vel thro­ugh the wil­der­ness, as did his ance­stors during the fur trade.