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IN PHOTOS: Taking a ‘Neanderthal’ survival course with a modern-day caveman in Italy

Many people visiting or moving to rural Italy dream of a simpler life. But if you really want to get back to basics, a self-styled “caveman” is offering Neanderthal-style survival courses in the Italian Alps.

IN PHOTOS: Taking a 'Neanderthal' survival course with a modern-day caveman in Italy
Guido Camia dressed as a Neanderthal caveman walks in Chianale, in the Italian Alps, near the French border. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

Guido Camia can show you how to light fires using just a flintstone, survive on a diet of insects and build a forest shelter.

The 37-year-old, who originally trained to be a patisserie chef, organises weekend trips where you can watch him climb rocks and fish from streams barefoot, dressed in animal skins, carrying a spear and looking like something out of “The Flintstones”.

But Camia's outdoor survival courses also come with an official stamp of approval.

“For the past five years, my courses have been supervised by Italy's International Survival Federation (FISSS),” he told AFP. 

Camia says he also gives courses in more traditional attire, but his “passion for the paleolithic” gave him the idea of a Neanderthal sidekick.

Neanderthals – who lived from around 400,000 to 40,000 years ago  were “very intelligent”, Camia says.

“He discovered fire. He was able to adapt to all weather.”

“He was a nomad who moved around a lot, lived in caves, but also knew how to build small shelters.” 
For a starting price of 80-100 euros per person per night, the basic course includes accommodation in a bivouac shelter.

Camia says he also offers sessions of two or three hours to families and school groups.

“I show them how Neanderthals lived, what they ate, how they lit fires, used a spear. I show them how to use the basic equipment to cook.

“For customers who opt for the beginners' survival course, “I provide them with enough to get by with.”

But more advanced customers have to find their own food over a number of days.

“That makes people understand that the brain uses the most energy. And even very simple calculations become difficult after three days without food,” he smiles.

Camia insists he is no “prepper” or “collapsology theorist” – those who believe in the pending collapse of industrial civilisation.

“But we have to know how to adapt to the changing climate, to other types of food and to be able to change our ways of life,” he says.

All photos: Marco Bertorello/AFP

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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