“11 pm. Great time to head to sleep. At least when referring to my current situation. When I´m at home probably I will grab my guitar now just to play one single chord recognizing me still playing two hours later. But now I do not have my guitar with me. I´m in the forest.
Seven hours ago I have crossed the Polish border by bicycle. It´s my second day on this trip. I started at 2 pm on Saturday afternoon. I´m on the way from Berlin to Posen. 280 km within four days. I´m carrying some equipment to spend the nights outside. Initially I intended to cross the Polish border on the first day already but I started lately hence I spent the first night in a piece of forest 65 km behind Berlin. Eastern direction. Full moon light during the whole night. Slept very well. Light arising by the early morning sunshine woke me up.
But now it´s dark. I have taken my bicycle off the track to walk deeply into the forest. No light anymore besides my headlamp. I´m tired. In a positive way. Took the last one hour for having dinner. Means cooking the basic meals I purchased at a small store in a village before coming here. I´m not hungry anymore. Feeling relaxed. Recognizing that I deserve to sleep now. It´s my second day. I have already made around 120 km of the entire trip. Feeling my bones. Feeling my muscles. Both hurting. In a positive way. I will be able to continue. Nothing to complain about. Feeling pain of being exhausted. Positive pain. I exhausted as much that I deserve to sleep now. But I´m not feeling exhausted in a way that I cannot continue the trip. Enjoyable condition.
Especially when I´m at the outdoors I enjoy acting as a minimalist. But I enjoy comfort too. I brought sleeping clothes with me. Changing from sports clothes to sleeping clothes now. No light. Besides my headlamp. Not much noise around. It´s quiet. And dark. I really want to sleep now. I´m leaning over my sleeping bag. Wearing my sleeping clothes. Searching for an item.
Suddenly noise behind me. Unusual one. I have never heard it before. Slow steps. Rustling. Slight rush of adrenaline as I immediately recognize that this is not a mouse. Must be something even bigger than a rabbit. There are no dogs in the forest. Selection gets narrow. Only three opportunities left: Wolf, wild boar or human being. I read about wolves and wild boars one week ago. They are present within this region of Poland. Usually they keep away from human beings. Something is getting closer.
Usually wolves or wild boars do not get close to human beings unless they are being affected by rabies. Then they can become very dangerous. Rabies is not present anymore within the forest regions of Germany. But I´m not in Germany. I´m in Poland. Two forest workers were heavily attacked by wolves at the Eastern region of Poland last year. A very uncomfortable feeling arises me. I´m standing up. Turning around. Totally darkness. Besides my headlamp. No light which is being thrown off by the stars. No moonlight. I´m deep within the forest. Noise is getting louder. Something is moving straight towards me.
Moving my head into the direction of the noise. My headlamp detaches two eyes at the height of my waist. Estimated distance: Eight meters. Immediately excluding opportunity number three. No human being. Recognizing that either a wolf or a wild boar is seeking my attention. I´m shocked. Standing still. Animal continues moving straight towards me. Estimated distance: Five meters. Standing still. Just watching. Keeping my headlamp directly into the eyes of the animal.
Animal stops. Silence. No reaction from my side or from the animal. I have no idea what to do. Fear arises. Real fear. There´s no time left to turn around and pick up my knife. Me turning around searching for my knife frantically maybe will upset the animal. I placed it somewhere thirty minutes ago. Did not pick it up as I immediately stood up when I recognized the uncomfortable noise. Simply forgot about it. Nothing left to do from my side.
I´m directly watching into the eyes of a wild unpredictable animal. No thoughts left. Everything has stopped. I don´t know what to do. Five meters of distance. Animal standing still as well as myself. Deciding not to move forward as long as the animal does not continue moving straight forward towards me. Animal starts snorting. Feeling intense fear. I´m taking a small step forward. Towards the animal.
Animal starts snorting loudly and makes up his way to the left side. Three further little animals are following which I haven´t recognized earlier. I´m standing still. Fully shocked and pumped up with adrenaline on my highest imaginable level. Feeling incredible fear. Watching four wild animals taking up their run into the thicket. Intense snorting arises from the first animal. Very loudly.
Seconds are passing. Animals are leaving. Listening to their fast and frantic steps including heavily snorting while making their way deeper into the thicket. Standing still at my position for two minutes.
Getting quiet. On the outside. I´m screaming on the inside.”
Background
The mentioned situation arose during an overnight stay within a Polish forest while riding a bicycle from Berlin to Poland one year ago. During the entire situation which has been described in here I was facing real fear. Within the past five years I cannot remember any situation where I was facing a similar kind of fear. I have spent several nights within German forests before. I have conducted several walks through German forests during daytime. In both cases I never faced a wild animal.
What happened? And why?
I consider this as one of the main reasons which increased my feeling of fear. As I never faced a wild animal before (as part of being within it´s natural surrounding) I was aware that wild boars and wolves usually are not seeking the attention of human beings. All of the attacks which were carried out by wolves to human beings were caused by human beings treating the animal in a bad way or due to the fact that the animal has been infected by rabies. When the animals arose I was in the process of heading to sleep hence I excluded the opportunity that I have done any bad treatment to them.
One week later I spoke to a man who goes for hunting regularly. First he mentioned that wolves are usually by their own meaning that they won´t bring their whelps with. By knowing that I conclude that the animal I faced was a wild boar. He mentioned that wild boars usually are not being attached by food consumed by human beings and that the human smell already comes with a kind of repellent effect. Additionally he mentioned that I did not do anything wrong. He deemed this to be an exceptional situation. Just an unfortunate coincidence. Unlikely that this will happen again in the future.
How to behave
Before I started my trip I read thoroughly about how to behave when being faced with such kind of situation. What is generally recommended in this situation is to withdraw and if that´s not possible (referring to my situation) to make loud noises in order to confuse the animal. It seems that me showing one minor step forward (conducted in a slowly manner) towards the animal was the correct reaction as it was enough to drive out the animal. If the animal had continue it´s walk towards me in a slowly manner probably I will just have done nothing. In the case the animal will have increased it´s speed in order to prepare for an attack I´m pretty sure I will have commenced shouting and waving my arms.
The animal did not attack me. I assume it´s part of my natural behavior that as long as I´m not attacked I will not attack by myself. If I knew that in no cases the animal will attack probably I will have invited it to stay for the night and share a cup of tea at the next morning. But we speak different languages. My sole focus referring to that moment was trying to communicate that I will not do any harm to the animal however I assume that the animal had already felt harassed as it was me entering it´s area (the forest).
Confrontation with my fear
After the situation mentioned above had arisen I was not aware if I will ever be able to spend a night in the forest again. It took me almost one year before spending a night in the forest again. Probably psychologists will call this behavior the confrontation with your fear. I did not sleep well but I consider that mainly caused by the fact that I brought a light sleeping bag and it was getting very cold that night. I was constantly hearing noises from minor animals within the surrounding during the whole night. No fear. Just awareness. Nothing happened that night.
To master my fear I tried to implement what the man who goes for hunting regularly has told me. I increased my knowledge which I consider as a positive factor in terms of being able to stay at the forest during nighttime again. I asked him how I should have behaved in the case that the animal had attacked me. He replied: „Just strangle it.“. He recognized that I was taken him seriously hence he clarified: „When a wolf or a wild boar attacks you and bites your arm or any other part of your body you will be in such deep pain that you will not be able to do anything.“ I did not respond anything to that.
Conclusion
Besides having my knife with me I additionally equipped myself now with a defense spray in the case that I will ever experience a similar situation again. For circumstances which I cannot prevent at least I should be prepared within the scope of my possibilities. Even when acting as a minimalist.
The author expressly emphasizes that spending nights in the forests or similar areas is deemed as a dangerous activity. The shared content shall not be understood as a call to action in order to do the same.
Any thoughts on this can be sent privately to mail@realthoughts.me or publicly via the comment function below
Martin