Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Alone in the wilderness: Fear

When you're in a situation like me there are a lot of things that could scare me when thinking about my oncoming journey.

Dangerous animals, poisonous plants, hypothermia, dehydration, starvation and injury.
It is not going to be a picknick and there's nothing romantic to it. Making a living in the wilderness is hard and not for the squeamish. There are a lot of ways to die in the wilderness and there are just as many ways to die in an urban enviroment, the types of threats are only different.

In the US the most dangerous wild animals are the Grizzly bear and the Mountain lion (or so they say). In Russia where I'm heading there are actualy Tigers.. The (if I remembered correct) Amur tiger in the south and the Siberian tiger in the north. Many people who are lost in the wilderness die of hypothermia, Russia's temperatures can get down to -50 degrees celsius in the far north, In the far south near mongolia the country turns into a desert where people can find themselves being cooked while being attacked by one sandstorm after another. Russia is far to big to have one single climate.
It figures that staying somewhere in the middle, where boreal forest meets temperate, is my best bet.

Then there are other types of fear that could overwelm me out there.. The fear failling my quest, the fear of 'losing it' and go nuts or get a psychosis (had one before, wasn't a lot of fun), The fear of not seeing my children again or how they might curse my name later on, The fear of people trying to keep me from doing what I have to do.

Fear kills.. at the same time fear can save your life.. This needs a little explanation..
Too much fear can stop you in your tracks, fear can occupy the mind which makes it harder to think clearly, fear can drive you mad.
Being completely without fear might kill you even faster. Just imagine a person who is totaly fearless for a minute.. Such a person would walk up to an annoyed male african rhino and smack that ass if you would ask him to without even blinking. If you look at it like that, fear can be a good thing to have.



We should not be without fear yet fear should not control us either but meet somewhere in the middle, this is called being cautious

10 comments:

  1. Wonderfull post.
    When reading through this I'm defintley going to look into bringin someone, its upsides and downsides.
    One upside is that you can share something, so you don't have it in you forever. This could stop you from going mad. Anyway, I'll write something about that tomorrow, today I'll write something else (finally again)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good idea.. I'm still going solo but that doesn't mean that I will spend my life without people until the end of my days. Rather I like it or not, we are social creatures and there is a big chance that when I'm old I would like to write and publish a book about what I have been through out there, in order to do that I need people. You can share something when you're alone.. some call it 'talking to yourself' other call it 'prayer'.. I'm not religious but it helps. I will look up your blog.

      Delete
  2. Why dont you post anything anymore? I'm kinda worried..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doing fine now dispite being offline for so long. great to be back again.

      Delete
  3. I've read every post on your blog and the other website you made. Absolutely fascinating. I wish you the best of luck for your journey. I hope things are even better than expected when you finally arrive.

    Please write more posts. This blog is excellent.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. My blog and website are'nt good material for the masses but I always knew there were some individuals who love to hear about this.

      Thank you and take care

      Delete
  4. I wish I could join you mate.All i can say to you is wish you all the best and do well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wonder if you have left yet, since you're not replying nor posting anymore..
    If you're here, please let me know.

    And if you do leave, please tell us when.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The funny thing is, I almost did at a certain point.
      A week ago or so I was ready to leave. But I was in Delft so that meant having to cross Holland aswell, The weather was not ideal and I did not have a bicycle. Had some money to go near the german border by train and walk from then on.
      And I could not let my readers know I left early.

      Like I said in my last post.. I'm moving to Velp again in May, close to the german border. Now I can use the money to buy a cheap bicycle. The original plan again, sound much better haha ;)

      Take care and sorry if I left you worried ;)

      Delete