Bushcraft & Fears

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I had a weird kind of panic attack in a debris shelter once. Logic didn't enter into it much at all.

I don't think any of the cod psychology would have helped there either as I knew pretty well what was going on, but there was no way I could have carried on sleeping there.

As a guide, your first post seems to be based a little on bravado and I wonder if you have any actual experience of how debilitating real fear or panic can be.

As already said by others, bushcraft seems, for most of us, to be about being comfortable in the outdoors, not surviving against all odds. I try to leave the macho B/S to idiots like Grylls.

I tend to choose my battles carefully, I know my strengths and perhaps more importantly my weaknesses too. I know what my gear will or will not handle and I can improvise in most other situations. In the end these are some of the reasons I am usually more comfortable outdoors than at home in my bed.
 
Heh, got to say fear does play a part for me when i'm out, last time in Edale we did kinder scout, it was an amazing sight with lots of loverly views but during some points i was a little bit freaked out... there's a section where there's an 8" path then about 8" of grass then a 100' drop, it didn't half give me the screaming heebie-jeebies... however i pressed on and it was a flippin lovely view.
at night there were sheep and allsorts wandering around but nothing can scare me at night, i bring a Calibanzwei and i guarentee there's nothing scarier out there then him.
besides my snoring keeps everything away :D

overall my biggest fears whilst out are hights which is daft seeing as i'm 6'2" and cars! morons doing 60 down country lanes and caring not a jot whats around that blind corner!
 
Heh, got to say fear does play a part for me when i'm out, last time in Edale we did kinder scout, it was an amazing sight with lots of loverly views but during some points i was a little bit freaked out... there's a section where there's an 8" path then about 8" of grass then a 100' drop, it didn't half give me the screaming heebie-jeebies... however i pressed on and it was a flippin lovely view.
at night there were sheep and allsorts wandering around but nothing can scare me at night, i bring a Calibanzwei and i guarentee there's nothing scarier out there then him.
besides my snoring keeps everything away :D

overall my biggest fears whilst out are hights which is daft seeing as i'm 6'2" and cars! morons doing 60 down country lanes and caring not a jot whats around that blind corner!

Hights - I fear those!
Try walking the path around the edge of Table Mountain in Cape Town 6" path, 6"of loose gravel then 2000 feet straight down!
- gave me the heeby geebys!
 
You don't know fear until you've nearly stepped on a Pheasant hiding in the grass.

Grouse in the heather are bad that way too. They don't half make a racket taking off!

Then there's seals - they make disturbingly human-sounding noises in the night... I can see where the tales of selkies came from.
 
I'll see your pheasants and grouse and raise you a hedgehog outside a tent at night. Got to be the scariest thing in the UK countryside the first time you wake to hear one snuffling around you!
 
I dunno mate - I've had Highland coos snuffling around my tent in the night. Kinda similar noise, only much louder, and you know it's being made by something that could really do some damage if it trod on you by accident.
 
I dunno mate - I've had Highland coos snuffling around my tent in the night. Kinda similar noise, only much louder, and you know it's being made by something that could really do some damage if it trod on you by accident.

Yeah, fair enough. I guess it's the memories of an eight year and my rather active imagination. Waking in the early hours to hear SOMETHING scratching against the side of the tent and sounding far bigger than it is did scare me witless until my mate and I plucked up courage to look outside and falling about in hysterics as we realised what it was.

I was once woken up in my tent on a campsite on the banks of Lake Okeechobee where they had signs saying 'Do NOT feed the Alligators'. Something was trying to get in the back of the tent. :eek: Turned out to be a pet ferret! Another rather worrying experience though!
 
Yeah, fair enough. I guess it's the memories of an eight year and my rather active imagination. Waking in the early hours to hear SOMETHING scratching against the side of the tent and sounding far bigger than it is did scare me witless until my mate and I plucked up courage to look outside and falling about in hysterics as we realised what it was.

I was once woken up in my tent on a campsite on the banks of Lake Okeechobee where they had signs saying 'Do NOT feed the Alligators'. Something was trying to get in the back of the tent. :eek: Turned out to be a pet ferret! Another rather worrying experience though!

lol, nothing worse than hearing noises in the middle of the night round your tent! ..sends your mind round the twist!

Good enough reason to get into hammock camping for me! you can see prety much whats going on at all times which puts my mind at rest
 
Hope this helps,
all feedback appreciated, as is my first guide.
Ph34r

What are you talking about?
Wild camping in the UK is relatively safe
Walking the streets of a city after 10 pm is much more dangerous
leave the cod psychology to the magazines please
This is not a survivalistst forum we are simple folk
There are no Zombies out there
Thanks

What do you mean? "there are no zombies out there?" i bet you are one of those weirdos that believes elvis is dead....
 
I had some very disturbing dreams on N Rona...

I dont think I was the only one; someone wondered if the island was haunted. (Yes, it has a grim history, but the feeling I got was of a happy place.)

I think it was due to the Leaches Petrels flying around in the night. They make the most undescribable sounds. (Think of like a swallow...leaches petrels sound almost unexactly like a swallow does, but theres something similar)

Next day we went over to Suliseiger, but did not meet the Great Selkie.

I think he knew I would be the first to pinch his skin.
 
I don't usually scare easily, but I was walking along a hedge years ago in a thick mist, one of those early mornings when it's dead quiet like you've gone deaf, and a cow coughed in my ear.

I'm 6 ft tall, got a huge beard, and I screamed like a little girl. :o
 

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