Fear of the dark

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Home Guard

Forager
Dec 13, 2010
229
0
North Walsham, Nelson's County.
I have spent 4 hours of my life reading this thread, and enjoyed every moment of it. I love hearing stories like this as it cunjures up our natural instinct of wanting to know more.

I get enjoyment from surprising prey. The feeling you get when you manage to outsmart a quarry that has taken millions of years to develope to not to be killed. Rabbits for an example, camouflage is great. And another thing is that rabbits dont look up, so sitting on a low tree branch with an air rifle is like shooting fish in a barrel. All these little things add up, and you get to know your prey really well.

Thats exactly what that guy is doing to JD, I can understand why he does it. And there is also just something funny about scaring the crap out of someone in the dark in the middle of no where.

A couple of years ago I was staying round a mates, we decided to go for a walk at 1 or 2 in the morning. So off we troshed down the country lanes that surround the quiet town and into the woods on this warm summer evening/morning. As we neared the center of the woods which we know is a hotspot for deer movement at night (Atleast what we thought is deer) we decided to sit and watch on the hillside over the sleepy norfolk town.
Behind us at 150 yards up the hill we heard a humming like sound, we creeped closer to investigate, crouching in the yard high bracken as we went. At this point adrenaline was pumping like hell and we could see the dull illumination of a parrafin lamp.
Carrying on up the hill, we managed to witness some wierd pagan like worshipping with five or six people dressed in beige robes circling a small tree. The humming sound turned out to be a chant like thing. :yikes:

On discovery of this my mind exploded with excitement. This was in a pine forest which was planted in the 60's so and the other half of the forest being a ancient decideous woodland. So I instantly grabbed the nearest stick and threw it at one of the tall pine trees, it bounced off th pine tree and landed just behind the people. They all screamed and we retreated 50 yards away quietly and hid just enough so we could still see them.
It was a real laugh to watch as these people thought they witnessed a god like action. :lmao:

What I suggest JD do to foil this Mr Pistachio fellow, is to get another bushcrafter to set up camp in one of Mr Pistachio's favourite spots and act as a decoy. Meanwhile JD could make a foxhole type arrangement on higher ground overlooking the camp at 200+ yards away if possible. And as mentioned before, sit and wait with a powerful torch to illuminate the culprit. All of this should be done in the summer after a dry spell in order not to disturb the area.
 

rommy

Forager
Jun 4, 2010
122
0
Hull, East Yorkshire.
What I suggest JD do to foil this Mr Pistachio fellow, is to get another bushcrafter to set up camp in one of Mr Pistachio's favourite spots and act as a decoy. Meanwhile JD could make a foxhole type arrangement on higher ground overlooking the camp at 200+ yards away if possible. And as mentioned before, sit and wait with a powerful torch to illuminate the culprit. All of this should be done in the summer after a dry spell in order not to disturb the area.

I reckon Jonathan couldn't be harced personally although I suspect quite a few of us on here would be prepared to put our past experiences to good use to help solve the mystery. I'll put my name up.
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,482
Stourton,UK
I reckon Jonathan couldn't be harced personally although I suspect quite a few of us on here would be prepared to put our past experiences to good use to help solve the mystery. I'll put my name up.

Not in this weather, although Davey569 and I were going to the weekend the snow hit, but the roads were so bad he couldn't get to me. The area is flat and too densley packed to observe more than a few metres, no high ground unless you climb a tree. I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was like a rainforest in there. It's one of the most dense woodlands I've ever seen and everything is covered in ivy.
 

Rumi

Forager
I still wonder if the barefootpistachiofreak is a reader here. I certainly know that the bike saboteur who was caught through a mix of tracking, stalking and trail-cams and then prosecuted for criminal damage was as it was mentioned in court recently by his lawyer.. As it was a first offense he has now got a criminal record but no custodial sentence. I have also discovered that because he worked in a CRB required environmnet he has also lost his job.

Be careful, sometimes you don't always know what you are dealing with..
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,482
Stourton,UK
I still wonder if the barefootpistachiofreak is a reader here.

Maybe I'll find out next year. The 'other'alf' has been reading these forums of late and has expressed interest in coming for an overnighter when it gets warmer. I could use her as bait.
 
Jan 2, 2011
6
0
todmorden
i don't think i am scared of the dark, definitely more alert as poor vision means i might walk into a branch or step in a whole or something.

i once really freaked out though, i woke up in the middle of the night in my hammock, it was raining hard which might of been what woke me up (the noise on the tarp that is not a wet face :)). i like the noise and i was warm and cosy so i started to go back to sleep but then i felt something brush against me and i bolted in my sleeping bag before freezing in an awkward position. all sorts of monsters were running through my head, i quickly realised however that i was surrounded by hungry foxes, i figured foxes were not that dangerous but i was all wrapped up in my sleeping bag and hammock and they would be able to rip me to pieces from below. i slowly lifted my head to peer over the edge and i saw movement which for some reason made me even more scared despite being 100% sure they were there before looking. my sleeping bag has a pocket and in it is a torch which i slowly went for but i had visions of me turning it on to see a snarling fox right before it jumped up and bit my face (the images in my head were more like something out of dog soldiers). i didn't turn the torch on but the movement of me getting it caused the foxes to leave. as i fully woke up i released how silly i was being and they obviously just didn't know i was there and could smell me or something so came to check me out, i got to sleep quite easy i think.
the next morning i woke up to see a sheep, this didn't faze me at first but then the sheep looked at me and i kind of grunted at it to which is returned a loud BAAAAAA and shuffled to its feet. it was then that i noticed there was about 10 sheep under my tarp. the sheep that had seen me caused all the other sheep to do the same and within seconds they were scattering and sending my hammock all over the place. it wasn't till i was packing up that i remembered what happened during the night and everything very quickly went into place, the foxes were clearly a result of my half awake/half dreaming imagination and the thing that brushed past me and i saw moving was obviously just sheep getting out of the rain.
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,235
1,598
Cumbria
Sleeping with sheep then weetsie? Well you are from Yarkshire. ;) :D

(Only joking before the people from the wrong side of the Pennines get on my case!!).

It happened to some people I used to know. They were sheltering under an overhang under some rocks they knew about with a tarp stretched over the opening only to wake up all bleary eyed to see that the howff they were in was used by sheep. Apparently the sheep must have seen these strange slugs in their sleeping shelter ande just slept there anyway. By all accounts that winter night was one of the warmest!! Still I doubt by choice they would be sleeping in bivvy bags with sheep cuddling up to them like that. Also they probably wouldn't want someone to give out their names on a public forum neither.
 
Jan 2, 2011
6
0
todmorden
Sleeping with sheep then weetsie? Well you are from Yarkshire. ;) :D

(Only joking before the people from the wrong side of the Pennines get on my case!!).

It happened to some people I used to know. They were sheltering under an overhang under some rocks they knew about with a tarp stretched over the opening only to wake up all bleary eyed to see that the howff they were in was used by sheep. Apparently the sheep must have seen these strange slugs in their sleeping shelter ande just slept there anyway. By all accounts that winter night was one of the warmest!! Still I doubt by choice they would be sleeping in bivvy bags with sheep cuddling up to them like that. Also they probably wouldn't want someone to give out their names on a public forum neither.

hey, sleeping with sheep might be a viable survival strategy, if your down sleeping back is drenched through and you're 20 miles from anywhere you could find a nice sheep occupied shelter and slowly sneak in and wedge yourself between a couple.
 

PhotoGirl

Tenderfoot
Jul 18, 2010
82
0
Lancashire, UK
i don't think i am scared of the dark, definitely more alert as poor vision means i might walk into a branch or step in a whole or something.

i once really freaked out though, i woke up in the middle of the night in my hammock, it was raining hard which might of been what woke me up (the noise on the tarp that is not a wet face :)). i like the noise and i was warm and cosy so i started to go back to sleep but then i felt something brush against me and i bolted in my sleeping bag before freezing in an awkward position. all sorts of monsters were running through my head, i quickly realised however that i was surrounded by hungry foxes, i figured foxes were not that dangerous but i was all wrapped up in my sleeping bag and hammock and they would be able to rip me to pieces from below. i slowly lifted my head to peer over the edge and i saw movement which for some reason made me even more scared despite being 100% sure they were there before looking. my sleeping bag has a pocket and in it is a torch which i slowly went for but i had visions of me turning it on to see a snarling fox right before it jumped up and bit my face (the images in my head were more like something out of dog soldiers). i didn't turn the torch on but the movement of me getting it caused the foxes to leave. as i fully woke up i released how silly i was being and they obviously just didn't know i was there and could smell me or something so came to check me out, i got to sleep quite easy i think.
the next morning i woke up to see a sheep, this didn't faze me at first but then the sheep looked at me and i kind of grunted at it to which is returned a loud BAAAAAA and shuffled to its feet. it was then that i noticed there was about 10 sheep under my tarp. the sheep that had seen me caused all the other sheep to do the same and within seconds they were scattering and sending my hammock all over the place. it wasn't till i was packing up that i remembered what happened during the night and everything very quickly went into place, the foxes were clearly a result of my half awake/half dreaming imagination and the thing that brushed past me and i saw moving was obviously just sheep getting out of the rain.

now normally I am also not scared of the dark in most situations. I wander around the house in the dark very often and make people jump (not on purpose) but just because they didnt see/hear me or were not expecting me to be there when they put on the light.

Seeing your post on how you were woken up actually made me laugh and then made me think of this and how it had been threatened against me for making someone jump.
[video=youtube;ptpl68MPqCg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptpl68MPqCg[/video]
 

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