07-01-2018, 01:15 AM
World travellers...
Each climate/territory/area is a challenge. In Africa, you don't reach for trees. In BC forests you need to as they are so dense you can hardly push or squeeze between them. Different dangers different challenges.
But with the internet and research savvy world travellers should be able to correctly prepare for any challenge. "Failing to plan is planning to fail" A bad ending for sure, it would not have been an easy death.
Simple mistakes can kill you. We are not that structurally designed to survive. We have no or little fur, zero functional claws, and dulled teeth.
Our ability to survive temperature variations is a little better than some alages. People need to believe this and understand this. "But we have a big brain." The usual defence!
Yes, and it doesn't work very well under stress conditions.
I took a short canoe trip one time on a lake I know like the back of my hand. A storm came up, no I hadn't checked, and I put into shore. I pulled the canoe up a small river and onto the bank. I tied it to a tree and grabbed my go bag and headed for an old fuel depot structure I knew about. My cell was out of range, even for 911. Hint sometimes you can reach 911 when your phone is showing no signal, at least in Canada. No luck. I made the structure. It was 50 or so years old and hardly more than a roof. But it was out of the rain. Then it rained. It poured sideways and the temperature dropped sharply. I got a fire going and huddled down for an uncomfortable night.
The morning was gorgeous and I again tried my cell. Nothing. The rain had turned the little river into a torrent. It was slippery. Murphy came for a visit and I snapped my ankle. Bad had just gone to worse, and while I was less than ten miles from my favourite bar, that could have been a thousand. I couldn't stand on my leg and the blood seeping out of my boot told me it was a compound fracture. The swelling was making my boot a compression bandage and while far from sterile it was reasonably clean.
I slipped into the torrent and painfully floated my way downstream. It was cold and while this might be good for the ankle my chances of surviving another night at the temperatures of last night, wet, were slim.
The tree I had tied the canoe to was gone and in the lake. It had pulled the front of the canoe down into the water. I cut the line with the knife I always carry. Emptied it of water and climbed in. I made it back to the village.
If I didn't have a knife
If I wasn't a strong swimmer.
If the canoe had sunk.
If I panicked.
The story could have been like the OP.
"Weary eyes get no surprise." Plan your exit strategy or Murphy might do it for you!!
Each climate/territory/area is a challenge. In Africa, you don't reach for trees. In BC forests you need to as they are so dense you can hardly push or squeeze between them. Different dangers different challenges.
But with the internet and research savvy world travellers should be able to correctly prepare for any challenge. "Failing to plan is planning to fail" A bad ending for sure, it would not have been an easy death.
Simple mistakes can kill you. We are not that structurally designed to survive. We have no or little fur, zero functional claws, and dulled teeth.
Our ability to survive temperature variations is a little better than some alages. People need to believe this and understand this. "But we have a big brain." The usual defence!
Yes, and it doesn't work very well under stress conditions.
I took a short canoe trip one time on a lake I know like the back of my hand. A storm came up, no I hadn't checked, and I put into shore. I pulled the canoe up a small river and onto the bank. I tied it to a tree and grabbed my go bag and headed for an old fuel depot structure I knew about. My cell was out of range, even for 911. Hint sometimes you can reach 911 when your phone is showing no signal, at least in Canada. No luck. I made the structure. It was 50 or so years old and hardly more than a roof. But it was out of the rain. Then it rained. It poured sideways and the temperature dropped sharply. I got a fire going and huddled down for an uncomfortable night.
The morning was gorgeous and I again tried my cell. Nothing. The rain had turned the little river into a torrent. It was slippery. Murphy came for a visit and I snapped my ankle. Bad had just gone to worse, and while I was less than ten miles from my favourite bar, that could have been a thousand. I couldn't stand on my leg and the blood seeping out of my boot told me it was a compound fracture. The swelling was making my boot a compression bandage and while far from sterile it was reasonably clean.
I slipped into the torrent and painfully floated my way downstream. It was cold and while this might be good for the ankle my chances of surviving another night at the temperatures of last night, wet, were slim.
The tree I had tied the canoe to was gone and in the lake. It had pulled the front of the canoe down into the water. I cut the line with the knife I always carry. Emptied it of water and climbed in. I made it back to the village.
If I didn't have a knife
If I wasn't a strong swimmer.
If the canoe had sunk.
If I panicked.
The story could have been like the OP.
"Weary eyes get no surprise." Plan your exit strategy or Murphy might do it for you!!
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