When were you last really scared?We'd been watching the Shining. We were staying in an old church building. In hindsight, taking the shortcut home after midnight, in the mist, through the old graveyard was a bad idea.
I'm not sure what started it, but suddenly all the hairs on my neck had gone up and I was crapping myself. It was almost as bad as when, after a few cups of coffee too many and buzzing on caffeine, I got freaked out by my own reflection in the toilets.
When were you last really scared?
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chthonic, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 15:43)
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Lost in the fogA few summers ago I decided to go trekking in the Pyrenees for a couple of weeks. There's a trail that goes all the way from the Atlantic to the Mediterannean and I thought I'd do a bit of that. I went alone, which isn't ideal for trekking in the mountains but it's a popular route and in mid-summer there were bound to be plenty of people doing the same thing.
Anyway, a few days into the trek, middle of the afternoon and I should be arriving at my designated camping spot, by a lake, within the hour. A lake which my guide tells me is visible from the ridge I'm walking along. A few minutes later, sure enough I see a lake and head down a track towards it only to find when I get there that it's little more than a big puddle and I'm not where I'm meant to be. Nevertheless, I manage to work out where I am on the map and decide to camp the night there anyway.
Come morning and I'm in the middle of the thickest fog I've ever seen, seriously, visibility down to just a few metres. Problem is I'm low on food and need to get to the nearest town by the evening. So despite the fog, with my compass skills honed to "adequate", I decide to head on. It quickly becomes clear that the trail I'd followed the night before was just one of many animal tracks and that in reality I'm way off the real trail, stumbling through bushes and over rocks in zero visibility and that if I fall and hurt myself no one is going to find me for a long time.
I am now seriously fucking scared. I don't know where I am. The fog is so thick I can't possibly take a compass bearing and I'm cold and wet from staggering through wet bushes for 2 hours. I'm going to die here, this is it. I am such a fucking idiot.
Then I smell smoke and find a hut with a group of french hikers who were able to show me where I was and how to get out of there. After that I still had to jog a 6 hour hike in 3 hours to get to the nearest town before dark but at least the fear of imminent, lonely death was gone.
As for length, the fog was so thick I couldn't tell you.
(, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 18:52, Reply)
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