QotD

[msconduct]

14. Tell about a time you slept outdoors.

I camped at one point for months, not because I like it but because it was the cheapest way to travel. The most striking night of all of them was the night my ex-husband and I spent in Hammerfest. It's in the Arctic Circle and we were there as part of a tour through Russia, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The weather was pretty cold - sometimes below zero C. At this point in the tour a lot of the other participants had wimped out and were renting cabins to sleep in, but we along with a few other people were determined to keep camping.

The weather that evening was decidedly dodgy. Then it developed into a full-blown rainstorm. The wind was roaring so loudly that we had no hope of sleeping whatsoever. During the night we had to throw on our rain gear and jump out to help another couple whose tent had completely blown away. (At least that was easier than it could have been as it was light all night.) At one point a local cat demanded loudly to be let in the tent and spent the rest of the night curled up on me.

What a memory. It was absolutely brilliant.

Comments

[echomyst]

What amazing memories! And random cat! Cold & wet though, not so fun... Hope that couple was able to catch some sleep :D

[msconduct]

None of us got any sleep, but it was worth it:).

[siglinde999]

What an amazing adventure!

[msconduct]

Yes, it was incredible. The whole thing was pretty gruelling travel (for example, in Russia we were forced to stay in cabins rather than camping, and I vividly recall switching the light on in the bathroom during the night and seeing the entire walls moving as hundreds of cockroaches fled), and I would be a bit less keen on that today, but it made for some great memories in retrospect.

[siglinde999]

Shudder! I know cockroaches aren’t really as awful as they seem, but they give me the willies. I remember having them swarm up through the bathtub drain once when I lived in Brazil. The sound woke me up, and the bathroom looked like something out of a horror movie. I never forgot to put the plug in again. They were my cat’s favourite toy when he found them during the night. My other memory of them is from walking down a street in Jakarta after dark. It was impossible not to step on them as they were everywhere.

[kaishin108]

That is an incredible memory! How odd feeling that it was light all night. I used to love to sleep outside but I have gotten wimpy about it for the last 15 years or so. :)

[msconduct]

Argh, that sounds awful too. I'm much better with insects than I used to be when I was younger - in 2019 I went to a wonderful insect zoo on Vancouver Island where you could hold all the insects and that was great. I even held a tarantula, something I couldn't have contemplated when I was younger. (Their feet are soft and furry!) But I dtill do have a problem with things that move quickly. We have a native cockroach in NZ which doesn't get into food or anything, so I've tried to make my peace with the occasional one coming inside, but it's still a bit of a struggle.

[msconduct]

Yes, I think it's more of a youthful pursuit:). The midnight sun was fascinating - it wasn't as if the sun was blazing brightly, but it was definitey still pretty light. Now I need to go back in the winter for the Northern lights!