Kato

Whatever it was that followed me home in the dark the other night (see Night on Bear Mountain entry) was about again last night. True to form it followed me home again. I have no idea what it was but it sounded small so I decided not to worry about it. Nevertheless, all the hairs on my neck stood up again. Like I said I didn’t worry about it at all. Instead of worrying about it I lay in bed listening to the Tawny Owl making some very weird noises; the sort of noises that no director would ever get away with adding to a film on account of the fact that they sounded so exactly like the noises you would expect to hear in a horror film. I especially didn’t worry about it when I heard what sounded exactly like footsteps and a dark shape appeared. Quite what a deer was doing crashing about in the woods at that time of night I just don’t know, if it was some kind of practical joke designed to make me jump out of the skin it didn’t work. Cool as a cucumber I was. Coincidently I decided that this was the perfect time to practice my “leaping suddenly to my feet in a defensive yet aggressive manner” manoeuvre, you know just to make sure that should anything more threatening than a deer suddenly appear I would be ready for it. I would recommend you try such a thing yourself, try lying on the floor or bed if you have such a thing, and then leap suddenly to your feet, be sure to land in a nice poised position ready to fight off any intruders. Done correctly it is a move that should strike fear into the heart of all but the most hardened of advisory. It is not a move that it is possible to pull off to any great effect when zipped up to the neck in a sleeping bag. I did make briefly to my feet before crashing, like a sack of spuds to the ground. The deer left of its own accord.

After that the night passed without adventure. I was far too hot so I gave up on sleeping on the Thermarest mattress, it works as an insulating layer against the ground and so keeps the cold out in the winter. Rolling off the mattress allowed me to cool down, the cooler ground acted as a heat sink for my body heat. The ground did seem a little hard after a couple of months of sleeping on the Thermarest but I’m sure I will get used to it some time. This morning was good in a grey kind of way; I found £14 worth of pound coins in the bottom of my sleeping bag. I was rich; that £14 plus the money I had left over from last night meant that I had about £30. Strangely though I couldn’t find the money from last night anywhere, I must have had about £15 left over.

On the way to the bus I might have discovered the identity of the whatever it was that follows me about in the woods. There was a pet ferret, or some such creature running about in the area where I normally get followed. Could be it, then again it ran away when it saw me coming; hardly the actions of something that stalked me the night before. The whole matter is intriguing.

I discovered where the Owl lives last weekend; I will try to get a photograph if I can. Well I would if it hadn’t been for that incident with the camera and the rain. Mike is moving in tomorrow, he has a really nice camera so I asked him to bring it. Apparently there was an incident involving his camera and the ground, or to be more accurate with the speed with which it hit the ground. We are going to be unstopable in the Jungle.



Have a good Easter