Bobo
5th July 2005, 06:56 PM
Had a "near death experience" today btw. Well, not that bad actually, but an experience it was. I went running as usual, but this time I went into the forest. I mean really in the forest, no road or path... a real "off-road" run. I didn't think it through before I went there, it was just an idea as I was running. I'm used to the forests in the southern Finland where there's at least some air between the flying insects, but as I learned today the forests here in the central Finland aren't really the same. The forest I ran into is quite dry and partly easy to move in, but there is this swampy area nearby and as I learned today, it's the home of the biggest, angriest and most scary insects alive! Damn... I guess my speed was high enough during the first 2-3 kilometers, but then as I got tired of jumping up and down in the difficult terrain (and started sweating as hell... nearly 30 degrees celsius in the shadows again today...), the insects noticed I'm there and they attacked me.
It was actually quite scary... I ran as fast as I could but the swarm around me got thicker and thicker, there must have been hundreds of them trying to eat me. I'm not talking about some whining flies or something, I'm talking about blood sucking mosquitos, horseflies so big I've never seen before, and some scary-ass bitches I don't even know what they were. I felt sharp pain all over my body, they were biting and stinging me all over... because I was stupid enough to go there without any insect repellent on my skin, in short pants and a sleeveless shirt, loose enough for anything crawl under. As I was running (in panic) trying to get rid of the fuckin' brainsuckers, I got lost. I have memorized the map of this area and I know most of the smaller roads in the forest too, but there's still so much forest around here that it's easy to get lost for hours. I was lucky having memorized the map, so I knew approximately in which direction I should run, using the sun as my compass. The forest was quite thick so I couldn't run in a straight line, so to avoid running in circles I had to stop from time to time to check where the sun is.
Stopping even for a few seconds wasn't a good idea: the whole swarm landed on my skin right at the same moment I stopped! It was actually quite scary, I looked on my feet and there were literally at least a hundred blood sucking fuckheads on my feet. I slapped them with my hands and I think I could kill about 5-8 on a single slap. And the size of some of those horseflies... damn... at least an inch long fuckers and they really hurt when they bite, I mean really hurt! I have never seen that many insects in my life, not in one place at least. I kept on running through the annoying spider webs with branches scratching my skin... for the first 15-20 minutes I was in real panic, but after a while the situation started feeling funny (I was going mad I guess...). Just think about running in a thick forest with hundreds of big insects trying to suck Your blood and bite pieces off Your skin, things crawling under Your shirt, blood dripping from one big scratch I got on my knee when I fell... insects crawling in Your hair... after a while You start laughing. At leas I did...
Finally I got to a road about 3km from home... I must have been a sight when I stumbled out of the forest, a car went by me just then and they stared at me like I was from outer space or something. The sunshine and open air on the road was too much for most of the insects, and only some followed me for the next km or two. When I finally got home I couldn't stop laughing while examining my hair to get rid of the dangerous crawlies there could be.
One thing I didn't think of when going in the forest was snakes (poisonous adders) and some insects that carry dangerous blood diseases. We don't have malaria here, but we do have one type of fever disease that can lead to fatal brain fever (I don't know its english name, "mole fever" would be the direct interpretation). We also have one type of annoying flies that dig their way under Your scalp and lay their eggs there, a pain in the ass to get rid of them. That fever is spread by a mite... Here's some pics of some of the crawlies that followed me:
http://www.punkki.net/numerokuvat/28paarma.jpg
A horsefly, hurts like hell when it bites. Big fucker. There are many sizes, colors and shapes those fuckers come in, and the whole fucking selection the nature has to offer were biting piecess off me. :x
http://www.lehtikuva.fi/galleria/avikainen/p3.jpg
A local mosquito, sucks blood and leaves an itching spot for a day or two. My feet and neck are full of those red itchy spots... :x
http://www.ihotaudit.net/pics/hirvik.jpg
The most annoying fucker, a "moose fly" (I don't know its english name). This fucker has dropped its wings and is ready to crawl under the scalp to lay eggs. A tough mothafucka it is, You can't squeeze hard enough with Your fingers to kill it. Found two of those in my hair when I got home. Fuck.
http://www.punkki.net/artikkelit/punkki_ihossa.jpg
The most dangerous one: a mite that lurks on the branches and grass and starts sucking blood on Your skin. This is the one that spreads the dangerous "mole fever". Haven't found any of those on my skin yet, tiny motherfuckers... must keep on looking.
http://www.yle.fi/koostamo/user_images/13_674_1091184544.jpg
A wasp. Stings like hell... for some reason there were a couple of those too, killed one on my neck. Those fuckers can kill You if You get too many stings.
http://www.meteor.co.il/Images/Spider%20web%20picture%20Corbis.jpg
A spider web. I hate spiders... ran through several big webs. :x :x :x
Among those I recognized there were some big ugly fuckers I don't even know what they were, and I don't even want to know. Going into the dark forest in the clothes I wore, without any insect repellent... propably one of the most stupid things I've ever done. Still a bit new here in the central Finland, and I learned a good lesson: respect the forest. Damn... If I would have collapsed there for some reason there wouldn't have been too much left of me after a few days. Not to mention the big fuckers that fled me in the bushes, I definately wasn't the biggest animal in the forest. A bear would have been almost the one worse thing than the insects... but I think even a bear would have avoided me because of the insect fog around me.
It must have been my smell... I was sweating like hell because it was so warm... that + the fact that there is a large swamp nearby where all the little flying fuckers are born.
But... now that I survived it (and if I didn't get any diseases), it was actually quite cool experience. I don't fear pain or suffering, otherwise I wouldn't be running marathons... there must be some masochist blood in my veins. That was a cool experience, but I most certainly will not do it again. Shit, I look bad... red spots all over my body. :x :lol:
It was actually quite scary... I ran as fast as I could but the swarm around me got thicker and thicker, there must have been hundreds of them trying to eat me. I'm not talking about some whining flies or something, I'm talking about blood sucking mosquitos, horseflies so big I've never seen before, and some scary-ass bitches I don't even know what they were. I felt sharp pain all over my body, they were biting and stinging me all over... because I was stupid enough to go there without any insect repellent on my skin, in short pants and a sleeveless shirt, loose enough for anything crawl under. As I was running (in panic) trying to get rid of the fuckin' brainsuckers, I got lost. I have memorized the map of this area and I know most of the smaller roads in the forest too, but there's still so much forest around here that it's easy to get lost for hours. I was lucky having memorized the map, so I knew approximately in which direction I should run, using the sun as my compass. The forest was quite thick so I couldn't run in a straight line, so to avoid running in circles I had to stop from time to time to check where the sun is.
Stopping even for a few seconds wasn't a good idea: the whole swarm landed on my skin right at the same moment I stopped! It was actually quite scary, I looked on my feet and there were literally at least a hundred blood sucking fuckheads on my feet. I slapped them with my hands and I think I could kill about 5-8 on a single slap. And the size of some of those horseflies... damn... at least an inch long fuckers and they really hurt when they bite, I mean really hurt! I have never seen that many insects in my life, not in one place at least. I kept on running through the annoying spider webs with branches scratching my skin... for the first 15-20 minutes I was in real panic, but after a while the situation started feeling funny (I was going mad I guess...). Just think about running in a thick forest with hundreds of big insects trying to suck Your blood and bite pieces off Your skin, things crawling under Your shirt, blood dripping from one big scratch I got on my knee when I fell... insects crawling in Your hair... after a while You start laughing. At leas I did...
Finally I got to a road about 3km from home... I must have been a sight when I stumbled out of the forest, a car went by me just then and they stared at me like I was from outer space or something. The sunshine and open air on the road was too much for most of the insects, and only some followed me for the next km or two. When I finally got home I couldn't stop laughing while examining my hair to get rid of the dangerous crawlies there could be.
One thing I didn't think of when going in the forest was snakes (poisonous adders) and some insects that carry dangerous blood diseases. We don't have malaria here, but we do have one type of fever disease that can lead to fatal brain fever (I don't know its english name, "mole fever" would be the direct interpretation). We also have one type of annoying flies that dig their way under Your scalp and lay their eggs there, a pain in the ass to get rid of them. That fever is spread by a mite... Here's some pics of some of the crawlies that followed me:
http://www.punkki.net/numerokuvat/28paarma.jpg
A horsefly, hurts like hell when it bites. Big fucker. There are many sizes, colors and shapes those fuckers come in, and the whole fucking selection the nature has to offer were biting piecess off me. :x
http://www.lehtikuva.fi/galleria/avikainen/p3.jpg
A local mosquito, sucks blood and leaves an itching spot for a day or two. My feet and neck are full of those red itchy spots... :x
http://www.ihotaudit.net/pics/hirvik.jpg
The most annoying fucker, a "moose fly" (I don't know its english name). This fucker has dropped its wings and is ready to crawl under the scalp to lay eggs. A tough mothafucka it is, You can't squeeze hard enough with Your fingers to kill it. Found two of those in my hair when I got home. Fuck.
http://www.punkki.net/artikkelit/punkki_ihossa.jpg
The most dangerous one: a mite that lurks on the branches and grass and starts sucking blood on Your skin. This is the one that spreads the dangerous "mole fever". Haven't found any of those on my skin yet, tiny motherfuckers... must keep on looking.
http://www.yle.fi/koostamo/user_images/13_674_1091184544.jpg
A wasp. Stings like hell... for some reason there were a couple of those too, killed one on my neck. Those fuckers can kill You if You get too many stings.
http://www.meteor.co.il/Images/Spider%20web%20picture%20Corbis.jpg
A spider web. I hate spiders... ran through several big webs. :x :x :x
Among those I recognized there were some big ugly fuckers I don't even know what they were, and I don't even want to know. Going into the dark forest in the clothes I wore, without any insect repellent... propably one of the most stupid things I've ever done. Still a bit new here in the central Finland, and I learned a good lesson: respect the forest. Damn... If I would have collapsed there for some reason there wouldn't have been too much left of me after a few days. Not to mention the big fuckers that fled me in the bushes, I definately wasn't the biggest animal in the forest. A bear would have been almost the one worse thing than the insects... but I think even a bear would have avoided me because of the insect fog around me.
It must have been my smell... I was sweating like hell because it was so warm... that + the fact that there is a large swamp nearby where all the little flying fuckers are born.
But... now that I survived it (and if I didn't get any diseases), it was actually quite cool experience. I don't fear pain or suffering, otherwise I wouldn't be running marathons... there must be some masochist blood in my veins. That was a cool experience, but I most certainly will not do it again. Shit, I look bad... red spots all over my body. :x :lol: