Eight weeks in the woods, and winter was arriving early.
By the end of this week things were very much hanging in the balance.
This week, I mentioned walking right into the middle of a herd of deer, without them being any the wiser. In this video, I am standing between two oaks growing closely together and this hind has no idea I am there. The video is not the best (it was taken on my old Canon SX20IS camera, rather than a dedicated video unit), but it serves to show how close you can get to wild animals, if you are either careful, lucky, or a combination of the two.
Read more at the introduction, and see Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five, Week Six and Week Seven, if you wish to catch up.
You should click on each of these Notes to read the full text and view any attached photographs, some of which might not show below.
You might also have to open this email in a browser, as it is probably too long for some clients.
If you have anything you wish to ask, or add, please feel free to comment below, or use Notes to do so. I really appreciate the dialogue!
And if you enjoy this series, please do share it with a friend or family member, that would be wonderful—the more, the merrier. Or restack on Notes!
I have a few ideas of what to do with this project once it is complete, but I am still working on them (would you like to read an expanded version of this in book form? A book which talks of how I got to that point in my life and, especially, the surprising lessons I learned from the experience. Perhaps with some practical skill descriptions mixed in?). As such, after this series is complete, it will be archived, only available to paying subscribers.
Many thanks for reading.
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I have just caught up with your journals... I don’t always catch them in Notes so these updates are perfect.
I imagine studying the stars in such an unpolluted part of the world to be something akin to celestial, not only that the stars are that but that which you felt also. Here we have about as little light pollution as is possible in this part of France, helped immensely by recent attempts to save energy, the street light is now off from 10pm. But, like you in Scotland, the hill(s) block much of the sky. Still, it is something I can sit and gaze at for as long as my neck allows, out there in the silence must have been pure magic.
I was thinking about your deer video, perhaps, by this point in your adventure and I truly don’t mean this in any way to be derogatory, (I doubt I would strip down and wash every day in icy temps with limited hot water) I think you may have smelled like the forest. That is to say all trace of artificial had been eradicated by force of living as you were. Deer have scent receptors about 1000x more powerful than ours, your deer almost definitely caught your scent but was so unconcerned she didn’t bother her pretty head any more than she would have done had you been a rabbit. It must have been a truly remarkable experience!
I would certainly be interested in reading an expanded version of your experience. I've shared your Substack with a few people I think would like to read about your time out in the wild.