Stage One and a half
Bassen (D) - Oyten (D)
Monday the 22/07-13 at half past crap in the morning
8,8 km
Ø 32 km/h
Ø 5,2 l/100 km (19,23 l/km)
I don't think that there had past more than about 15-20 minutes after my conciousness had left out the symfomy of noise from the east/west passing vehicles on the autobahn until I was drifting off into a nice zero gravity sleep in my hammock before I was awakened.
Pia was dangling in her own hammock beside my and tugging my sleeping cradle whilst shout-whispering "Morten!.....pssst.....Morten!"
I pulled out my ear plugs and pulled down the parachute fabric to see what the hub-bub was about. I was far from being awake.
"There's a car over there!" she whispered. I just could not get that to make any sense and she repeated; "There's a car over there" pointing about 50 yards to the edge of the woods.
She was right. I could just make out a silouette of a car and two people from the back light in the western direction. My first intuition was (and may I state again that I'm not really awake at this time yet) that they were hunters. But what the heck would hunters be doing in the middle of the night between Sunday and Monday? Then they must have been poachers?! Naaaaah..... Not likely.
The whole situation appeared to me to be extremely mysterious. I had earlier joked about being next to a corn field (in every horror movie there's alway a scene with somebody screeming off into a corn field or some aliens landing there or something) but these two guys rumbling around in the edge of the forest where Germans and hardly from another planet....or....well....whatever....
When Pia first noticed the car she was reading Lonely Planet on Scotland with a torch attached to her head so she actually didn't even hear or see them enter the area - complete stealth mode with head lights shut off and everything. But why???
The two strangers didn't speak when they exited the vehicle. They simply opened the trunk and rattled with some bottles - or at least glass - and shut the back of the car again only to get back inside again. We lay in absolute silence without moving an inch or a muscle - heck - we bearly breathed.
Slowly the car began to reverse. Again without any lights on. Veeeeeeery strange.
The drive of the vehicle commenced a turn and when the car was pointed directly in our way he suddenly switched on the head lights and we were absolutely smack in the middle of the beams about 60 yards away.
"Don't move!" I whispered to Pia hoping that our campsite wouldn't get revealed.
The beam was only on for merely 4-5 seconds and then shut off again. The car continued to creep away and once again we were alone in the woods.......or were we??
"There's still one out there" Pia said silenty while pointing to the place where the car had been parked. "There's still a guy there! I only saw one of them get back in!"
I looked and looked and reeeeally looked hard and suddenly I doubted if the seecond dude actually
did get in. Right - I got out of the hammock, slowly tip-toed over to my right pannier and got out the small travel axe I always bring with me as well as a mofo 120 lumens head torch and started to partrol the area. So there I was - in the middle of the night in a desert German forest wearing motorcycle boots, boxer shorts equipped with a torch and an axe..... In a way I felt ridiculous but my adrenalin told me that there was a certain degree of seriousness to the situation still.
As I moved in on the scene of the crime I thought if they had dumped something - or someone?? What could I expect to find when I came out there? Was there really still a bloke left behind?? Where were the others?? How far had they gone away?? What the hell were they doing out there???!! Had the German guy we spoke to back in the village ratted us out??
I searched the areas from where the car had been parked in a radius of about 40 yards and came to the conclusion that there wasn't a trace of anything. No boogie men, no corpses, no toxic waste, no nothing. As a safety precaution I did a 360* sweep around our camp and sure enough. We were as alone out there as when he had come.
We were both a bit annoyed by the situation and we couldn't really come up with a plausible explanation as to what i carnation their agenda was. Pia's final bid was that they were crooks fleeing from the scene of the crime taking a route that nobody could follow. But why the shut off lights? The trunk?? It just didn't make any sense.
:huh:
Suddenly I heard something rattle in the direction from where we had entered. I reflectively pointed the nuclear powered torch in that direction. It lit up everything in a width of 50 yards. Nothing. Now a crackling sound from another location! Stop...stop...stop... my mind was playing tricks on me. I was sure of that. We
were alone!
My rational way of thinking didn't really prevale in the end over my imagination and I ended up with 2 different strategies for the next plan of action. Either we were to bunk up in the hammocks again and get some sleep (yaaaah right!) or take down camp and get the hell out of Dodge a.s.a.f.p.
Out of Dodge it was.....and we got a packin'.
I didn't really look at the time when we fired up our bikes again to get out of that forest but I would reckon it was around 01:30. The Zümo was set to find the nearest possible Gasthof and after two failed attempts a kind hearted young woman finally let us in to stay for the night.
We both didn't really give much thought on how much it costed or what the standard was like just as long as it didn't have any crazy German axe murderers roaming around. And as that didn't appear to be the case we unpacked once again and got ourselves installed in the B&B room. We soon got to speaking of what actually happended out there in the forest.
The thing that really didn't give any meaning was the shut off lights. Why?? It was totally out in the sticks in the middle of the night. There were so many questions but we didn't get any answers.
Hind sightet I can see that my reaction was maybe a tad out of proportion but on the other hand - better to be safe than strung up by your balls from a tree while one guy rapes your girlfriend and the other rides off with you bikes. Well - the imagination is a good thing to have but I still feel to this very day that it was the right descision. Had I been out there with a mate, well then it would have been a completely different ball game but you're prepared to do anything to protect the one you love so I have no regrets.
So once again....good night!
To be continued.
