I really enjoy being in contact with nature, staying with good friends and a little bit of adventure. So I decided to have everything in a camping trip. Every single camping experience usually brings something special, especially if this is the first one of your whole life, in an astonishing place and bears showed up to visit you.
In 1999, I was in Canada and I was told about an incredible place to camp. Algonquin Park has a forest, hundreds of lakes and wild nature. I found more details on the internet, made some calls, convinced some friends and, finally, couple weeks later, we (three girls and I) were inside of a full rented car, with two Canadian canoes on it, going toward our amazing trip.
According to my plan we should have arrived around 6:00pm at the camping site, but after a late departure, uncoordinated rowing, and an unpredictable half-mile crossing land with boats and luggage on our heads, we decided to put off our final destination for the next morning and put up the tent in the middle of an island. As the sunlight went down our hopes about puting up the tent went down as well. We were a homogenous group - all of us were ESL students and none of us had ever camped before. After various attempts to read the encrypted manual lit by flashlight, we figured out how to keep the tent standing more than 5 minutes.
Ok, the first night wasn’t the best start, but the next morning was amazing – in despite of what would happen to us in the evening. We put the boat in the water and rowed straight ahead to our camping site. The tent was put up in less than 20 minutes (our record) under a beautiful sunny day. We talked, swam, laughed, had lunch, took a nap, had a complete dinner, stared at the stars and, finally, we made a little single mistake: a girl, who didn’t believe in the dangerous of bears, extinguished the fire using the rest of the food. At that time the smell was not so good, but I guess the bears had a different opinion about it.
I went to my sleeping bag with bad feeling and I was awakened with bad company, or better, the worst kind one – bears surrounding the camping site. The sound was terrifying. Pots and rocks being thrown from one side to another. Sound of bears’ f ootsteps going back and forth. Of course we were inside of the tent trying to keep the silence as much as we could. We were praying (In Portuguese, Japanese and Spanish) for God to keep the bears away from the tent.
Although we couldn’t see anything, we could hear quite well. After they going back and forth tons of times, I heard a bear getting closer and closer, when suddenly I felt a deep sniff right over my head. Then I thought “the end” has arrived. Our deepest silence wasn´t broken by the desire to scream. That deep sniff sounded like it took one month long. I had enough time to think over my whole life.
Fortunately they gave up looking for food, including human flesh, and went way. I can´t remember how long we took to sleep again, but I will never forget the meaning of the word fear. I still keep in touch with some of those brave friends, and we always talk and laugh about that incredible night. Although I have never camped after this episode and have no idea how many times I will camp, that one is the best and unforgettable camping of my life.
MB
(Reviewed)
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