Thunderstorms at their finest!
Ishicilelwe: 17.05.2024
Yesterday, thunderstorms were forecast for two days. I'm so glad I'm not at 2000m yet! But not everything that's forecast comes true, especially not in the mountains. There was no rain or thunderstorms yesterday. And today it stayed dry most of the time, with very thick fog and visibility of 10m... which wasn't bad because today was the easy stage. 20km of forest road and I still got lost twice... My navigation skills could be improved. Without my cell phone, which tells me how far I've strayed from the path, I'd be lost. I have to say, though, that the Via Alpina is practically not signposted at all, which I already know from the last section I walked. It uses various existing trail networks and you pass a Via Alpina sign maybe two or three times a day... Anyway, I spent over an hour trying to find a good place to sleep where I could put up my tent. I had found a nice spot and had already cleared all the stones and branches out of the way when my eyes fell on two dead trees that were about 10m away and one of which was leaning directly in my direction. That was not a good feeling. So I moved on. Most of the nice spots were in a slight depression, which is not an option if it rained. But eventually - after a long search in all directions - I found a really nice spot, flat and surrounded by wonderful, very tall (around 30m tall) old beech trees. Wonderful. So I put up my tent and fell asleep peacefully. Until a mega thunderstorm with a mega loud clap of thunder woke me up at 10.30pm.
And now I'm lying here, the forecast 7mm (!!!) of rain is pounding down on the tent and I'm wondering how that translates into a water column. I think my tent has a water column of 20,000mm. That should hold up. Only the cracking of thunder doesn't stop it.
And I have to endure the roar of thunder in my tent on the mountain under huge beech trees (at least that and not oak trees...). One storm passes by, immediately followed by the next. There was a dark orange storm warning. And I haven't experienced a storm like that for a long time. Pure FORCE of nature. Impressive and fucking scary! The storm passes EXACTLY over me. There's not even a second between the lightning and the thunder, the loud crash that echoes through the night and makes the ground shake, immediately followed by the next flashes of lightning and thunderclaps. I turn to the elemental beings. It calms me down to know that I'm not alone. The tent is brightly lit up again and again by the lightning. I crawl into my sleeping bag and lie on my stomach with my eyes on my arms. I don't even want to know how close the distance is. It's too close and too loud and far too frightening. I won't forget this night anytime soon. As soon as one storm has passed, the next one comes along. I have no choice but to give in to it. If I get struck by lightning in my tent today, then so be it. I can't go anywhere! Especially not in the middle of the night!
This is where the therapeutic writing begins so as not to go crazy...
Lightning flashes non-stop across the sky, followed by a clap of thunder that makes the earth I'm lying on vibrate. Shit!
Sleeping is out of the question. Anyone who knows me knows that I've been terrified of thunderstorms ever since I was almost struck by lightning in Australia in 2010. It was so damn close behind me that my eardrums almost burst and I could smell the burning. Close call.And now I'm lying here, the forecast 7mm (!!!) of rain is pounding down on the tent and I'm wondering how that translates into a water column. I think my tent has a water column of 20,000mm. That should hold up. Only the cracking of thunder doesn't stop it.
And I have to endure the roar of thunder in my tent on the mountain under huge beech trees (at least that and not oak trees...). One storm passes by, immediately followed by the next. There was a dark orange storm warning. And I haven't experienced a storm like that for a long time. Pure FORCE of nature. Impressive and fucking scary! The storm passes EXACTLY over me. There's not even a second between the lightning and the thunder, the loud crash that echoes through the night and makes the ground shake, immediately followed by the next flashes of lightning and thunderclaps. I turn to the elemental beings. It calms me down to know that I'm not alone. The tent is brightly lit up again and again by the lightning. I crawl into my sleeping bag and lie on my stomach with my eyes on my arms. I don't even want to know how close the distance is. It's too close and too loud and far too frightening. I won't forget this night anytime soon. As soon as one storm has passed, the next one comes along. I have no choice but to give in to it. If I get struck by lightning in my tent today, then so be it. I can't go anywhere! Especially not in the middle of the night!
I count 5 thunderstorms one after the other, but the interval is slowly getting longer. At some point I count 10 seconds between lightning and thunder. Nothing can happen to me then. And sometime after midnight, peace finally returns. Well, apart from the rain, which is also very loud, but not as threatening. I've booked a room in a guesthouse tomorrow, but that was too far away for today. I can't manage 38 km uphill and downhill with luggage in one day. And there's precious little else here. At least I can dry everything there, take a warm shower (I stink!) and wash my clothes. There was so little water on the trail and the temperatures weren't so high recently that I would have voluntarily taken a cold shower. So that's urgently needed and I'm really looking forward to having four solid walls for one night. And hopefully that's it for thunderstorms for now!
Phendula