Late November Microadventure – Berlin to Usedom and back in 24hrs.

I’m as jumpy and nervous as the wild boar ahead of me.

Its eyes glow bright green when I flash my headlights in its direction, trying to see if it’s still on my path, or has perhaps finally decided to hide in the undergrowth. Like the smaller ones have done.

I’m beginning to suspect that this boar, that is significantly larger than the rest, isn’t the male of this pack.

I gulp hard.

The momma boar keeps staring at me when I stop, as tense and unmoving as I. Then, when I try to move and pass it by, it leaps forward to keep up with me, grunting loudly. Its heavy, hairy body large enough to take out Mango’s front wheel. I always say I’m not afraid of the woods, or of what’s living in it (we’re all friends after all). Now I wonder if this is hubris coming to collect its due.

Finally, the boar grunts one last time and disappears into the reeds growing alongside the water’s edge. I breathe a sigh of relief, then nearly tumble off my bike at the sound of screams and shrieks coming from the reeds. Upset water birds scurry off in all directions as the boar – I assume – wakes them from their previously peaceful slumber.

“Not setting my tent here then, I guess,” I mumble. I still refuse to admit to being scared, but setting a tent close to a family of boars is just asking for trouble. And visitors.

Heavy visitors.

So I ride on for another hour or so in the dark. It’s nothing I particularly enjoy. I have no problem sleeping in the woods, and am not scared of the dark per se. But I do get nervous when I can’t see where I’m setting my tent. That can get you in all kinds of trouble, like accidentally setting your tent up on a golf course. (Different story.) I had wanted to set my tent by the beach, by some shore. After all that’s why I cycled 200KM north in a single day. I had this utterly romantic notion that I would take my bike out to the sea in a day, wake up on the beach, go for a swim and head back to Berlin, all in 24hr.

In the end, I settle for a campsite in a small patch of woods next to a road that’s been blocked off for construction. I can’t see the sea – the reeds are too tall. I do hear a few seagulls murmur and croak in their sleep. I set my alarm for 5AM and leave the island before first light. Usedom is as dark as when I arrived.
And yet.
I might not have seen the sea. But I had a pretty dang good time out there anyhow.