I carefully make my way down, as the rain slick rock makes that harder, but I find a slightly improved way down from my new spot and shelter, and I push some loose stone aside or let it tumble down the cliff. Not like the rain doesn't make a lot of noise. The problem is making a better path means any animal will have an easier time too, and they don't need to be some predator mountain goat, large cat or monkey.
I just had to think about those things too. Fuck! Like the rest isn't bad enough. Yeah, that movable passage blockage and ladder might not be enough. Still worth to do that blockage. Eventually. Still might be snakes, scorpions and other nasty shit.
I make a stone cairn marker to find the same route up again, and I've made sure to remember the route by looking back as I climbed down. I need to make sure the trail entrance is discreet from both the sea and the shore, but first I got to learn how to find it. I stored my jacket and most stuff up there. Although a huge cliff poking up from the rest is kind of easy to find. Just a couple of them on this ridge, and I think my spot is on the highest. My navy blue hat really doesn't help me blend in, but it keeps the rain from my face and head and will also protect my head and eyes from sunlight. I remove the hat and weave in some grass hanging down and poking up all around the hat. Better than nothing. I carefully move up the stone beach and the one to two meter high step between the stone beach and grass strip works well as a cover, and I peek out between the grass as I move. I make sure to step quietly and look all around. Including the sea and air. I've never felt such an urgent need for camouflage. At least my long armed work shirt is grey with green company logo, and my pants are black. High visibility yellow would have been bad. It also helps that the first two-three meters of the beach is mostly dirt before the rocks take over all the way to the waves crashing in.
There is plenty of rocks and quite big boulders on the beach and also driftwood, but I find no good rocks and I have decision anxiety. Is this rock better than this rock? Sure its got an edge or is wedge like, but... I end up putting good rocks in my pockets, and then switch when I find another. There is a really pressing urgency to find what I need and get back. I'm soaked, and it's not from the rain.
Eventually I've crossed the 300-400m to the rocky grass knoll that is a couple of stories high, and I know there will be a short stony beach on the other side before the river. The beach have normal grey granite looking stone, but the knoll seems to be some kind of layered flat slate-shale stone that really doesn't blend in, and there is plenty of large flat stone pieces laying about. I don't think is durable enough to make anything useful out off, although I got flat rocks if I need it. I look back up towards the ridge, and the huge cliff is obvious, and I can also see my shelter spot, although the canopy from trees below helps to hide it. There seems to be another larger flattish area a bit toward the inland from my spot, but doesn't seem as flat and have bushes and a couple of trees growing in it. Might be from soil and stuff that have fallen from the cliffs above, and be a better place for a camp. It's hard to estimate, but my spot might be 30-40m below the top of the huge cliff, and double that up from the beach.
I carefully make my way around the outside of the knoll and although it is hard, I crawl up to the top to get a better look on the river and grassland. The jungle have covered my view from the ridge.
Screeching and wings scares the shit out of me, and I instinctively hit it with my spear. Again and again until it is quiet, non moving and dead. It's just some kind of big bird that attacked me out of the grass and flapped its wings at me. Still hurt, and I might be getting a bruise or two. I carefully peek up and see a nest before me with a couple of eggs. I realise I've got at least two meals from the bird and probably more, but the eggs might already have chickens in them. I crawl up and peek in over the land and around me. Did anything big or dangerous notice the noise or movement?! I can't see anything, but I really don't want to silhouette myself against the horizon so I stay low in the grass. There are a couple of other birds hiding a few meters away. They blend in well, but not too well. Good to know, but not a priority now. Shit, I still need to collect stuff, but something might take this food from me if I don't bring it with me. I use a bit of tall grass to tie the birds legs and wings, and remember I have a carabiner at the side of my pants and hang it from there. I tighten my belt to make sure they don't slide down. Yeah, this time I have to admit it just isn't sweat making my legs moist. Could be worse, and the bird didn't actually scare the shit out of me.
I sneak my way to the river as there seems to be taller grass there. Through the rain I see dinosaurs grazing on the other side, so I hope they are more aware than me and know there isn't anything dangerous near by. For them at least. Is there something lurking in the river? Or the sea? The water is clear and I see the bottom, but that doesn't mean much as some fish and sea creatures blend in very well, but I should be able to pick up large movements easier.
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Shit. I'm carrying a dead bleeding bird with me. I should probably try to gut it and leave the entrails here. But I might be able to use it as bait. Fuck! I wash the bird in the river water, and the clear water is quite cool and have a bit of that whitish green quality. The rain limits visibility, but I guess the water comes from mountains instead of swamps. I carefully move a bit further upstream, and again my shoe almost gets stuck in some fine mud. I realise I'm leaving very weird distinct foot prints along a navigable river. That might be bad. Bad! My nerves are pretty wound up and it's more than time to get the fuck out of here.
I cut a lot of the tallest grass and bundle it up with more grass straws and hang it across my back, then I cut a leafy branch as a brush. With my spear in one hand and the brush in the other, I start to use water and the brush to make my shoe prints disappear as I back track to the beach. While my head moves around trying to look all around me. This bloody fine muddy clay!
It is really fine muddy clay without rubble and plenty of it in the riverbank... I quickly cut a few huge leaves and bundle a few balls of clay up to bring it with me. It's hard to hold it all as I brush away my tracks, but I soon leave the muddy area and start stepping on stones again. The brush is washed and stuck in the grown at the shore along the same kind. A few stones are cracked and they look different from the beach stones. This can't be flint, but it looks like it. The nature feels wrong for flint. It has been brought here by the river? I don't care about the geology, and take a few of them by dropping them inside my shirt. I really need some kind of carrying backpack basket thingy.
I carefully but hurriedly make my way back, and I can't help but speed up. I see my footprints in the wide dirt strip all along the stone beach edge. Fuck. As I get close to the ridge I look for my cairn and take a couple of minutes to see if there is any danger lurking. That jungle seems too thick to see into, and I know it's 'dark' even in sunlight. Shit. No choice. So I sneak back over the grass and follow the path up to the ridge. As I start to climb up I realise there is no way I will be able to get it all up with me in one go, and I will have to move up and down at least twice. I leave most of the mudballs in a safe location protected from rain. They're unimportant, and I can bring two for experimentation. Yeah, that area I saw from the beach is a no-go. I would need something like a 6 meter ladder to reach it. The bloody bird screech before I reach the last climb and makes me jump, and I try to climb up silently and it seems clear. I basically collapse in the shelter from nerves and release after showing my appreciation with the bird salute. Sure, I'm not safe in any way, but far safer than down there. My hands are shaking, and I don't think it is from the rain. Or that bird. This day have sucked, but my courageous exploration still feels like a huge win and boost to my moral.
"Awh shit. I forgot about the eggs. And I need to gut the bird I killed. And maybe that bastard bird in the tree. Yeah, you heard me. Just because your up in a tree doesn't mean you're safe. I got rocks and sticks I can throw!"
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I spend some time making bad cord for snares by twisting and counter braiding them together. My plan is to gut the bird for bait and make a couple of snares, so that when something grabs the bait, a tied down flexible branch springs up tightening a noose around their neck. I've never actually really made a snare before although I've seen it done and get the point. I haven't really done cord form this kind of material either, so I don't expect huge success, but it's something to do and I need to get good. So I sit there looking out across the nature and work.
I'm ready to climb down again, and the rain have stopped. I'm kind of proud that I didn't puke when I gutted and skinned the bird. I probably butchered that job compared to someone skilled, but hey - for a first time I'm more than happy. I started with a careful cut from bird butt up to its lower belly and I managed to mostly work my hands around under the skin and get it of in one piece. Mostly. The wings and head was a bit of an issue, but I will get better. I've scraped the inside of the skin with a stone and laid it out to dry in the sun along with the longer bits of the gut.
I really really want to be able to make soap, and hygiene will be absolutely vital. As far as I know soap is basically animal fat and water from ash melted together or something like that. I assume it's more complicated than that and I might have to do something special, and I think there should be salt in there too. But part of my view is over a freaking ocean with plenty of salt, so I need to collect and evaporate it. For all those tasks I need bowls and containers. And I need to make them waterproof. I hope that clay works, because I'm gonna need a lot, and then try to make a kiln. That will be a hell of a job making and getting it warm enough, and keeping it so. Wait. Wasn't salt used as glazing? Guess I will find out.
That all feels like step 14 or something.
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