RACHEL’S RAMBLES

By Rachel Woods

Are all your walking and nature adventures set in the context of daylight?

We are of nature and for most of our history have been connected with the land. In more recent decades we have shied away and shut ourselves off from the natural world. Manicuring and controlling nature, and keeping her shut firming outside. When you walk in darkness, you reconnect in a deep way, with other senses heightening.

So why now has darkness become something to fear? A metaphor for bad things, where evil things lurk and the stuff of childhood ghost stories and spooky movies. In other parts of the world, where nights are longer, and light is fleeting for large parts of the year, the inhabitants embrace it. They chuck on a headtorch and head out.

I was lucky enough to visit South America in April and was wonderfully bewildered and awed by the plant life and nature. What blew my mind was to experience this at night. Despite giving me a bad case of the heebie-jeebies, hiking in the dark was one of my most amazing and memorable experiences.

Having got past my fear and it proving unfounded, it made me wonder why we don’t explore more after the sun sets. Unlike the jungle, there are no dangerous bugs or snakes here to give us trouble.

Have you ever really looked at a woodland in torchlight? Or walked outside of a town in the dark purely for the purpose of just going for a walk and spotting our more nocturnal neighbours? Or stood on a hilltop to look at the stars away from the light pollution of the town?

Since getting back, I’ve been paying more attention to garden visitors and places where a night walk is possible. I’ve been looking to find a place to spot owls, moths, foxes, hedgehogs, badgers and bats, looking out for stars on a clear night on a hilltop, staying out after sundown or starting a walk before sunrise.

It pays to have a reliable torch and an understanding of where you’ll be walking. It’s easy to get turned around in woodlands in the daytime, at night this can be amplified. Knowing where you are going, planning a route and checking where livestock are grazing is a good first step. It seems obvious to say it but I need to remind myself to let someone know where going and I hate to recommend not walking alone but safety does need to be considered. Trips and falls are more likely in the dark and the chance of being helped by other walkers is significantly lower. Have a small pack, well organised to keep things within easy reach and give your eyes time to adjust to the light. You’ll find your hearing tunes into the environment and will alert you to where wildlife might be spotted.

So why not go with others? Being alone can lead to the mind playing tricks on you and noises being misinterpreted under the influence of adrenalin. I won’t be letting this deter me. There’s a small copse near me to be explored, familiar fields with no cattle and well-known footpaths to start with.

Now to convince some friends …

For safety tips on hiking and walking at night, there’s a useful article at www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/how-to-hike-at-night. html.