One of the main things we wanted to do on our journey was to survive a couple of days in the wild. We had rented a car in Spain and found a spot on the border with Portugal. There was a large lake surrounded by scrub forest. We parked our car somewhere and scouted for a place to set up camp. We found a good spot in a dried out river bed that lead to the lake. The rocks were solid and large providing a good platform to sleep on and plenty of opportunities to build an oven, a toilet and so on.
We got our fresh water from the lake. To make sure it was drinkable we cleansed it with charcoal and filtered the water with grass and sand. With the herbs we found in the area we could make a very tasteful tea.
The lake also provided us with fish, a washing place and of course: a swimming pool. This was quite necessary because the temperature during the day exceeded over 35 Celcius.
There was plenty of food growing around our camp. We gathered cactus fruits, berries, herbs, olives and almonds. The almonds we had to roast in our oven first. The oven was made from stone and sand. It was build with two levels and could therefore cook two things at the same time. Because the area around it was made of solid rock, and the wind always came from the right direction the oven produced very little smoke and the risk of starting a forest fire was low.
The days passed quickly as we spend a lot of time to gather food, cook, wash, clean and explore. The nights were cool with clear skies. We heard the sound of owls and the spashing of fish in the distance. One early morning we had a fox visiting us and even stealing our knife (one of the few modern tools we used).
Living like this gives us a great appreciation of what nature can offer. It also made us use our creativity in what kind of tools we could make and how we could upgrade our camp.
We survived for four days, and still continue to do so :)
