Surprise boar

At noon today, we went for a walk along the abandoned country road near the house. On the return journey I stopped for a pee. I’d just undone my flies when I realized that, not 50 feet away, was the largest boar I’d ever seen in my life. At first I thought it was a bear.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, i left my flies undone and took out my camera. He was immense and the adrenaline was pumping through me. I had no idea what to do if he decided to charge as there was nowhere to run to and I didn’t have my valaska, my shepherd’s axe, with me. Eventually he noticed us and then ran off into the bush. I can’t begin to describe the sensation. We’d been talking about various problems and issues, extremely wide ranging topics, but upon spotting the boar, every ounce of focus sharpened, Zen like, into one object. The world condensed into the size of that boar and fight or flight reaction. It was an amazing feeling – scary but enlightening.

I’ve no idea why there are so many boar this year. I’ve lived here for 17 years and never seen as many in that entire time as i have within the last month.

And yes, I did do up my flies….