Episode 002 - Wilderness Adventures
Three stories of wilderness adventures, and they're based on real life accounts.
Story 1: In Britain, the earth beneath our feet is rarely just dirt. In Stockport, a mile of red sandstone tunnels once sheltered thousands from the Blitz. In Exeter, medieval stone passages built for water pipes still snake beneath the High Street. And in Nottingham, over 800 caves and tunnels—some used as tanning pits, others as secret siege routes like Mortimer’s Hole—riddle the foundations of the city.
This is a story of what happens when you find a door that was never meant to be reopened.
Story 2: The Account of Percival H. Sterling
Extract from the Journals of the Zambezi Expedition, 1892
The sun reigns here as a most pitiless sovereign over the Luangwa Valley, dispensing its tyranny without reprieve or mercy. For three days past I have been abandoned to its dominion, my porters having fled in a fit of superstitious terror at the nocturnal lamentations of what they termed the “night-shouter”—by all evidence a hyena of uncommon magnitude and diabolical voice. In their panic they decamped with my provisions entire, including the precious crates of quinine and, with a cruelty I can scarcely commit to paper, my final tin of biscuits.
Thus am I left to contend with the wilderness in a state of most disagreeable reduction: armed with but a Martini-Henry rifle, a mere four cartridges, and a compass which, in what I can only construe as a fit of mechanical perversity, has taken to revolving upon its axis with mocking indifference to the cardinal points.
Story 3: The White Stasis: This story is inspired by several accounts from Reddit’s r/survival and r/backcountry communities—specifically threads regarding "The Sucking Sound" of a sudden whiteout and the psychological phenomenon known as "The Third Man Factor."
