The Scariest Night Ever

This weekend, we went on a camp with some of the women from church. As organisers, we invited even those who might not have the money to attend, promising to help them out. This resulted in the two of us ending up in another section of the campground, quite a distance away from the other ladies. We stayed in cheaper accommodation-they had beds, we slept on the floor. Their tents were roomier and had standing room, ours didn’t. Not a bad thing at all. It was fun, so I’m not complaining. Now, this camp site is out in the bush on the West Coast. We were the only two people in our ‘section’ and the other 1 ladies shared tents-4 people per tent. There is no security and the gate to the site isn’t locked. When the other ladies saw where we were sleeping, they were horrified, worried for us. I told them we’d be ok, that we are so far from civilisation that no crooks would bother us.

Saturday night…We dutifully went to bed late and fell asleep. Suddenly, at about 25 minutes to midnight, my tent-mate’s shattered the night with its piercing ring. I woke up, total startled. I heard a voice telling my friend “Call your husbands. There is a big group of men here and they are saying there are only women here.” (This because the men had seen shoes outside the tent-so we later found out)My adrenaline started pumping and I picked up my phone to see what the time was. She had sent a text message to my phone also stating “There’s a bunch of men here.” I thought “Ok, our husbands are so far away that it’s pointless asking for help. But at least if we let them know what happened then at least it will be a source of closure after our deaths.” I called hubby,then got scared that if they heard my voice,they’d come..so I sent him an instant message. As well as my friend’s husband. (Her phone battery was dying and after this frightening call,she turned it off)

I asked my friend about the call and she told me that there were men roaming around the other ladies’ tents and they were scared. The other tents were closer to the entrance. I put my hand on the tent zip, saying that maybe running to the toilets would give us more protection as the men would be more likely to come for us in our tent. BUT there are no locks on the toilets anyway. My friend’s not so brilliant idea was for me to hold onto the top zip (that’s not a typo, I believe that it’s called a zipper in some places)and for her to hold onto the lower zip so that when they try enter to attack and rape us, we’re holding on so they can’t come in. But then she realised that they could just slash the tents anyway so that wouldn’t work. I feared rape and being stabbed more than anything else. She worried that they’d rape us and steal her husband’s iPad. (Ah, the thoughts of panicked minds!)

I crouched there in utter dread, with my hands on the zip. I preferred to get out rather than to be molested and killed inside my tent. I thought we should just run out into the bush and while I was going to tell her my thoughts, our eyes met. We heard the roar of heavy vehicles. More than one. And my first thought was “But if these men are looking for women to attack,why didn’t they start with the other ladies? I thought we still had time to get out and run and call for help because they’d still be busy with the other ladies.Why are they coming here?” We just sat inside and heard them talking…I was shaking in utter fear. (When the first thing you hear is someone saying “Call your husbands…”)Men’s voices. Footsteps. Men opening tents. We were paralysed. What if they opened the other tent in which our bags were? Then they’d definitely know we were here. What if they opened our tent and caught us?

THEN one of the other cars came. With music blaring.

Relief. No criminal announces his coming with loud music. But we have heard of drunks being violent, so that didn’t completely relax us.

Then women’s voices.

More relief.

Then a child’s cry.

Halleluya, these weren’t male criminals coming to rape and pillage. These were extremely late campers.

And speaking of ‘late.’ They made noise. At 1am, they lit a fire. At that point we decided to alert them of our presence in case they thought there was no-one and that’s why they were so loud. Nope. Made no difference!

But we were safe.

If it hadn’t been for that phonecall. That extremely fightening phonecall, I doubt we’d have even woken up till the child and the women’s ear-splitting giggles shattered our dreams.

And the other women? Two of the women in the caller’s tent heard NOTHING. The one who called us later got the courage to stick her head out the tent when she saw beams from the men’s torches flashing onto their tent and heard women’s voices. The older lady…She got out of bed. Took a small suitcase and crouched behind it. When that didn’t work, she lifted it up so it was at her head. Which obviously left her lower half exposed Not sure how that would have hidden her from plain view. Then she thought of hiding under her bed. Or of an escape route. There was none.

After that, seeing a frog hop into my shower was NOTHING. (You all know how I fear animals ) But after the thoughts, the adrenaline, the panic..that little guy didn’t faze me at all. And when he realised the water was hot, he hopped out and into the bushes again.