Want to know more about yourself? Go eye to eye with a wild animal.........

I have always found elks to be magnificent looking

animals. Not that I have ever been that

up and close with one, but there is something

so very graphic about their silhouette methinks.

Ducking in to a small coffee shop to get a latte for

work (at that time in a gallery), while waiting, 

 I saw a life size decal (huge sticker) of an elk

plastered on one of the walls.

Admiring the image suddenly brought a long

 forgotten memory to the forefront of my mind.

I had indeed been very close-up with a wild elk once.

In my early 20's, a friend and I decided to ride

our Vespas from way up the north of Sweden down to

Stockholm.

This meant going through miles and miles of deep, deep,

untouched pine forests. 

Bar from the odd bird squawking now and then

and the humming of our vespas, we were surrounded by

silence. 

Not a silence as in the absence of sound, but more like

the silence of an empty cathedral.

It was definitely a spiritual kind of experience as we

forged our way forward. I think I was so immersed

in the experience that I forgot to keep an eye on the distance

between me and my friend.

But when my Vespa suddenly coughed, spluttered, 

and then just stopped, I realized that I was all alone

in the middle of a never ending forest.

I dragged the Vespa to the side of the road and

pondered my fate.

As this was long before the mobile phone, there

was no way for me to contact my friend or anybody

else. I was stuck.

All I could do was to wait and hope that somebody would

show up. I sat down on the seat on my Vespa, pulled

up the zipper on my parka and prepared myself for

a long wait.

Above the treetops I could see the sun slowly sinking

and the air changing from fresh to chilling.

Hugging myself trying to stay warm, every now 

and then doing a little dance to keep the circulation going,

I was beginning to fret.

Suddenly there was a strange noise coming from 

behind me.

I quickly turned around and looked straight into eyes of

a massive elk. His nostrils were flaring with mist,

his horns large and sharp, and his breathing slow but very scary.

In an instant I became a statue hardly even daring

to breathe.

 Quietly I argued with myself whether I should stare

the elk in the eyes or glue my gaze to the ground.

I had no clue about elk etiquette, so I played it safe

and kept staring at the ground.

Whoosh! A stream of hot air hit my face.

The elk's nose was only a few centimeters away from

my own.

Okay, now what???

Suddenly the elk took a step back, and then another,

and then stopped.

Very slowly I turned my head so that I could see what

he was doing. It looked as if he was listening to something.

What was he hearing?

Ah. There it was. The sound of my friend's Vespa.

I turned my head toward the sound and saw my friend

far in the distance coming toward me.

And the elk? Just as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared.

''What are you doing?'' my friend asked me when he pulled

up next to me.

''My Vespa just stopped'', I answered.

Ten minutes later, spark-plug cleaned and my engine

running again, we carried on on our journey.

Although, this time I made sure that I was never further

away from my friend than at a ''hollering'' distance.

It's one thing to look a wild animal in the eyes while

that animal is in some sort of enclosure, but it's a very different

experience to do so when there is nothing but a breath

between you and that animal.

Respect, my fellow creature.

''When you look a wild animal into the eye, it's like

catching a glimpse into the soul of nature itself.''

(Paul Oxton)

about the image: In a dollar shop I found a small ''make-it-yourself''

model of an elk's head made from wood. After I assembled it, I took a

photo of it and then did a little bit of editing in Photoshop.