Scariest moment in your life?

[Crazy chef 1]

Yeah! I Hear Ya!

I have worked in areas all my life full of dangerous critters. Walked by a Black Mamba Snake once which I didn't see it, who was only a foot away from me and waist high, but lucky for me he was asleep. Had a Cobra chase me once and to my surprise he was moving faster than I can run. I highly don't recommend throwing something at him. Worked in places where Scorpions were more plentiful than Coach Roaches, and you had to be careful were you put your hands all the time, or you will get stung. Or deadly snakes that look exactly like the sand around them, and bury there bodies in the sand to hide from you, except his head.

But I never had the Guts to go in and watch my baby being born. This is on the top of my list of the things I don't want to do. So more power to you for going in.

Sorry buggy but I somehow doubt the story about the black mamba and the cobra...vice versa I would be convinced...but sometimes exception proof the rules...

[geronimo]

here's one ...

One such time, this must have been the most convinced I was going to be killed, started out in Cairo, amid the bustling alleys of Tahir Square I had befriended a young Sudanese guy. He seemed keen and genuine so we spent a few days sitting around the shisha shops chatting about this and that when he asked if I’d like to go with him to his family home. There was a civil war going on at the time, but he assured me it was safe as his village was only 35km from the Egyptian border. So off we went, arriving near the frontier at dusk and we carefully followed this well-worn track across into Sudan. After about 30 minutes we reached a road and as we were crossing it, a jeep approached, catching us squarely in its headlights!

My instinct was to run but Faru clutched my arm,

“Stay still” He whispered.

“A big guy in full military fatigues went over to Faru and asked him something in Arabic before knocking his teeth out with the rifle butt. We were then both thrown into the back along with our bags. I was sat with my face inches from the machine gunner’s crotch, praying that it wasn’t a sign of things to come. After a while the road became tarmac and the ride was smooth enough to exchange a few words,

“What they gonna do with us”? I blurted.

Faru looked at me with cold eyes,

“They will shoot us and take all our money and stuff.” He coolly announced.

“What you mean just kill us for no reason?” I defended.

He smiled,

“They don’t need no reason, being there is reason enough” he smiled.

As we sped along, these guys were drinking liquor and Faru had resigned himself to death. I, on the other hand, was racking my brains to find a way out of this mess. A mental flash came up of my mother reading in the Daily Mail that her son was murdered in North Africa, shaking her head saying,

“I told that boy to be careful”

I had many years ago, watched TV documentaries that showed a lioness catching a deer calf. She drops it in front of her two front paws and the deer just sits there, making no attempt to escape, while mummy lion gets her breath back!. I should add that the deer was in no way injured at this point, though seemed totally resigned to its fate! I fail to see how it can accept being eaten alive without a monumental fight!!! Faru seemed just like this as we bounced around in between our captors.

I had loads of exercise books in my pack, journals I had been keeping for at least two years. I explained to Faru that he was to tell the leader that I worked for the BBC and I paid him to take me into the country to meet rebels so the world could hear their side of the story. I will never forget the feeling in the pit of my stomach as the bearded leader flicked through the pages, shouting at the top of his voice. Just when I was convinced my head was to be cut off, he wrapped his arms around me, dragging me off to a tent where he produced Johnny Walker whisky and figs. He sat me down and while Faru painstakingly translated what the guy said, I was frantically jotting in my notebook.

I can’t remember exactly what I wrote but it went something like this,

“As I sit here I am so goddamn lucky to be alive! The feeling of blood coursing through my veins is something I will never ever allow myself to take for granted again! I just pray that something bad doesn’t happen like him getting aggressive on the whisky. Every time I look at him he smiles, but I must stop Faru sometimes, just to make this guy believe I’m actually taking his words down.”

We continued like this until the bottle was finished and he was done talking. Then they took us back to the Egyptian border and said not to come back again as people who do, get killed and robbed. Looking back on it, Faru did a wonderful job in extracting some sense from the man’s drunken ramblings. I couldn’t understand a word of their language but it was clear that this guy was three sheets to the wind!

For me the strangest thing about it all was Faru’s reaction once we reached the safety of Cairo (if that could be possible), he remained outwardly unaffected by it while I was bubbling with all kinds of emotion, relief being the strongest. He said he’d been in those situations before and it did no good to get emotional about it. I learned something from him that day.

[Fookhaht]

Southern Michigan:

Trying to outrun a tornado in a '68 Volkswagen Beetle.

East German border -- pre-unification:

Soviet soldiers with machine guns boarding my suddenly-stopped train. Looking for a tourist who had been spotted taking video of the border installations. I was holding the offending camera.

Early-1970s Harlem, NYC, midnight:

Lost

Edited December 6, 2015 by Fookhaht

[houlicha]

Running the perimeter road around our radio post near Udorn AFB in 1972. A cobra sunning in the dirt road puts his head up right in front of me, all I could do was jump over him. Probably the fastest run I had all year.

[buji]

Scuba diving with a Thai company in Krabi