Motourama Part 4: Hunter-Gatherer

Hello family, friends and followers! In this Travel Story we learn what a good hunter is.

From Darmstadt, we had a short drive of just 115 km to visit our friends, Andi & Maxine, who live close to Frankfurt, near a forest with all manners of animals. This is particularly interesting for Andi, as he is an avid hunter. As the trip is about trying new stuff, we took him up on the offer to come hunting in the night as well as going to a shooting range to get a feel for the sound and handling of guns. This was a quite new experience for both of us, as we have only ever shot with airguns before. Esben had tried a couple of handguns in Laos on a previous trip, but nothing of this calibre.

“Kablammo!”

“Pewpew”

As a responsible person in general, and as hunter specifically, Andi provides the animals of the forest with nurture to help them get through lean times. We tagged along for his usual route through the forest and learned of the habits of the different animals.

It doesn’t matter how good of a guide you are, if your audience is an Esben, who does not even look in the right direction.

The hunting the previous night had not brought any meat home, even though Andi had a wild boar on his sights. It was too dark to determine whether it was a male, which would have made for fine bacon, or a female, which might have piglets in the undergrowth somewhere. Making orphan baby pigs was not what we wanted. Better to be safe than sorry in those circumstances.

Instead of self-procured meat, Andi and Maxine arranged for some proper buckets of ribs, called “Scheiterhaufen” (pyre in English), at a local restaurant. That was just the right amount of meat and then some. Our friends did warn us, however, that our stomachs might be upset for up to three days if we would consume the entire bucket of meat. Well, it was worth it – for about 6 hours. Esben, who has a sensitive stomach, was happy that he only had to endure one night of mildly, terrifying agony with just one long session on the porcelain throne.

The next day, we set off towards Nürnberg (Nuremberg), with bellies still full of the delicious, tender meat, to meet up with proud vegetarians. A somewhat healthy change, for the next couple of days. It definitely did wonders for Esben’s tummy.

What we experienced there will be the content of our next Travel Story. Until then, keep calm and carry on.