22 July 2023, 20:06
Hi folks,
New member here but a long-time believer in being prepared.
Born in S. Africa but raised in 3rd world Southern Africa. When you have to drive to a neighbouring country once a month to buy groceries you learn to plan ahead. I was shipped off to boarding school at a young age which added to my need to be organised and think ahead.
I have been in some SHTF situations which have been incredibly potent lessons. Luckily, I am still standing which I attribute to carefully cultivated habits which kicked in automatically in most cases.
Some highlights below:
• In 2000 there was widespread flooding which displaced around 500k people and cut off wide swaths of the country. No real impact on us but I witnessed what a natural disaster can do to people and how ineffectual any kind of response can be when the scale is so huge.
• In 2007 I was chilling at home during the school holidays when all hell broke loose. Our front door was blown in and windows cracked. A nearby arms depot exploded over the course of several hours with around 100 people dead.
• When I was at Uni in 2013 a chap in the flat across the parking lot from me set his room alight through negligence and couldn’t get out. I heard the screaming and went into autopilot and eventually got in and got the flat more or less extinguished. Found the chap alive with his skin hanging in ribbons. Unfortunately, he died about a week later. Took about a year to realise I was suffering from some PTSD from that.
• In 2021 back in South Africa I was in ground zero for an attempted coup/insurrection based on tribal lines. SHTF properly with widespread violence, looting, and organised national sabotage. The police melted away and so communities were left on their own. I joined a hastily assembled militia and set up manned barricades on all routes into the suburb. Spent most nights and days armed with my bolt action hunting rifle stopping and searching cars on the road while listening to shots being fired all over. Looters gained access to a large warehouse about a mile away and they torched it. It was a pesticide factory so for 10 days we had horrific fumes blowing over us. No agency could respond because all motorways had been blocked by the aggressors. We couldn’t get any food or fuel and different neighbourhoods became hostile to one another trying to protect their scant resources. My dear mum had a shotgun pointed at her at a roadblock when she tried to go to get some food. We heard of a supermarket that was going to open for a few hours under the protection of armed neighbourhood watch guys. We stood in a queue for 8h with thousands of other people and didn’t move a centimetre forward – went home empty-handed. Eventually friends in a different part of the country sent a Cessna to a nearby dirt strip with some supplies for us. Officially around 150 people were killed but we heard of many many more. The army finally mobilised after around 10 days and quelled the action.
• In 2022 a freak weather event dropped around 320mm of rain on us in 24h. I was out on the roads trying to get to my uncle's house and got stuck in grid-locked traffic. Streams had turned into raging rivers carrying trees and houses down. Eventually got up a pass to higher ground and spent the evening with family. On returning home later that night the pass had collapsed onto the upper section of the road with my downhill section strewn with rocks and logs. The motorway was flooded in many parts, luckily my northbound carriage was a few meters higher. I was in my old 2002 Hilux thank goodness but I saw loads of smaller cars dead in the water. Around 500 people died with an unknown number missing.
• Numerous crime-related incidents – mum hijacked twice, attempted hijacking when I was a youngster, friend shot, another friend tied up and raped, people trying to stop our vehicle on the road and get in – the list goes on ad infinitum.
I moved over here last year to escape the madness and am enjoying getting back into my hobbies. I am an avid hunter (rifle and bow) and do my own reloading. I enjoy growing veg as well as a bit of foraging, woodworking, camping, fly fishing, and reading. I hold an advanced science degree and work in a natural resources-related industry.
I am keen to connect with like-minded people and learn from other people’s experiences. I am also happy to pass on some practical skills to anyone willing to learn (i.e how to reload safely, maybe a session on rifle handling at a range, or field prepping a deer etc)
Thanks for having me.
Camp_Bell
New member here but a long-time believer in being prepared.
Born in S. Africa but raised in 3rd world Southern Africa. When you have to drive to a neighbouring country once a month to buy groceries you learn to plan ahead. I was shipped off to boarding school at a young age which added to my need to be organised and think ahead.
I have been in some SHTF situations which have been incredibly potent lessons. Luckily, I am still standing which I attribute to carefully cultivated habits which kicked in automatically in most cases.
Some highlights below:
• In 2000 there was widespread flooding which displaced around 500k people and cut off wide swaths of the country. No real impact on us but I witnessed what a natural disaster can do to people and how ineffectual any kind of response can be when the scale is so huge.
• In 2007 I was chilling at home during the school holidays when all hell broke loose. Our front door was blown in and windows cracked. A nearby arms depot exploded over the course of several hours with around 100 people dead.
• When I was at Uni in 2013 a chap in the flat across the parking lot from me set his room alight through negligence and couldn’t get out. I heard the screaming and went into autopilot and eventually got in and got the flat more or less extinguished. Found the chap alive with his skin hanging in ribbons. Unfortunately, he died about a week later. Took about a year to realise I was suffering from some PTSD from that.
• In 2021 back in South Africa I was in ground zero for an attempted coup/insurrection based on tribal lines. SHTF properly with widespread violence, looting, and organised national sabotage. The police melted away and so communities were left on their own. I joined a hastily assembled militia and set up manned barricades on all routes into the suburb. Spent most nights and days armed with my bolt action hunting rifle stopping and searching cars on the road while listening to shots being fired all over. Looters gained access to a large warehouse about a mile away and they torched it. It was a pesticide factory so for 10 days we had horrific fumes blowing over us. No agency could respond because all motorways had been blocked by the aggressors. We couldn’t get any food or fuel and different neighbourhoods became hostile to one another trying to protect their scant resources. My dear mum had a shotgun pointed at her at a roadblock when she tried to go to get some food. We heard of a supermarket that was going to open for a few hours under the protection of armed neighbourhood watch guys. We stood in a queue for 8h with thousands of other people and didn’t move a centimetre forward – went home empty-handed. Eventually friends in a different part of the country sent a Cessna to a nearby dirt strip with some supplies for us. Officially around 150 people were killed but we heard of many many more. The army finally mobilised after around 10 days and quelled the action.
• In 2022 a freak weather event dropped around 320mm of rain on us in 24h. I was out on the roads trying to get to my uncle's house and got stuck in grid-locked traffic. Streams had turned into raging rivers carrying trees and houses down. Eventually got up a pass to higher ground and spent the evening with family. On returning home later that night the pass had collapsed onto the upper section of the road with my downhill section strewn with rocks and logs. The motorway was flooded in many parts, luckily my northbound carriage was a few meters higher. I was in my old 2002 Hilux thank goodness but I saw loads of smaller cars dead in the water. Around 500 people died with an unknown number missing.
• Numerous crime-related incidents – mum hijacked twice, attempted hijacking when I was a youngster, friend shot, another friend tied up and raped, people trying to stop our vehicle on the road and get in – the list goes on ad infinitum.
I moved over here last year to escape the madness and am enjoying getting back into my hobbies. I am an avid hunter (rifle and bow) and do my own reloading. I enjoy growing veg as well as a bit of foraging, woodworking, camping, fly fishing, and reading. I hold an advanced science degree and work in a natural resources-related industry.
I am keen to connect with like-minded people and learn from other people’s experiences. I am also happy to pass on some practical skills to anyone willing to learn (i.e how to reload safely, maybe a session on rifle handling at a range, or field prepping a deer etc)
Thanks for having me.
Camp_Bell