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A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

nytimes.com

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Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#81

Post by kieckerjan »

I did that a couple of times in the last classes of primary school and it was fun.

One time the organizers, seeking to spice up the proceedings, had planned a mock-kidnapping. One of the kids (who was in on the joke) disappeared during the hike and soon enough we received something of a ransom note. Kids excited, kids crying. At the climax one of the organizers jumped out of the bushes with a nylon stocking over his head. The biggest and strongest kid in the group (who if memory serves me went on to become a bouncer at a local pub) hit him on the head with his flashlight, almost knocking the guy out. Good times indeed.

Of course nowadays the school would get sued into bankruptcy by angry parents for a stunt like that. :-)

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#82

Post by merijnv »

scurvy wrote: post #30
tiku wrote: post #6

The Dutch woods are not very big and not very far from the cities. You could get lost but you can always hear the highways and there is cell coverage everywhere. And the most scary thing you could come across is a wild boar, there are no dangerous animals. There were 2 or 3 wolf sightings the past 2 years, but they stay away from noise. Anyway I think Dutch kids are balsy enough to scare any wolf away. (Or a human pr…

Are Euro wild boars not dangerous? So much for that Black Forest Ham premium! Boars definitely attack people in the US, and the wounds can be bad to the lower body and gut. Lots of blood loss isn't uncommon.

> Are Euro wild boars not dangerous?

They are, if you run into them and they feel threatened (especially mothers with babes). But it's super rare to run into them, as they avoid people. A group of teens out at night staying quiet enough to stumble across one seems infinitesimally small. Which is probably why I don't ever remember ever hearing of anyone attacked by boars...

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#83

Post by tom_mellior »

merijnv wrote: post #78
ddnb wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> (we don't have mountains). Woah, you forgot about the Vaalserberg?

Technically not a mountain, since mountains start at >500m and Vaalserberg is only 322m high... On the other hand, we do (technically) have mountains, as Saba has Mount Scenery (887m) and Sint Eustatius has The Quill ( 601m)...

There is no universally accepted definition of what a mountain is. For whatever it's worth, Wikipedia says things like "official UK government's definition of a mountain, for the purposes of access, is a summit of 600 metres or higher", and "At one time the U.S. Board on Geographic Names defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet (300 m) or taller, but has abandoned the definition since the 1970s".

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#84

Post by merijnv »

throw20102010 wrote: post #2

“with only a primitive GPS to indicate the right direction” ... so these kids are more at risk of being kidnapped than they are of getting lost. I’ll admit that I think it’s a bit weird to make kids walk home in the night, but the author does a terrible job of making it sound suspenseful. This activity has gotten a lot safer since GPS became widespread. I kind of feel bad for anyone that went through this in the 80’s…

> ... so these kids are more at risk of being kidnapped than they are of getting lost.

Keep in mind that they're 12+ and travelling in groups of 10 to 20 kids. Kidnapping a group that big is...not easy :)

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#85

Post by labnl »

neals wrote: post #77
ddnb wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> (we don't have mountains). Woah, you forgot about the Vaalserberg?

Also, what about that boterberg I used to hear about?

Are you referring to an actual butter surplus or the eastern peak of Storm King Mountain in New York (Butter Hill, but known as Boterberg when the area was a Dutch colony)?

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#86

Post by benj111 »

tdons wrote: post #58

Don't think of this as dropping your kids in say, the High Sierras or Death Valley ;-) This is actually an extremely safe thing, nothing much can go wrong. Some supporting facts: Our entire country (The Netherlands) measures roughly 161mi by 93mi and is densely populated. There's always a dwelling nearby. Consequently it's impossible to get really lost. We also have no natural dangers to speak of, no deadly animals,…

"Our entire country (The Netherlands) measures roughly 161mi by 93mi.....Consequently it's impossible to get really lost"

You aren't really lost until you aren't in the country you thought you were in. Its possible to lose yourself to Greece say, without crossing a hard border. So the area to get lost in is quite a bit bigger.

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#87

Post by mpol »

cylinder wrote: post #72
tiku wrote: post #6

The Dutch woods are not very big and not very far from the cities. You could get lost but you can always hear the highways and there is cell coverage everywhere. And the most scary thing you could come across is a wild boar, there are no dangerous animals. There were 2 or 3 wolf sightings the past 2 years, but they stay away from noise. Anyway I think Dutch kids are balsy enough to scare any wolf away. (Or a human pr…

Just curious, does this density across all of the country lead to a desire amongst Dutch people to find true wilderness every once and a while? For example travelling to remote national parks in the US or Australia/NZ? Or does it lead to people preferring built environments and feeling anxious in true wilderness?

To both answers I would think no :) The Netherlands is very much a designed and architected country, there is no true wilderness here anymore. We don't seem to miss it, most people don't even talk about it as something they miss. We can go days and weeks out to the countryside, and call it a good holiday.

There are people who like to travel to the true wilderness, like Australia or Canada or backpacking in Scotland, but I don't see any connection to the density of our country.

And being anxious in true wilderness, well, it really is dangerous, right? :) So you should be anxious. But in this context, I can imagine we do like safety. When traveling through Australia, always stay on the road for example. Going into the desert off-road is a big no-no to us.

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#88

Post by benj111 »

tom_mellior wrote: post #83
merijnv wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically not a mountain, since mountains start at >500m and Vaalserberg is only 322m high... On the other hand, we do (technically) have mountains, as Saba has Mount Scenery (887m) and Sint Eustatius has The Quill ( 601m)...

There is no universally accepted definition of what a mountain is. For whatever it's worth, Wikipedia says things like "official UK government's definition of a mountain, for the purposes of access, is a summit of 600 metres or higher", and "At one time the U.S. Board on Geographic Names defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet (300 m) or taller, but has abandoned the definition since the 1970s".

"is a summit of 600 metres or higher"

I didn't think this had been officially metricised (metricated?), I was wrong.

Anyway, found an interesting related article.

http://metricviews.org.uk/2008/09/what-is-a-mountain-mynydd-...

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#89

Post by cr1895 »

tdons wrote: post #58

Don't think of this as dropping your kids in say, the High Sierras or Death Valley ;-) This is actually an extremely safe thing, nothing much can go wrong. Some supporting facts: Our entire country (The Netherlands) measures roughly 161mi by 93mi and is densely populated. There's always a dwelling nearby. Consequently it's impossible to get really lost. We also have no natural dangers to speak of, no deadly animals,…

>We also have no natural dangers to speak of

Except for the eikenprocessierupsen

Re: A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite: Children Abandoned in the Night Woods

#90

Post by donkeyd »

benj111 wrote: post #86
tdons wrote: post #58

Don't think of this as dropping your kids in say, the High Sierras or Death Valley ;-) This is actually an extremely safe thing, nothing much can go wrong. Some supporting facts: Our entire country (The Netherlands) measures roughly 161mi by 93mi and is densely populated. There's always a dwelling nearby. Consequently it's impossible to get really lost. We also have no natural dangers to speak of, no deadly animals,…

"Our entire country (The Netherlands) measures roughly 161mi by 93mi.....Consequently it's impossible to get really lost" You aren't really lost until you aren't in the country you thought you were in. Its possible to lose yourself to Greece say, without crossing a hard border. So the area to get lost in is quite a bit bigger.

It's really obvious when you cross the NL/BE or NL/DE borders though, signage becomes different, houses look different. So unless you cross the border in a wooded area, you will definitely know.
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