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Posts Tagged ‘clay’

Into the Wild

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Today as a movie script. In which our heroes find a hidden treasure and one of the family members barely escape from a frozen doom

Part 1: Setting the Scene

The family is driving towards Lysnet clay pit to go geocaching a bit. The kids want to listen to the same song over and over and over and over again. Parents not entirely happy about that.

At the clay pit. The ground is very soggy because of all the snow now has turned into water/mud with help from the little Spring Faeries. The wind is strong and is almost knocking the kids over. They walk along the edge of the pit following the little red arrow on the GPS. The dog Linuz is thoroughly enjoying the time without a leash. Tail wagging. Spirit is high.

Lysnet Clay Pit II

Lysnet Clay Pit I

Part 2: Treasure

After a long march through the muddy terrain our family arrives at the location of the treasure. The kids are quick to find it. There is much rejoice.

Dancing in the Tree Tops!

Part 3: Detour

Uplifted in spirit from the successful treasure hunt the family decides to scale the hill down into the clay pit. The resident geologist of the party is the security advisor and heads them down the safe route. Well knowing that the clay will only get wetter and wetter as they descent our party spits in the face of muddy shoes and treads on. Down into the pit.

The kids find it a bit to slippery and starts crying that they want to go up again. Mom and Dad try their best to cheer them up, and the party starts the ascension. The kids are firmly convinced that they can not possibly climb the slippery hill without being carried. The patient parents discover that mud is much more likely to swallow their shoes when they are carrying children on their backs. Much more likely indeed. Shoes, clothes and and hands covered in clay/mud.

The kids are now crying because the grown-ups get clay on their shoes. The grown-ups can’t help but laugh at the entire situation. Oscar potential here if the parent actors can express the mixed stress/irony of the situation.

Safely on top of the pit again the spirits rise and the kids start talking about being hungry.

Part 4: The Pit of Eternal Frozen Doom – From Hell – Of Outright Nastiness

The viewer will now comfortably be expecting the movie to end – but in reality it has all been a build-up to the dramatic climax following now.

Walking back to the car, the father, immensely satisfied with himself after the successful climb, begins hurling big rocks down into the pit, to test if he can break the ice on a small lake that exists at the bottom (you can just notice it on the top left of the very first picture). Considering the last weeks of thawing the parents are surprised to see that the ice does not break.

Enticed by the father throwing “toys” onto the lake the dog, Linuz, speeds down back into the pit and rushes out on the ice. The knowledgeable kids starts screaming “Nooo, nooo!! You mustn’t run onto the ice!”. The father reassures them that the ice will most certainly hold under Linuz’ meager 11kg, since he was not able to smash it with the rocks. This is of course blatant hubris – and in the same instant Linuz falls through the ice about 3m from the shore.

The parents are laughing, not overly worried, because Linuz – not the brightest creature to walk this earth, often get’s himself into trouble and is normally good at getting himself out of the trouble again. With considerable schadenfroh the parents watch the dog struggling in the icy water. After a few moments they realize that the dog is really not able to get out on its own. It stops struggling, resting still in the icy water holding on to the brink of the ice – awaiting certain death.

The father runs  to the rescue, quickly down the slippery sides of the pit. Takes of his shoes and walk slowly out in the water (the ice has melted along the shoreline). 1m from the shore the father can not go any further. The bed of the lake is completely giving in to his weight swallowing  his feet and the waters are very quickly getting deep. He still have 2m to the dog. Going any further would be taking a serious risk of getting stuck himself.

With rising anxiety the father climbs back on the shore, breaks of a big stick, and rushes back to the water. He desperately hopes that the dog will bite on to the stick and that he’ll be able to pull it out like that.

Stretching to the best of his ability the father just can’t reach the dog who still rests completely still in the water. As a last resort he breaks of a large plate of ice and pushes it under water with his feet.  He steps on to the submerged plate of ice so that he will not get stuck in the mud on the lake bed. With this extra step in the direction of the dog he can finally just reach it.

Just as he is able to reach the dog the father realizes the silliness of the plan. Why would the dog know to bite the stick – and why would it hold on to it tight enough for him to pull it up? After all this is one of the only dogs in the world that can not do a single trick.

But suddenly the dog moves and bites on to the stick! With a firm pull the father pulls the dog from the water and up onto the shore.

A Cold Rescue!

The family (and the dog, now on a leash) walks back to the car. They all get warm back in the car where they share a bag of buns they bought at the local baker.

END

Fade to black.

Dramatic narrative voice recaps the story with a philosophic twist. Where will our adventurous family go next? Where will the road lead them? Join us next week for more fun and danger!

When the credits end the last words on the screen is: “Based on  true story”