Woman in the Wilderness: My Story of Love, Survival and Self-Discovery

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I feel tears well up in my eyes. We are waving at each other, touching each other over a great distance. I am looking at the wilderness and at Peter: the two dearest beings in my heart Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that she would be nourished there for a thousand two hundred and sixty days (forty-two months; three and one-half years). when I see the place where I’ll die, I’d like to think that I’ll recognise it. Then I’ll know the time has come to stay in one place And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place having been prepared there by God, so that they should nourish her there one thousand two hundred sixty days. Ik moet bekennen dat ik eerst de aflevering van Floortje Dessing heb gekeken en een interview bij RTL late night. Normaal doe ik het niet, maar ik kwam bij toeval bij RTL night terecht en zag ik haar. Een inspirerende vrouw.

If you’re going off grid, prepping is key. Miriam and Peter spent months training for that first winter in South Marlborough, New Zealand: long, demanding treks, first-aid courses; reading survival and foraging books – working out by the spoonful exactly how much flour, pulses, tea bags they’d need. They practised seeing in the dark with night walks. Miriam isn’t a conspiracy theorist but she’s proud she has now learned survival skills, in case of Armageddon. The moment that I walked through the door of responsibility I found myself in the room of obligation When I entered Lothlórien, it suddenly seemed ludicrous to hurry. There was absolutely no logical reason to be so hasty; in fact, it was safer to go slowly. I stopped, looked at the beauty around me and realised that I did everything at great speed. It was an automatic response to my life in school and the workplace. Nature, however, had plenty of time. I discarded the invisible whip. (c) I loved the descriptions of NZ wilderness and wildlife; did not realise there was so many feral animals affecting the wilderness. The voice was very strong and evocative; I found I could imagine myself camping out (and I am no camper or hiker). The book was compelling - and I would read more about her different lifestyle. And how amazing is her ability to endure the cold? It was as if heaven had pulled away from the earth and created a space in which everything was still, serene and complete. (c)

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Five years into their nomadic life in New Zealand, Miriam decided to write a book about her experiences. The couple have since relocated to Europe, where they’re spending the year walking to Turkey; part two of their life’s dream of never returning to “civilisation”. So here we are in Bulgaria – three hours west of Sofia, upstream from a river where the couple can bathe, sitting around a campfire in a wood (the photographer met up with them earlier in their journey, in Bavaria). I’ve been invited for dinner and Peter is standing over a cast iron pot containing a bubbling bean stew. There are foraged wrinkly plums to start. It’s an exciting occasion for them: they haven’t seen another human being for 11 days. It’s 5pm. What have they been doing all day? “Nothing much. Waiting for you.” In the first few months of their primitive life, Miriam thought she’d go mad with boredom but she soon fell in sync with nature. Half of any given day is spent collecting firewood. They sleep as long as it’s dark. They’ve never had more energy. Since 2010, Miriam Lancewood has lived nomadically in the wilds of New Zealand with her partner. They spend all their waking moments connected to nature. They walk hundreds of miles through forests, rivers, mountains. She hunts for their food with a bow, and a rifle. And she somehow does all of this whilst also looking like a mega babe!? Wtf??? On a scale of one to epic, how FREAKING EPIC is that? It seems Miriam is not the only woman to think that women are missing out. Her book is coming out in Britain this month but is already published in Holland, where it’s become a small sensation. “Women write to me and say, ‘You inspired me,’” she tells me. “They’re amazed that it’s possible to live this primitive life; but they’re afraid: ‘What’s out there?’” De bieb heeft dit boek gecategoriseerd als 'Nieuw Zeeland'. Begrijpelijk, maar ook niet helemaal. Ik vind het ook een spiritueel boek. Lancewood beschrijft op de eerste plaats een reis naar zichzelf. Hoe meer ze inpassen in de natuur, hoe meer moeite ze hebben met aanpassen aan de huidige samenleving.

Simplicity, clarity, purity. This was a vision I had always kept with me, as it seemed the natural course of things in the world. Just watching it calmed my mind. It had taught me its main principles: it always needs space and air. And, once a fire is burning well, it detests being disturbed in its heart. Fire and human beings have a lot in common that way.That was the last thing I wanted to do. Nothing meant boredom, the dreaded void, horrible emptiness. Nothing was the unknown and I had discovered I was afraid of it - this was the fear I would have to face in the many weeks to come. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Both Miriam and Peter justify their lifestyle by contrasting it to city life, which in their eyes is a “self-imposed prison”. For people that value freedom like them, a conventional life with a job in a city is “imprisoning with its blinding, monotonous routine”. According to Peter, the predictability from living in a city “creates a sense of comfort, which in turn created a resistance to stepping into the unknown”. He adds “it is difficult for a mind that has evolved in human civilisation to reconnect with nature”. Miriam also makes compelling arguments for their lifestyle, for instance, “a lot of people work for years to save their money for later, but by the time they have enough to do something different they don’t have the courage for it, then it is too late” says Miriam. Peter and I yearned for natural places; we were always longing for peace, beauty and space. In my eyes, there was no greater beauty than the uninhabited, rough wilderness of New Zealand’s steep and unforgiving mountains, extended forests, great rivers, lakes and wild animals. The mere sight of the mountains always made me feel very happy. (c) When the wild horses saw us, they fled like wary deer. Their long manes and tails flew up in the air as they galloped at full speed inland. It was a remarkable sight. Horses are naturally very elegant, but these wild ones were indescribably magnificent. These free horses almost felt like a gift from Ninety Mile Beach. (c) The sun sank silently behind the mountain, leaving a last red glow along the tops of the mountains. (c)I started to miss the breeze and, above all, the fire. It felt as if I had lost the company of a good friend. The convenience of the heat pump did not match the sparkling beauty and warmth of a fire For starters, Davidson says, she was young in the late 60s and 70s, when anything seemed possible. “Everything was about freedom and risk and testing and pushing and seeing who you were and who you could be and refusing to accept the restrictions of the time and the past. It was a heady and wonderful time to be young.” She thinks the film suggests that a young woman had to be unstable rather than adventurous to undertake such a challenge. “They made Mia, that darling actress who is still a dear friend, too troubled and grumpy. There’s not enough jokes in the film. Not enough pleasure, I suppose.” Despite her bleakness, she does have a huge sense of fun. I gobbled up this book and it led me to do a lot of soul searching. What really is the point of climbing the career ladder to earn money to buy things you don’t need? Can I be content with less, or different? What does my soul really long for? Am I brave enough to chase it if it means rejecting social convention? Somehow I had forgotten what I looked like, because Peter’s face had become more familiar to me than my own. Ze gaan steeds een stapje verder. Eerst leven ze nog lange tijd op één plek, daarna gaan ze trekken als nomaden. Met pijl en boog schiet Lancewood avondeten. Ze leren welke eetbare planten en bessen er zijn.

I discovered it was much easier to accumulate things than to discard all the goods I had grown attached to Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days.

I suddenly felt the world expanding. Everything was beautiful and made sense. It occurred to me that the meaning of life lies in aimlessness: when there is no focus at all, the world opens up. But how will you shower? ... Oh no, you have to come out once a month! At least when you have your period, surely! (c) Ugh, I have no idea how people managed to make it when there were no facilities or modern sanitary stuffs. Yes, it’s actually as though we have no future. Just the great timeless void, an infinite mist.’ (c)