Night in the middle of a thousand-year-old forest

(Baonghean.vn) - The night in the middle of the thousand-year-old forest of Pu Mat National Park is bone-chillingly cold. Every now and then, we hear the spine-chilling howling of gibbons and the rumbling of old, rotten trees falling down because they could not withstand the strong winds at night.

The hammocks have sleeping bags as thick as blankets to fight the cold in the middle of the jungle regardless of the hot summer day. Photo by Xuan Hoa

During the week-long trip with the scientific research team of the Science Department, Pu Mat National Park, we had experiences that few people know. After a long day of marching over hills and slopes, walking on thousand-year-old forests, it was late afternoon and the group stopped by a stream.

During the 7 days in the forest, we stopped at 7 streams, which are places that only people familiar with the forest know. In the middle of the vast green forest, water cannot be found everywhere, and only the flat streams have water for cooking and to scoop up for the following days. Therefore, there were days when the group had to stop at 4:00 PM because they could not reach the next stream in time, but there were days when the group had to keep going until after 6:30 PM to rest.

Spend the night in the middle of the Pu Mat forest. Photo: Xuan Hoa

Another thing that first-timers entering the thousand-year-old jungle did not anticipate was that we had been marching nonstop all day, so we did not feel the cold and did not yet know the effect of the down blankets and plastic sheets that we had previously said were redundant in our luggage. However, after just a few minutes of stopping, we felt the cold creeping through our bodies.

At the resting points, the forest rangers quickly built huts, while some of us lit fires, some went to collect firewood, some cut vines, and some hung hammocks for the members and covered them on the hammock roofs...

When the fire was lit, the sky in the middle of the forest was already dark. Only then did we have time to bathe in the stream and take off our sandals to remove the leeches clinging to our leggings. From the first night, we began to feel the saying “sacred forest, poisonous water”. In the middle of Nghe An summer, it was as hot as a frying pan, but in the middle of the thousand-year-old Pu Mat forest, it was cold to the bone. We quickly drank a bowl of wine that the forest workers had brought in bamboo tubes to warm us up a little.

Fire plays a very important role at night in the middle of the jungle. Fire keeps people warm and also keeps away wild animals. Photo: Xuan Hoa

Then the meal in the forest was over quickly. We followed the villagers down to the stream to catch stone crabs and stream fish. The stone crabs chewed and spit out the rice at the source, and after only ten minutes they crawled out to eat and were caught. The night scene was fun, but the real fear for first-time forest goers like me was when we got back late. The wind blew constantly and was freezing cold. We wore warm clothes and got into our thick sleeping bags but we still couldn’t get over the cold. The hammock kept swaying as if someone was shaking it.

The fear of the green forest has not ended when at night, there are times when we are sleeping soundly and suddenly wake up to the howling of a gibbon looking for a mate or the sound of a wild animal in the middle of the night forest. There are also days when strong winds blow continuously, causing ancient trees thousands of years old to die, rotten and unable to withstand, falling down in the middle of the night forest. Only then did we understand why when setting up a shelter, the local forest workers have to look carefully around. A safe resting place must be surrounded by large, sturdy trees.

After catching the stone crabs, the locals followed the group to process them into food. Photo: Xuan Hoa.

Before falling into a deep sleep, Mr. Vi Van Tiep - a ranger of Pu Mat National Park, came to each member's hammock to examine and give specific instructions. For example, every time we stepped into the hammock, we had to shine a light to carefully check for poisonous snakes. The fire was also lit carefully before going to bed so it wouldn't go out halfway because the stream is also where animals often come down to drink water, so keeping the fire to scare the animals away is safe. On such long nights, we felt the creepy attraction of this sacred forest and poisonous water for thousands of years.

When the night ended, the sound of gibbons calling their flocks in the morning woke everyone up for a new day's journey. The slopes, the dense forests of thousand-year-old trees were waiting for us ahead...

Xuan Hoa