Fritz Meinecke is the inventor of the popular outdoor show “7 vs. Wild”. But it did not go well for him in season 3. Now he comments on his own appearance and answers fans’ questions on Twitch.
Why were there so many questions about Fritz Meinecke’s appearance on 7 vs. Wild?
- Fritz Meinecke’s team and Survival Mattin were considered the favorites to win the season. However, they were the first team to be eliminated: It was over by day 3.
- A flooding had contaminated the team’s freshwater source, and the two decided that without water, they had no chance of lasting 14 days. They saw no prospects of finding a fresh drinking water source, felt the dehydration, and called to be picked up.
- Consequently, there was a lot of criticism for this decision. The team was accused of only seeking an “easy exit” and not doing everything possible to find water. As Meinecke says, he received many nasty and mocking comments and messages online.
Now that the episode with his elimination had aired on YouTube, he wanted to address the fans’ questions in detail.
One of the participants of season 3 is Twitch streamer Jens “Knossi” Knossalla. You can see more about him in our video:
Next time in such a situation, he would stock up on more water supplies
What would Fritz Meinecke do differently today? Eine of the questions that Meinecke answered on Twitch was: Why didn’t he stock up on water?
Indeed, he says, he would do it differently now: If he were to find himself in a situation where he uses a “shallow water source close to the sea,” he would try to stock up for 3 to 4 days.
While he had gathered water supplies on day 2, it was only for one day: The supplies were consumed by Mattin and him on day 2 while building the shelter and searching for food. When they were finished, darkness had already fallen, and the two went to sleep instead of refilling the water supplies at the distant source at night.
Why not just make a divining rod?
What were the most unusual questions? The probably strangest question for Meinecke was whether he couldn’t have made a divining rod and searched for freshwater sources.
Meinecke replied dryly: That would indeed have been possible, but for that, he would also have had to bring his tarot cards and crystal ball.
He also did not see the idea of drinking his own urine as a solution:
“Drinking pee dehydrates you too. If you drink really dark yellow urine, that’s not clever.”
Similarly, the “construction of a well” was not a realistic option.
Although the brackish water from the bog could have been boiled, it would not have changed the fact that it was “acidic”.
The central question was: Meinecke was asked why he hadn’t followed the salted river up to the source but had stopped after about half a kilometer.
Meinecke says: He believed that the rule from previous seasons applied, to only move within a limited radius around the camp. Although he had only received the correct limitation for one direction from the production team, he assumed that the old rules still applied. Therefore, he did not want to go too far down the river.
When asked why he didn’t just break such rules, he replied:
“What kind of message is that? Just think about it, in terms of public perception: What kind of message is that if I break the rules of my own project, the rules I set in season 1? No, I don’t feel that at all.”
What does he regret? It is especially noticeable that Fritz Meinecke regrets not having deep knowledge on the topic of “salty drinking water” and that he was clueless in the situation. He had to simply accept the assessment of Survival Mattin (“There’s salt in it, you can’t drink that, it will damage your kidneys”).
He says he knows that you shouldn’t drink seawater, but he did lack the knowledge of how salty water can be drinkable. And without this knowledge, he did not want to contradict another survival expert who has been doing this for 10 years and didn’t want to start a big discussion about it.
In hindsight, Meinecke sees no solution to the drinking water problem
Was the lack of motivation a problem? Meinecke admits that the mood and mindset of him and Survival Mattin were not good for many reasons.
However, he does not believe that a “super-hyped” mindset could have changed much about the drinking water situation. The mindset may have contributed to them not lasting another night. But ultimately, they would have only delayed the inevitable elimination insignificantly.
A way to prevent elimination with some action has not yet come to his mind even months later.
What does he hope for? Meinecke says: In the later episodes of the season, there will be a little “aha moment”:
“There will be a little plot twist in this series. I think the people who saw this on Freevee know what I’m talking about.”
From now on, there are spoilers about the later course of 7 vs. Wild that YouTube viewers do not yet know.
What does he mean by that?
The location of the team “Trymacs and Rumathra” was relatively close to the location of Meinecke and Survival Mattin – they were about 6 kilometers apart, on the same beach.
When they later ran out of drinking water in the season, they made a forced march and reached the spot of Meinecke and Survival Mattin: There they found traces of both, but also only salty drinking water and had to be picked up as well.
The YouTube users will see this “plot twist” in a few weeks. Meinecke suspects that then his performance will be evaluated differently: Because even if Meinecke could have waited a week for a better situation, his freshwater source would still have been salty.
Also, Fritz Meinecke’s partner in the show has commented on the fans’ questions:
7 vs. Wild: Mattin comments on the rumors for the first time – “The psyche was totally fried”
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