I was thinking about that when I was dropping my 6 year old off at some hobbies earlier - it’s pretty much expected to have learned how to ride a bicycle before starting school, and it massively expands the area you can go to by yourself. When she went to school by bicycle she can easily make a detour via a shop to spend some pocket money before coming home, while by foot that’d be rather time consuming.
Quite a lot of friends from outside of Europe either can’t ride a bicycle, or were learning it as adult after moving here, though.
edit: the high number of replies mentioning “swimming” made me realize that I had that filed as a basic skill pretty much everybody has - probably due to swimming lessons being a mandatory part of school education here.
Defend yourself against what? (I live in western Europe)
In the Mojave? Mountain lions, coyotes, maybe a dog, and snakes (though that is more a matter of “avoid” than “defend”).
Unless you are badly injured or a small child, coyotes are not a threat. Credible reports of healthy coyotes willingly attacking healthy adult humans are basically non-existent. There’s always something else going on that precipitates the attack.
You are far more likely to be killed by the heat and lack of water in the Mojave than by any animal.
Edit; unless by “coyote” you mean cartel-affiliated human traffickers, in which case, yeah, they definitely are bad news.
Also non-cartel coyotes rest during the day. I lived in Nevada where coyotes are a given, but never in my life saw one during the day.
Thanks. No Wendigo, then? ;)