my country
Ah, adventuring is such great fun.
There’s the preparation. The thinking about it, the doing of it, the lying in bed worrying at it. Then, eventually, there’s the adventure itself.
This adventure takes place in my country. Not my home, exactly, but a little bit further south of where it lies.
Where shall I start? Shall we dive right in to the middle? Will we delve into the microscopic detail? Or shall we stroll along and just see what we find?
Let’s kick up our feet and start from the top. Which is not the same as the beginning.
I’ve always loved to walk. Not quite so much as a swim, but it’s that same feeling that if I didn’t have a reason to stop maybe I never would. I can see that the older I get, the easier it will be to stop. But that’s for then and this is for now. Of course, there’s walking and there’s walking.
Walking around hills and mountains is an unbelievable high. (Pun fully intended.) I wouldn’t describe it as a feeling of conquering. What an odd notion that would be. A human conquering a mountain? With what? A shovel and an awful lot of time?
It’s a mixture of feelings. It’s a feeling of fatigue and aching muscles. It’s astonishment at the raw beauty of the landscape. A dizzy sense of flying, on sight of the view from the top. It’s a sense of quiet and of stillness. It is, for me, a gentle sense of achievement and of overcoming the physical body. It is unbearably, bodily beautiful.
I’m no mountain-climber, but even little strolls, like those around Crater Lake, may give you an insight into what that would be like.
One thing is for certain, whatever it takes of you to make the walk, it gives it back to you a hundred-fold.
on 4 January, 2010 boot said . . .
You would think so, wouldn’t you.
Well, let’s just allow the story to unravel and we’ll see.
on 4 January, 2010 Keith said . . .
I have tomorrow off and will stroll through your links then, in great leisure. I did click on your Crater Lake, but it is, of course, not the Crater Lake I am familiar with at all. Excellent. It’s like finding a portal into nonstop adventure.
on 4 January, 2010 boot said . . .
I better not put up the next post too quickly then. Give you a chance to stroll. It’s a steep climb in some parts, so it’s good to sit and just look at the view anyway.
on 4 January, 2010 'mouse said . . .
That does not look like appropriate hiking footgear.
Carry on tho.