Take a hike
by Ivana on
Nowadays, almost any information is within our reach in a blink of an eye, at all times, and in abundance. We have to schedule our minds to rest, have some time in isolation, free from the information greediness on the loose. While we can take certain actions to disconnect on a regular, daily or weekly basis, everybody could use a major reset every once in a while.
I’ve had mine 2 weeks ago: hiking and camping in the southern part of Velebit, which belongs to Paklenica, a national park in Croatia. We spent 4 days climbing (including the highest peak, Vaganski vrh, at 1757m), walking from morning till dusk, sleeping in tents, making fire to cook food and warm ourselves after tiring whole-day hikes.
Reasons I love hiking and spending time in mountains:
- focusing on one thing only: putting some effort in each step that will bring you closer to the destination;
- disconnection, being able to spend time only with people that are with you, without disturbances;
- physical exercise, with all the health benefits it brings; you don’t need to be particularly in shape for hiking, the only prerequisite is sheer will power;
- the obvious: enjoying the scenery;
- once again coming to appreciate the everyday comforts we take for granted.
(A little note on the disconnection part: the signal coverage is actually pretty good on Croatian mountains, so I had to turn the flight mode on – there’s just something out of place in receiving an SMS from your city friend inviting you to theatre while you’re looking for a “number two” hiding spot.)
Mountains are amazing. Instead of reading this, you should be planning your next hiking trip.
More photos from this trip in my set on Flickr.