Time for a Break

Photograph taken by Daniel Abrams

Photograph taken by Daniel Abrams

I’ve been told time and time again that the air in the city is nothing compared to the air out there where the land remains unscarred. But, when you spend most of your life surrounded by the familiar sounds of cars hurrying to their destinations, you begin to wonder how everyday life could continue in a place without electricity and other such necessities.

So, when I got the choice of which hike I wanted to do, in order to complete the Silver level of the President’s Award, I chose one that would be far away from the goings on of the city, even though it meant I would have to get up before dawn on the first day of my mid-term. But although I was willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep, I couldn’t fight the nerves that were storming around my body. As the hike grew closer I spent more time wondering if I would be able to cope without the luxuries I was used to (like a proper mattress and a microwave). I also wondered if I would be able to keep up with the other teenagers that would be hiking with me. After all, I wouldn’t get enough time to soak up the forest atmosphere if I was constantly trying not to lag behind.

On the first day of my hike I realized that I shouldn’t have worried about anything. The girls and boys who were with me were so friendly that by the time we got to the first climb of the day we were already prepared to motivate each other. We all walked at a decent pace which meant I had plenty of time to stop and gaze at the wonders of the forest. Thank goodness I did or else I would’ve missed seeing the majestic waterfalls, the beautiful running streams that we had to walk over and the giant Eucalyptus trees that were over 100 years old.

However, after staring at the trees and counting the leaves until my eyes started to hurt, I realized that I still had many more hours of walking before I’d be able to see the next hut. And so, I used this time to make new friends and learn new things. For instance, thanks to one of the boys I learnt how to play Water Polo, which used to be a sport that totally confused me because of the speed the game was played at. But, even though we chatted a lot there were still many moments of silence that stretched between us all and this is when I let my imagination guide me. This meant that I spent an entire hour being absolutely grateful that I wasn’t a snail because carrying my possessions for four days was enough to drive me crazy. I definitely wouldn’t be able to cope if I had to do it for the rest of my life. Especially since that would mean that the only meals I would ever eat would be oats, peanut butter on savoury biscuits and camping food. Although that doesn’t sound too bad, when you have it over and over again the flavours in those dishes start to fade and so after just a few days I was already missing real food. AKA food that doesn’t just need hot water to cook.

But, even though there were some aspects of the hike that were a bit rough (such as my aching shoulders after carrying a bag for so long), I thoroughly enjoyed the hike, made some great friends and got a chance to really appreciate the natural beauty of an area I’d never been to before.

So if you get the opportunity to choose between stressing over exams or doing something completely different, I hope you’ll make the more adventurous decision.



PS: The air really is so much purer away from the cities.