Summer resorts are packed with holiday-makers. Searching for the sun, they go to Croatia or Spain to lie on la playa or at the swimming pool with a glass of wine/shampaine/cocktail/serveza (choose the correct alternative).
And only the crazy ones (like us) choose to spend their precious vacations hiking for many miles day after day, covered in sweat and road dust, carrying heavy backpacks with them wherever they go. Sometimes I ask myself: Why am I doing all this?
The answer is: I don’t know exactly, why.
Maybe, it gives me a good feeling of achievement. Or maybe it helps me to learn something new about myself, when I fulfill a long climb that scared me first.
But I can tell you one thing: nothing feels as satisfying as a simple shower and a bed after a long and exhausting day of hiking and sweating!
There is another thing. When I walk for many days towards my destination, carrying with me all that I need, I get a strange feeling of freedom. While I am walking, I don’t depend on any kind of transport. I don’t have to wait for a plane or a bus. I can see many new places at a very close range, as I pass them by. I can stop whenever I want to, just to smell a flower, to pick up some berries or to breathe in delicate fragrances of the forest after a summer rain.
The lesson I’ve learned from this experience is: you actually need very little to feel happy!
