The Joy of the Outdoors

"A traveler.

I love his title.

A traveler is to be reverenced as such.

His profession is the best symbol of our life.

Going from--toward;

it is the history of every one of us."'

-Henry David Thoreau

I love the outdoors. Early in the holidays (Nov last year) I decided to make the best out of these precious months by doing what I think is valuable, knowing that this semester break would well be my last (then comes working life - a whole new adventure of its own). Since then, 5 hiking trips have happened.

Chilling Falls

I love the idea that you could enter a totally different world after just a 45 minutes drive and a 2 and a half hours climb, and be able to share that experience with friends and acquaintances. The joy of hiking is found in the camaraderie of friends achieving a common goal and enjoying the reward of it; I once tried solo-hiking and found it to be extremely unpleasant and lonely!

Tabur West (above). Went there twice with two different groups of friends A less-trodden path, which led to a higher cliff, at Tabur West
Magnificent view at Broga Hill (above), where I got to spend the morning with old buddies, Wai Wai and Ian
Nick and Jared (above), at Tabur East
Sheer cliffs at Tabur East

Perhaps the reason for this compelling urge to hike every chance I get lies in the notion that there are still countless places yet to be discovered - and that no two are the same. Maybe it is an 'adventurer's complex': an odd, puzzling feeling when a person becomes both satisfied having traveled to a new place, yet, unsatisfied with the greater realization that there exists many more places and people to be experienced.

What is sure is that life is a passing vapour. And it shouldn't be wasted on the things that don't matter! Life in itself is one great adventure.