Welcome to part 5 of I don’t know yet how many there will be!
Come in, come in, make yourself comfortable, mi casa es su casa!
Thank you for coming back for more and enjoying what I create. I know I make it look effortlessly, and to my own surprise, so far, it indeed was effortless. Stay tuned to find out if it will continue to be so, or not. Let's take a ride.
Today we explore hiking.
Because I went on a hike, I am tired and yet fully satisfied, also nothing else has happened today. I feel like my whole day consisted of mountains and the urge to hike up one of those glorious, magnificent, majestic, ginormous mountains that we passed along our way. We took the ‘Northern Lights Route’ that is the E6, or street of Europe number 6, so coined because it connects Scandinavia with the rest of Europe, or at least, don’t sue me if it is wrong, it was said so in my travel guide to Norway. Although this E6 at some stages resembles a motorway, it really isn’t.
For one the speed limit varies. I haven’t seen a 110km/h sign since I passed Oslo, the main speed limit sign one sees high up North is 90, but because it leads through several towns and villages, more often than not 60 or 70 is the way to go. That doesn’t really matter because it enables one to enjoy the view, especially if one has one or two camper vans in front that limit the speed even more significantly down to almost 50. Partly because at some points the streets narrow down to 4 metres width, through tunnels, along coastal passages or over bridges. The drive I had today of about 220 kilometres was mind-blowing. I was awe-struck for most of it. The mountains I saw, near to me, far away from me, to the left and to the right, seemed to envelop me with a sense of joyful insignificance.
These giants, formed over millions of years, witnesses to the passing of the ages of time, melted, erupted, carved out by glaciers, some fully covered by the sea once, now rising high and towering over us little humans. Some of them I feel drawn to, others intimidate me, some invite me to climb on them, others just make me want to say a prayer for them and praise them for their grace. One mountain range, the one I passed through yesterday, about an hour north from Tromsø, I called the Mama Mountains, because they seemed to be protectors of a gate, maybe the gate to the far North, I don’t know, but my creativity just came up with this emotion towards them. The mountain range we passed today I’d almost call the Hallelujah Mountains, and no, I did not steal that from Avatar (the sci-fi, not the anime). Okay, maybe. They were not floating though, they just felt like unattainable watchers of the west border. I am separated from them by the ocean that is squeezed in between almost as though it is a fjord. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the string of peaks I saw, the glaciers visible here and there, the ranges of spikes or smooth stone, the waterfalls, the stone that falls down directly to the waters edge with no straight land in between. They were rising out of the sea as though they themselves decided to stand up tall and make their presence be known.
Like gods.
Well, what can I say, I am in awe.
Being enveloped like this, I knew that, with no rain on the horizon or immediate proximity, today was going to be a day of hiking one of them. Well, I did not know. It was written in their stoney surfaces. It was destined to be.
And when I approached Sørstrumen, just before the E6 dove into another tunnel, there it was, a parking spot made for me, just at the side of one of those marvellous deities.
Doaresjávri is the lake that we discovered once we made it to the top of the mountain that Kvænangsfjellet. I am pretty sure this is the name known to locals. If it isn’t, I apologize. I am still certain it has a name as awe-inspiring as it appears to be, as amazing as it was having the honour to discover him. I think he is male in spirit, although I know there is no gender in the realms of spirit. However, the energy I experienced was that of a very proud male. And understandably so. He rises up about 402 metres, that is what a sign said, yet it felt like a thousand. Not only because of the steepness of the hike with its slick surface of mostly gravel, also because of the view from atop. And also because when you are eager to get up there and forget that you actually have to walk down again, so you have to walk around the steepness and extend the hike itself for about 2 more hours to get safely to the bottom again. In total we spent nearly 5 hours. All worth it.
Why? I am glad you asked!
My thoughts of today are inspired exactly by that question, more precisely they are inspired by a song from the band Tophouse:
Why do people climb mountains?
Is it just to reach the top and see the view?
I have listened to that song a couple of hundred times, mainly while driving through mountains on a roadtrip or after having been up a mountain. It always puzzled me. I never had an answer, I am not even sure I have one now. But this is the song of the day, this is the anthem that the 20th of August 2024 held for me personally.
Why do we do it? Or why do some do it? Because I can count myself to both groups. There was a time when I would have never in several lifetimes thought I’d end up loving it. There simply was no need to put myself through the ordeal. Honestly, it may just have been that I wasn’t in a condition to do it anyway. Although I am not saying that I am in the greatest shape now either. What then compels me to climb a mountain? It is not just to reach the top and see the view. Yes, this is the reward, and yes, this feels like an achievement. I have come to think of it in another way as well though.
I tend to think that I am proving to myself that there are things I can do, that I am able. I am able to walk, thus hike, and therefore I feel like a human being. Walking up a mountain to challenge myself and see the view from up there makes me feel like a human. As though this is as natural, as old, as ordinary to us humans as breathing. Being out, walking, getting up to see other perspectives, maybe reminding myself how small I am in the grand scheme of things. Maybe proving myself that if all else fails, I am able to change my point of view and remind myself that what I deem extraordinarily important, in fact, is insignificant. Maybe it is the absolute presence you have while climbing and descending, the concentration that doesn’t allow for your mind to wander, not even up there or during breaks because then you are struck by the wonder of what is presented to you by nature, the view. And you need to catch your breath. Maybe it opens up a portal of timelessness as, compared to these rocky giants, I am not even a glimpse of a nanosecond of existence. Maybe it is the reminder that this is the most natural place and state to be in, guided by the rhythm of day and night, not a clock, uplifted or crushed by weather conditions and thereby humbled due to the fragility of my human body, invited to the observation of changing seasons.
All of it, probably.
Do you hike? Climb? Walk?
Why do you do it?
What does it do to you?
Now that I am safely back in my home, sheltered from the harsh winds, showered and fed, I look at that very mountain, let us call him Bert. And Bert is kind and generous and also harsh if you don’t watch where you are going or be present with your next step. He invites you into a realm away from that which has been made up by us humans, a realm where it doesn’t matter how you look, how you talk or how you dress, a realm that revolves around a bigger picture, greater rhythms than your own. And yet he offers you a hand and welcomes you to be, at least for a while, part of that enchantment, that magic that he exudes, that nature offers.
Bert and I are friends now, or so I hope and think.
He sent me reindeer passing by my main window to enjoy and marvel at.
He’ll be protecting Marjorie and me tonight too.
Ah, my beloved souls, I sent you with all my heart all this magic that I absorbed today.
And as always all the love and light in the world from my soul essence to your heart center.
May you get everything you need…
… and a pinch of what you want.
Nadine
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