Tag: mountains

Hiking myself free

It’s mid of April 2022 and I’ve reached the eastern nipple of the Peleponnese. Most people call them fingers or feet, but I’m preferring nipples. There had been a time, some years ago when I called most things nipple. Maybe it’s a residue of this nipple quirk left in my head…

The last few days, it has been very stormy and today it’s even crazier. I spent the night behind a beach, in a place protected by a big rock formation. In the morning, I took the drive to the Geopark of Agios Nikolaos, and here the wind is even stronger.

This wind is not the only stormy thing I’m dealing with: my mind is very stormy as well. I’ve been not very motivated for the last few days and I’m feeling kind of down for no special reason I know. I’ve been meditating and practicing the acceptance of my state of mind, but in the morning I got an alarming message from Germany about the health situation of one of my close family members. This message added some whirl to the wind in my head and heart. It leaves me like a sailor in the dense fog of life. Standing in the crow’s nest. Thinking and evaluating if my future me might cope with the challenges to come instead of sailing in this particular moment with what is happening now. I’m asking myself questions like “should I go back to Germany?”, “what will happen next?”, “what if…?”, …

In times like these, it’s the best for me to go outside and do something interesting, but not too challenging. In the best case, it’s something beautiful. Something that keeps me going without much potential to be negatively exciting.

The hike from the Geopark to Ekklisia Agios Georgios is exactly that. It’s super beautiful and the narrow path is interesting but easy to do. I’m hiking between the sea and the mountain. The mountain is protecting me from the wind and the whirlwind inside of my head loses his negative and destructive power. The sun of spring is getting me really warm and after an hour, I’m enjoying all this. I’m welcoming and congratulating a big part of me for making it back from the future into the present. It feels very relieving. I’m still not very positive or happy, but that’s fine. I escaped the black hole, that had me in its gravity field.

I think there is a big power in walking. Maybe it’s because that’s what nature made us: awesome walking machines. Especially walking through nature has so much calm, satisfaction and a kind of wisdom in it.

Facing the storm

It’s been my birthday in March 2022 when Tino and I did an offroad tour that led us to the top of a Greek mountain on Peleponnese. That evening it had been storming like crazy and on the next day, the storm was still at full power.

I’m waking up and Rosinante is still swaying like a drunken sailor staggering home, stumbling to her knees now and then. Before I went to bed yesterday, I didn’t pop up Rosinante’s roof. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the additional noise and the worrying about the tent fabric torn apart like an old sail while the wind is hitting Rosinantes broadside. It’s six o’clock and the sun is about to rise. After checking my phone for no special reason, I decide to go out to watch the sunrise. I’m thinking about turning my phone off at night to make it easier for me not to check it just to check it. But I quickly push away that thought while having the feeling, that I’ll change that in some not-so-far-away future. After getting my winter clothes on, I’m opening Rosinante’s rear hatch. Instead of the familiar sound of the pneumatic springs pushing the hatch up, I’m just hearing the wind blowing. There are small patches of snow and I’m thinking if they have been there yesterday. Jumping out of the hatch feels a bit like exiting a spaceship. Even though I’m wearing my winter cap, the wind is screaming in my ears. After pulling on my hood, the noise got reduced to something like a mild screaming with the potential to rise to a roar. Feeling the cold on my face, I start the walk to a nearby place where I’ll have a better view. I’m passing by a big steel barrel filled with solid ice. Hitting it with a stone just blasts small pieces of the ice. I’m reaching the viewpoint and the wind hits me so hard into my face, that my hood gets jerked from my head. I put it back on and after adding the hood of my jacket, I’m tightening its straps. The view is fantastic: the sun just got up and her warm and orange light is illuminating different layers of mountains, clouds and the fog hanging between the mountains. The wind is roaring into my face, pushing tears out of my eyes and letting my cold nose run, but I can’t stop watching the scenery with wide-open eyes. While running over my face the once warm tears feel like they are freezing to ice. The wind gets even stronger and I’ve to lean myself into him to not get pushed back. It’s so beautiful, powerful and somehow weird, that I start laughing and whimpering at the same time.

Seen from the present, this morning feels like the start of some powerful but beautiful changes hitting me in the weeks after that morning.

Friends and another way of overlanding on Corfu in Greece

I made my way to Corfu to visit Natalia a friend from the time where I have been studying in Magdeburg, Germany. We haven‘t seen each other for about 20 years and barely had contact at all. But when I saw that she just moved to Corfu with her boyfriend Petrus, I thought visiting her would be fun. It was kind of funny to meet after such a long time and we had a great time.

I lernt a lot about Corfu and Greece and met other friends of Natalia and Petrus. We went for dinner, in a bar, around Corfu town and had a dinner at Ines place. Ines is a friend of Natalia and Petrus that has three dogs and about seven to twenty cats (twenty because two of the cats a pregnant).

Corfu town is really beautiful and the small streets are like a labyrinth. Even with a postal address, I can’t find places there. The only way to find places for me is via Google Maps markers. And the locals go that way, too. It’s quite a miracle that the package that Thomas (a friend from Germany) send for me to Natalia arrived. In the package there was the new drone from DJI and a 360 degree action cam.

Overlanding is different on Corfu because as an island it’s more compact. I think in the summer season it will become really crowded with tourists everywhere. And on Corfu you really never know what happens if you go for remote beaches! One time I got lost in an olive farm and the other time I did some of the most difficult offroading so far when it comes to stone steps. In Corfu there are a lot of beautiful places and definitely recommend going there.