How do I feel when I am out ?

 You can only understand how I feel if you know the phrase “my senses where alive”. For years I worked in a respectable 9 to 5 job, earning money, feeding my family, paying the bills, buying the latest gadget. I think my only saving grace was that I always got a real sense of joy when helping whatever community I was working with. Looking back I suppose it was me balancing out the lack of fulfilment in my work. So when I finally realized that I had enough I started looking for something to do.

I snapped my Achilles heal and it took me a year and a half to recover. That will teach me to play squash at my age. My first mountain was Snowdon or Wyr Fawwdya. I had just started being able to run again at this point so climbing 4 peaks before reaching the Snowdon summit maybe was not the best idea at the time. We started walking at 9am and reached our last summit by 7pm, just as the sun was going down. We then followed the train track down all the way to Llanberis.

What struck me was the amazing sunshine. It altered between hot and pleasant on the way up. I noticed the temperature also depended on what the wind was doing and if the wind itself was cold or hot. on parts of the track it would disappear and on other parts it would try to blow you off your feet.

Towards 6pm as we pushed for the summit I gave up the “wow factor” and feeling amazed at everything and just enjoyed it. This stage was the best because my senses came alive.

When out on the hill find a safe place to sit and close your eyes. Whatever the weather is doing you will pick up its sense. Do it for at least five minutes and feel what happens. The feeling I get is that I am so small, like an atom, and so vast that I can feel the whole universe. This is happening at the same time within me. At the same time I feel absolutely still and calm.

Well this interesting, never felt this before, but I like it. When walking through woods I love the heavy feeling I get from all that cover high up and the grass and foliage low down. If you are by yourself then stop and listen. The woods are alive. So much noise mixed in a heavy comforting blanket type feeling. This is during the day of course. By night the woods take on a very different feeling. The trees creak in the wind. Things move at the edge of your vision. The silence is no longer a heavy comforting blanket but an empty void full of dark promises. Your mind plays tricks on you. Once when walking through the night I kept stopping because I was certain I could hear footsteps behind me. That was really creepy because when I would look round of course there was nobody there. Even now when out on night navigation by myself I still get that feeling from time to time. What I really find fascinating is water. Especially streams.