Royal National Park

Hiking can be fulfilling on many levels. For some people, it is above all a physical accomplishment. For others, it’s an occasion to share a moment with friends or family.

I realise now that for me, hiking in nature is about escaping the every day life and re-focusing on myself. But before going any further, let me go back and analyse the previous post of this blog.

« There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more ».

Lord Byron

As a solo hiker, I was very intrigued by the group dimension of this field trip. In life, I tend to be a social person; I like meeting new people and that is one of the reasons why I came to study in a new country. However, The Royal National Park field trip allowed me to realise that I instinctivly associate « hiking » with « introspection ». 
When you live in a city, a lot of outside factors constantly intrude you personal space. You have to cope with noise polution, traffic, crowd, lack of space and time to do what you want, and most of all, to meditate. In that sense, I feel that hiking with a group of people has made my experience incomplete. This field trip made me realise that hiking is really an occasion for me to escape the outside world, or more precisely, the urban world and everything that goes with it. I felt like I needed more time on my own to stop, think, observe, loose myself in the effort and experience the surroundings.

Also, in my opinion, hiking alone makes it more of a challenge because you do not have the possibility to rely on others to find your way or care for you. From this point of view, this field trip made me realise that I am addicted to this "personal challenge" part. I like to know that I can support myself and be independant, even if I know that I need my entourage to make my life complete. 
Nevertheless, this field trip helped me see that I tend to differentiate every day life and nature, as I live in the city most of the time. Furthermore, I can relate this to my current work on Human/Nature connection for the media campaign presentation, as I can see know that I really consider the hiking time as the perfect occasion to re-connect with nature, and on another level, with myself. It is interesting to see that some cultures have even acknowledged this human need to connect with nature to the point that it has become part of their cultural heritage. One of the best examples of this is Norway and what they call Friluftsliv, or "open air life". 

Last but not least, this field trip has allowed me to discover the Australian environment, as it was my first outdoor adventure in this country. From this point of view, I really enjoyed the fact that we could learn about the environment we were evolving in. I really liked Wayne’s explainations about the willdlife, the flora specifics and the stories he had about his own experience of the Park. He also gave us a lot of tips and indications to find "secret places" and I have to say that it really motivated to go back and explore them !