Okay, this wasn’t a hike. It was a 5km forest walk, but a very interesting one. The route:
The numbers indicate the differences in speed per kilometre, nothing to worry about.
I started on the circle left of point 3, walked on to 1 and 2 and on until the end, turned back, walked back to 3 and on to the end, turned back and then went on to 4 and 5 (5 is beneath the left top circle – the end. The total was 5km, I walked 37 minutes. First off, it was colder than I thought. It was 6c/42F. This walk was near the town of Malden, in the area called Malden’s Vlak.
Most of the narrow path I walked ran parallel to a wider, frequently used path (pedestrians, cyclists, joggers) and at times those passed by, without seeing me though. Clearly when they don’t expect anyone they won’t see anyone. Between point 1 and 2 I had an encounter with a man on a bike and his dog. The man stared at me but said nothing, then rode on. The dog was curious but followed his owner. I’m glad about that because German shepherds are quite large. On the way back, between 3 and the start-circle, I saw a lady jogger on the aforementioned parallel track. She didn’t react, probably didn’t even see me. Good thing. On the first clear intersection after point 4 I ran into 2 younger ladies, aged 18 or 19 perhaps, and there was no way I could avoid them so I just walked on. I know they stared, I heard them giggle, but we all went our merry way. It’s obvious that people around here don’t make a big fuss over seeing a nude person walking around. This is something I find very encouraging.
Just before point 5/end, in the distance I saw someone coming who was walking his dog, so I decided to make for the bushes and get dressed again. I guess the man saw me ‘before’ because he gave me a funny look as I reappeared, but that was all.
The odd thing is that I only noticed how cold it was after putting my clothes back on.
I have more to say about this walk with respect to the spiritual/natural-connected experience, but that’s for another post. And I’ll have to see if the video-bits I tried to make are any good. Light conditions were very poor.
