Nature

The coolest experience I've had in nature (thus far) was in the Czech Republic when I was camping and hiking through the forests near Hrad Kokorin (Kokorin Castle). My friend and I took a bus to the area where the castle was located and when the bus left we realized that we were in a utterly and completely rural area. We saw some HUGE storm clouds on the horizon and were a little nervous because the next bus didn't arrive until the next morning, but we decided to go on and find someplace sheltered to sleep. We walked for about two miles on a one land road in the middle of huge hills covered in traditional farmland (not huge factory farms) while these enormous storm clouds rolled in. The weather was warm still, even with the rain coming, so the walking was totally pleasant and wonderful. We finally reached the forest and walked down this tiny little path into the middle of what looked like the Lord of the Rings set (I guess the set was all of New Zealand, if I think about it...). All around me were huge rocky cliffs, fairytale trees with light filtering down from the sky and in the distance I could see the ruins of a castle. The atmosphere was so quiet and peaceful that I forgot all about the incoming rain. We hiked around for a few hours and finally stumbeled upon a resturant and some cabins to camp in. Perhaps the most impressive part of the night was the storm that night, which was truely a testament to the power of nature. For hours the rain poured down, with plenty of thunder and lightening to light up our powerless cabin. It was lucky that we found a cabin, because we would have been cold and miserable, but with the hiking and the storm and the fact that we were so far from the city, I felt really impressed by nature.


I definitely think its important to preserve natural spaces "for the sake of nature." That humans believe that they can conquor the entire earth and leave nothing untouched disgusts me. We are not the only inhabitants of this planet and the arrogance that humanity has thus far displayed has and will continue to wreak havok on the planet and eventually on the way that we live. Additionally, there are so many amazing experiences that would be lost if all the earth's natural spaces were destroyed: the world would be so much more boring without hiking in endless forests, swimming in hidden lakes and climbing sky-high mountains.