Life has slowly gotten in the way again. Busyness creeps up on you, and without realising you are merely bouncing from one task to another without stopping between. So, when offered two days off work for a bank holiday, I decided to make the most of it, packed my tent into the boot of my car and disappeared to the Peak District.
I wanted to use this as an opportunity to reset and clear my mind of all the jumble I had accumulated over the past couple of months. Without consideration, I booked the first campsite I could find with a pitch available, downloaded 2 random route files from a ’10 Best Walks in the Peak District’ blog and set off. The plan was simply to walk up a hill, enjoy the view, and then go back to the tent to sleep before doing it all again the next day.
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It’s early morning and the beginning of summer is starting to show with the sun beaming down on me. I’ve gotten my wish and find myself alone, atop of a hill. Looking down below me, I can’t see a single person. The view matches the weather in its spectacle. A patchwork blanket of fields, each coloured differently by the crops they grow, sewed together by hedgerows. The rolling hills on the landscape hide the world beyond, and before me, civilization is limited to a couple of small holdings dotted into the landscape. The world sits still, but for the gentle sway of grass and faint slither of cloud in the sky. Even the cattle don’t break the illusion of tranquillity as they lie sunbathing in the fields. Up here there is nothing but quiet and solitude.
For the past two days, all I’ve thought about is… Have I got enough water? Am I walking in the right direction? The rest of life’s worries disappear over the hills. Before walking up here this morning, I had a cup of tea outside my tent. For an hour I did nothing but sip tea and look out across the lake and into the hills. No phone and no distractions. How often, day to day, do we take time to sit and do nothing? Yet out here I didn’t get bored and look for a distraction. The hills didn’t move, and the picture doesn’t change, but I felt content just watching.
Get Up Go Outside 