Between a loch and a forest

Only this morning I was getting lost in the depths of the Scottish forest... Between a hazy sea of green pastures, tall pines reaching for the foggy skies, and the brown smudge of rolling hills in the distance slithered away the mighty Loch Ness - but I never got a glimpse of the monster (except in my head).

I walked for miles under the glaring cover of clouds and rejoiced every time the gloom was stretched open for a moment to let the sunshine out into the valley, illuminating the sky and the swift-running streams cascading down below into the lazy meanders of a giant lake. With every step I took, it felt as though I was reaching out deeper into a whole other world... a fantasy, a dream...

At some point I reached a forest that looked dead in the clutches of a thick mist, with all the trees stretching towards the sky, their branches akin to naked, twisted arms painfully thrown upwards.

The moaning, screeching and cracking of their limbs in the gusty wind added to the air of gloom that weighed on the forest and I found myself hurrying away, throwing frightened glances around just in case some mischievous creature were to jump at me from the cover of these scarily naked trees.



Nothing happened.

Soon enough, I had reached the Shores of Nowhere where white pebbles shimmer even under the weight of thundery skies. I sat down on a rock by the lazy water that came in waves to caress my feet and stared at the procession of thick clouds gathering further into the horizon.


And then I got back on my feet, climbed a mountain, skipping for a while like a small child along a winding little path that snaked its way between thick bushes speckled with wild flowers and towering pines... gazed at the world down below from so far above, got soaked by a bout of torrential rain, jumped over puddles and streaks of mud, climbed atop small rocky hills on the way, whistled at the birds hiding high in the mighty trees, sung to myself nursery rhymes and various other songs that came to mind... and all the while there was no other around but me, as though I had truly entered another realm... that of ancient myths and legends... and as I walked, and walked, I felt free.

I think I'm getting addicted to long, strenuous walks. They have so far proved the only thing that helps soothe what some choose to call the 'restlessness' of the soul.