Taking the Step into the Unknown :

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder,
till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.
- C.S. Lewis

This poem by C.S.Lewis sets me thinking, isn’t this the most important part of travel? To take a step into the unknown and explore, to explore and wonder at nature’s beauty, the most important part is to take THAT STEP, and to make that move.  

Because if you always played it safe you would never discover a new path, a new route, a new hill. What drives a traveler is his heart, his heart that beats at the sight of a new landscape. This drive is what makes you talk to complete strangers on a train, listen to them and if they say that there is this ONE place that you ought to go to, even if it does not fit into your schedule, you do it. When on a trek, your on your safe known path , but the thrill is from the small route through the absolute thicket that might well just take you to the best clearing that not many other travelers have seen, it might give you the best view of the mountain range, or you might just get caught in the thicket with scratches and might lose your trail, but then, that is the risk you oughta take … aint it ?

When I think back on all the many trips I have done, the ones that went absolutely perfectly I remember, but the ones I remember better are the ones that I hadn’t planned, hadn’t expected, I had just listened to my heart and had set forth. Some of them failed and failed bad, but still its etched on my mind and I still sit back and reminisce that.

 So here is my tip of the month – As much as all of us would like to just “Take Off” without a fixed number of days for a trip and just follow our heart, how many of us can actually get to do that ? I don’t think many, all of us have jobs that need us there, we get a few leaves and so we plan out our trip in such a way that all the best places fit right into the schedule. Yes this is the best way to see the most number of destinations in the given time, but then there are these times when you saw a place and wished you could just stay there a little while longer … that is what this tip is for … When you apply for leaves or take time out of your busy schedule for a long trip, make sure you take two to three days more than your tight schedule plan, your boss might get a little more irked than usual but it would prove worth it.

Keep a few days extra on your long trips, when you like a place so much you don’t want to move use those two days, when you get to know there is a small village near your destination that needs a visit use those two days to visit that place. That way you can still catch your flight/train back as booked, and you will get that time to spend in that place that you want to. And trust me you will reminisce THAT the most …

Parinitha Konanur