Hiking to enjoy the little things

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❞𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒇 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒍; 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒚𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒂𝒘𝒏, 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒆 – 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚.❞

~ 𝑯𝒂𝒎𝒍𝒊𝒏 𝑮𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅

I recently went hiking, as much as to get away from the cold concrete walls as it was to get into the open arms of a natural area. Truth be told, I'm very fortunate to stay close to a very nice nature reserve where I visit as regularly as I possibly can. Added bonus: there aren't any coyotes!

It has a number of hiking trails. Some are steep with wooden or stone steps leading up, some are simply narrow walking trails, but there are a good number of kms that you can cover in a day walk. There are benches dotted here and there for those wishing to sit or rest too. I only photographed this one as I liked how perfectly situated in the shade and it has been favoured by the lichen so much that it's started blending in beautifully.

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There has been a substantial amount of rainfall here in the last few weeks, it's come a bit earlier this year too so it was nice to see some water flowing down from the springs and natural reservoirs, along the pathways and when I left I saw that there was also water flowing down the rocks of the mountain side. Unfortunately by that stage I had already exhausted both of my camera batteries so I decided it is simply motivation to go there again soon and capture some of the waterfalls. This trip however, was to go hiking and look for the small details. Oh boy, did I get small details by the bucket load when I started to focus!

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I had to get really close to the ground, like up close and personal with the ground to see some of these. _{The ground may have felt it was a bit inappropriate of me to be lying on it that way, but it didn't complain.} This little clover had dew drops still resting on its leaves in perfect little round balls. I was quite surprised to find they hadn't evaporated because I was there until the late afternoon. Nature has a way of retaining what it needs to I suppose. You can see that the shaded areas of the plant were the areas with the highest concentration of water droplets. I had to wonder what kind of little animals might come visit these plants to sip a tiny little globule of water like this.

And then I turned a corner and looked out over the landscape. I had some vantage from hiking up, up, up all that way. It was a lovely day, white wispy clouds here and there, warm enough to be comfortable while hiking but not too hot that you broke a sweat. Look at that view!!!

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I also found some little insecty creatures by accident. I had to change my camera lens so I lay my camera pack down on the ground and as I started to unzip it, I noticed that I was smack-bang in the middle of a very busy patch of writhing and moving ground. I am SO glad this isn't where I lay down!

Termites Termites everywhere! Going about their tenacious termitey business as they do day in and day out. Go over there, collect a seed pod, take it back to the nest. Go over there and collect a leaf. Take it back to the nest.

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Go over thhhhhheeeeeerrrrrreeeeeee and collect this motherfucking doggamn stupid stick....URRRRRRGGGG!

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I watched this termite for about 15 minutes. It would heave and pull, lift and wiggle, giggle and catch it's breath. Then go round the stick, push it from the side, it even went round the back and tried to enlist some help from a buddy to move this particular stick. It's buddy must have shown him the middle finger because he left very quickly, stiff legged as all hell and disappeared down into the nest with nothing to show for it. Sissy lol.

This little tenacious termite would simply not let us on this stick. He would keep going round and trying to move it this way and that. His determination was very inspirational to watch, but eventually I needed to move on. I left him (and his stick) right there with no disturbance. I'm sure he'll figure it out at some point.

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On the way back down, I was constantly checking to see what the sunlight was hitting as I knew it would illuminate something pretty before I left. I managed to capture the work of a very vigorous spider that was nowhere to be seen in the web, probably chilling somewhere nearby in a silk hammock.

What was the best tiny thing you found on your last hike?

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