Too busy doing it?

Here's an interesting little scenario arising from bike touring. It is possible not to fully appreciate the wonder (scenic or otherwise) of a particular place simply because there are just so many other places to visit and so many other things to do?

Recently I spent a lot of time uploading a lot of pictures from my New Zealand bike tour -- 514 in all. During the tour itself there are certain moments that stand out, be it the beauty of a particular place, or perhaps a challenge provided by something that happened. Along the way there are other places, other things I see. Some of them grab my attention for a moment, perhaps it's long enough to take a picture (which doesn't take very long once you get practiced), then I'm on my way again.

Sometime after the adventure is over, when I'm uploading the pictures either to a blog or a journal, I pause for a second. Now I don't have the excitement of "what's down the road", just the task of sorting through hundreds of pictures, selecting the ones I like the most, and uploading them. Now that little landscape, flower or whatever, that moment that was forgotten in the overall excitement of the trip at the time, suddenly comes into it's own. While I was riding from one glacier to the next on the west coast, perhaps I didn't pay enough attention to that view of a nameless glacial river cutting a valley between the mountains -- now it's here, revealed in all it's glory. There is nothing else to compete with it now, yet it's only after all the dust has settled that I fully appreciate it.

There is a whole catalogue of these experiences in my touring history. I still recall getting the shots from Victoria in 2002 developed (I was still using a film camera then), and the staff at the place where they were printed commenting on the spectacular Mushroom rock in the Grampians. At the time I'd thought it interesting, but, well, I had to deal with FIVE flats that day on a double-crossing of the range. It was only later that I fully realised just how remarkable it really was.



This isn't intended to dwell on a "negative" aspect of cycle touring. In fact, I think it's wonderful that many of these experiences can live on long after the journey is complete, and in a way I'm glad to have the chance to reflect on them afterward. However, maybe there's also a lesson here for general life as well. Perhaps we should take time out from our busy lives occasionally to pause and wonder at the world around us, at what's going on around us. I know this is easier said that done, but perhaps it's worth it, just for a moment.