How often we are end up in an amazing and unknown places, and miss all the exciting unseen?

It took me 4 years in Denmark to discover the neighborhood I lived of 4 km radius. Amazing parks, lakes, ponds, paths presented to me, where I thought I was local for a long. And then I found new spots again and again.

It is a common scenario, especially for global corporation workers, to fly to a new airport, take a cab to hotel, from there –office-restaurant-bar-hotel-office-airport cycles follow. Very focused. Or, narrow-minded? Depends only on the perspective, result is the same.

And it is somehow not obvious, that so many exciting things are there around us just hundred meters away! Why we fail to notice, fail to focus on exploration?

Exploring is powerful. I saw often how my brother likes to explore. He was always interested to know, what is behind the next turn of the path, despite the tiredness of kilometers behind us. Part of my exploration habit are grown from student times – in BEST IT Committee’s (ITC) meetings in the dark evenings we tell animated stories about the Brave Explorer, who despite the bad experiences with Makumbians, was constantly moving further into the Jungle. He was exploring, despite all the endured pain on the way… I participated and led many of such evenings, and afterwards, unexpectedly, the seed of exploring got deeper inside me.

How do I see people explore around me when traveling in “focused” mode (business, meetings, etc.)?

1. Morning jogging
   I promoted jogging everywhere I traveled with BEST. And people joining got truly excited in learning about the surrounding places. 20 min of morning exercise makes you ready for another loaded day and dusts last night’s party dizziness.
2. Geocaching
   Quite interesting social activity, which brings explorer to quite strange and interesting places seeking something what is hidden. I bought my Garmin GPSMAP 60 CSX after learning about colleague so excited with geocaching!
3. Choosing to explore.
   Anytime, anywhere. Choosing to observe surroundings and notice new, not yet followed paths. Choosing to change the route towards these paths, and being open to what is there.

Last Sunday I have joined my brother and his friends for an exploration bike trip in Vilnius District. It took just 4 hours. We were 5 people, at the end of the trip I was lagging as the weakest. After one day I am back with the full power and wonderful memories of new perspectives and discoveries of the forests, commentaries, mud-roads, steep slopes and river bands. So close to the capital. So reachable, but probably undiscovered for another 5 years if not this invitation for a Sunday ride.

So amazing, so great. Exploring. Isn’t it?

Where was your last exploration, which untried pathway you are heading tomorrow?

On the dirt-road

Vilnius in the horizon