For us,
Erasmus people, words like hiking and detailed knowledge about nature associate
only with one person: Maroje Burić. He is one of the ESN Dubrovnik crew,
currently employee of “Zaštita Prirode DNZ” which is an institution for nature
protection. His passion, next to nature, are many different sport activities
like: kayaking, biking, canoeing, rafting. Anyway, his favourite is hiking and
that’s the main topic of our first article.
5 years
ago, after he started working in outdoor business, one of his friends asked him
if he wants to go to the mountain Olympus in Greece. He agreed and that was the
beginning of his adventure with literally everything connected with going up
the hill.
For many of us it may seem that the
most important information in hiking is the height of the mountain or
the distance that we should overcome.
However for him the people with whom he does his hiking
challenges are worth the struggle and perhaps above all:
“The further we can go away from civilization, the more we can become one with
the nature”, he said. Probably that’s the reason why Mount
Everest isn’t his dream destination - it became too touristic. His highest peak so far is Triglav, the highest peak of the Slovenian Julian Alps (2864
m n.p.m). For now there are 6 different European countries on his check list. But for
sure that’s not the end.
One
of his most interesting experiences was hiking in Ireland, because of
differences in terrain. Here in Croatia or in the countries from this region
there are stones, but for example in Ireland, where there is so much rain,
there are no stones – only clay. Maroje went for his Erasmus to Ireland and as
he himself admits, the first thing he packed to his travel backpack were hiking
boots and he spent the most of his budget during this period for new hiking
equipment - we can say that for some time it had been all about
mountains.
The
group which he is currently hiking with is quite experienced, some of them are
working as guides, some are a part of rescue teams, so they are always one step
ahead. It’s very important to think what could happen, to check the area, map,
terrain, what could be the difficulties, which areas are the best to visit,
what kind of snow, ice there is, ect. If you’re going hiking well prepared, you
shouldn’t have any problems. But of course, sometimes bad things can happen. Luckily
his worst experience lasted only for 10 minunes and actually nothing serious
happened– one of his partners lost his backpack with his insulin in it, but somebody
from another hiking group found it in their department. No injuries, only a stressful
situation.
“You
can meet people that are really into it, living it, I’m like a baby compare to
them”
He
thinks that hiking is for everybody, that’s why he’s arranging hiking trips not
only for his friends but for random people too. One of the most interesting groups he had was
11 older Irish people, who were hiking for charity and one of them was a priest.
“it’s incredible that people in the age of 70 can do such things. We did the
tour which was 18 km long and they arrived half an hour earlier that the rest
of the group I took care of. There are no rules, you just have to have a plan B
in case you realize that you can’t do it. Different people, different profiles,
different things to expect.”
He
says we should follow the exmple of a woman, his rock climbing instructor, who climbed
Mount Everest twice. She was in her eight month of pregnancy and she was climbing
a rock of seventeen meters without any problems. As he said: “Follow your
dreams. Don’t just dream – do it.”
1) Maroje's favourite sports
2) Reasons to go hiking
7 GOLD RULES OF MAROJE
1.
Check the map
2.
See the distance and the
time it takes
3.
Check the warnings
4.
Check the first aid
5.
Prepare the group mentally
and physically
6.
Check the weather forecast
7.
Double check gear (water
and food supply)
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