The mountain as a playground

Name: Codi
Price range: $

Kunanyi - Mount Wellington

I love the mountain. I love playing on it, around it, over it. If it was a tunnel we'd go under it. Walking, climbing, trail running, mountain biking, road biking, paragliding, whatever. It's a playground and it's on our doorstep and it provides that little fix. Whether it's a social fix, whether it's a serenity fix, a solitude fix. You can get them all just on the mountain, with friends or on your own.

I live on the eastern shore of the Derwent. Out of my big window, you can see Mount Wellington. It teaches me something every day about the weather, as the clouds squirrel around it or the Bridgewater Jerry comes down and delivers different patterns in the way that the air moves.

I first got my love for the natural world through the scouts, believe it or not. In the UK, many many years ago now. Doing things like the ten tours on Dartmoor and then further field into North Wales, Scotland, then overseas into Europe, the Himalayas, the Andes. Just playing in mountains, playing on the coast.

Just enjoying serenity, solitude and altitude.

PS On Sky Rocket — Climbing as a way of playing on the mountain. Photo by Al Beech

I would say my parents don't have much of an outdoors background, so going along to the scouts was something that you just did. But what the scouts then delivered was the change. The opportunity to go and walk in on Dartmoor in horrible conditions and be miserable and really enjoy it afterwards.

There's that whole concept in the outdoor world of three types of fun. Level one fun; you enjoy it at the time. Level two fun; it was great afterwards. Level three fun; it was never fun. The Scouts introduced me to a lot of level two fun.