Arfat Wani

Anxiety, stress and depression are some of the most common causes of insomnia. We didn’t have insomnia but we did have a phobia of wild animals and presence of people who were invisible. Sleeping under the open sky in the wild is rather tough on the nerves. But there are also perfect and outstanding moments which cannot be had anywhere else.
At times we feel we are in danger, but at other times we feel we are talking directly to the sky. The stars seem to be our mates and the moon like our mother. There are very few nights which we have spent without a concrete roof over our head, but only the blue sky and white stars providing a sense of shelter. Recently, it was an awesome experience to stay two nights out in the mountains. We felt for a little while that we were in hell but mostly it was heaven.
In the night we heard hundreds of unique and unusual sounds. Sometimes it was the wind and sometimes flying insects, sometimes something more fearful. Preparing tea without sugar/salt at 2:50am is a sure sign that one is in mortal fear. We kept recalling horror stories of what happens in the mountains, of wild beats and dead souls wandering about.
On the second night we took shelter in a mud hut that was better than the tent we had spend the first night in. The mud hut had all its walls only half standing, the other half having fallen off. Staying there was an ultimate experience: a room without a door, filled with the smell of animals that had stayed here before us.
Both nights gave us valuable experience of how to fall asleep when the mind is fearful but also in excitement, enjoyment, worry, and pleasure. We were at a place where we had never been before. It was as if we were in an imaginary world. We prepared food on a wood-lit fire and ate more than usual. On the second night there was a little rain after midnight but it was relaxing. The beauty of camping in the wild is the wild. Make sure that you leave the environment exactly as you found it .This will mean taking all waste with you when you leave.
It is advisable to carry all camping equipment along on any hike to the mountains. If anything is missing it proves very difficult to stay the night in the open. One should also cause no harm to plants, animals, or birds. Rather, one should try to do something for the mountains, in whatever way one can.

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