Traveling and exploring the world map is one of my biggest passions in life. I believe we grow with each journey as we ride and drive through the map of the world. I have been a travel enthusiast since childhood. I wanted to explore the oceans, trees, mountains, flowers, lush green vegetation, the rainbows and the starlit night sky with the one I love. When I got married to my girlfriend-turned-wife, the first thing we decided to do was map many destinations that allowed us to meet our professional commitments while capturing our golden memories on the way. During the wee hours of October, my wife spilled the beans to me about her pregnancy and I have been walking on air since that day.

Work-cum-Traveling

After returning from a fashion photo-shoot in Nevada, we parked our Airstream trailer in the forests outside Mammoth lakes. We’re off to Ibiza for a dirt-bike shoot amidst the secluded desert. After exploring the desert, we shall veer off to Auckland for a feature story. We love going around the roads. This is our itinerary as we travel about 190 days a year. We had spent a lot of time in the backcountry, but now we were overwhelmed and elated to experience parenthood soon.

Red Rocks Trip

We got busy discussing the possibilities of extending our active lifestyle while embracing parenthood peacefully. The hiking bug hadn’t quite struck us till we got backpacking toward Red Rocks in Las Vegas. As we were rushing toward enjoying the moonlight on a trail, my wife tripped and got hurt. After completing a mile, her knees hurt and she tried to seat herself up. We discovered she became hypoglycemic due to pregnancy as she had difficulty moving around with low blood sugar levels. This proved to be a starting point of this transitory phase.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

We are strong-willed people who decided to keep going forward while overcoming the hindrances to reaching our destination. We just stood and stopped during the journey to ensure my wife had eaten enough to stay nourished.  My wife and I were enjoying skiing, climbing and running while she was in her second trimester. The only activities we had left to do were backpacking and short hikes. Even though these were short in time length, however, we slowed down one mile per hour due to long durations.

Hiking amidst Nature’s Lap                                                                             

Since we have been avid hikers with a speed of 3 miles per hour, it felt awkward to slow down our pace, initially. Gradually, we learnt to accept as well as relish our new pace. It was indeed wonderful to absorb the beauty and magnificence of the places we visited and cherished as we took note of the details.

Snow-streams, Ptarmigans and Sceneries

During the adventurous hike, we observed the rock ptarmigan chirping toward the tundra. Another couple of minutes were spent in capturing the effusion of a snowmelt stream. We left no stone unturned in checking out as many peaks as possible around our vicinity irrespective of its order of importance. While wondering about the names and clothes to purchase for our baby after the delivery, we enjoyed climbing the summit equally. We wished the time would pause for a minute when we were sitting outside the tent house, noticing and enjoying the picturesque mountains and its landscape around us.

More than the number of miles travelled, what matters is the countless moments lived and golden memories captured in our hearts to narrate to our forthcoming bundle of joy.