By Aditya Acharya

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It is already 30 days since we started our journey for the European Forestry Field Course on the 1st of May! Well, life itself is a journey they say, so let’s say this was a part of a journey called life. 🙂 A one-month common journey of different life journeys.

The last country to visit during our trip was Spain which we are leaving today. Well, not everybody but most of us. At least all of us are free to leave now and continue other parts of the journey called life.

We visited the Montserrat Natural Park in Catalonia the first day we arrived here. Neither like the Himalayas nor like the Carpathians or Alps we saw some weeks ago in Romania and Austria, the Montserrat mountains were astonishing. The vertically rising structures seem like large statues from far away, which are crafted and kept in an unorganized way. Literally, Montserrat word itself means ‘serrated mountain. Not only the mountains and natural beauty, but the place also has religious and cultural values. (Read more here if interested)

The other day we visited the Alinya’s Mountains and watched the vultures and learnt about other conservation values in the Mountains.

Land abandonment and forest vegetation after forest fires was the topic for the other day. Nepal is facing similar problems of land abandonment; all of the people are moving towards cities or abroad to find employment opportunities and the farmlands are barren. Maybe quite similar forestlands, as we saw here, will be found in rural parts of Nepal after some decades.

The last day in the field, yesterday, we visited the Montseny Natural Park near to Barcelona. Among other many things, we ended our tour watching the ‘hugging trees’: the Silver fir (Abies alba) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) hugging each other. Listen to the story behind it below 🙂

Though our physical body is parting today, we will always be working together in our common mission towards developing a more sustainable world no matter wherever we reach. Each of the moments we shared is cherishable and will remain forever in memories.