Alinea uit "A wolfs tale". Om verder te lezen download de pdf.

Her eyes wandered over the bushes to the trees behind them and even further to the valley and mountains. The magnificent view took her breath away and awakened a deeper feeling, a need to run through the trees, jump over the rocks, taste the air and plunge into the depths of hidden pools.

Quickly she looked around to find higher ground. She found a big rock somewhat left of the group, ran towards it and climbed on top. The rock was at least 2 meters high, but it had a shallow rise, making it relatively easy to climb on. On the top there was a really small ridge where you could barely hold your balance. Sara didn’t care, she was standing tall above all others, almost taller than the trees that marked the beginning of a slope and gave her the ability to look even further across the canopy of green treetops stretching out all the way to the mountain on the other side.

The little village they arrived in was settled on a plateau of one of the mountains surrounding a lake, right in the middle. It was completely locked in and only fed by the rainfall up on the mountains. In the winter it would have shrunken to its minimum size and freeze over. The mountains would be covered in snow until warmer spring temperatures create small mountain streams all the way into the lake. Over time it would fill up to its full size, only to have most evaporate in the summer months afterwards.

The water service could rise and fall several meters a year. Many described it as the steady breathing of the ecosystem. The mountains prevented any connection to other ecosystems, even land animals had a hard time getting here. The only acces being the road they came on with the bus.

A true treasure according to Sara. She knew about the unique animals living in these woods, in the lake and in the ground. Animals that were only seen here and lived in the same rhythm as the breathing lake.

This is what she came here for. This is why she survived the 10h drive on a bus filled with adolescent, loud youngsters. Why she took a month's leave from work in the first place.