Nature is the Backdrop to Our Love Stories

Explorer and romantic, Ruby, ponders the role the outdoors plays in our most important relationships.

Romantic relationships evolve in the mundane. The time between anniversaries is made up of chopping vegetables in the kitchen, folding sheets at the end of the bed, and arguing in supermarkets. They are the hours spent talking in bed, heads pressed to the pillow: you hurt me when you said this, what do you think they meant when they did this, I love you and I’m afraid you might leave me. These moments are the cladding on the walls.

Friendships, too. The phone calls when you’re cleaning the house, pulling into the driveway for a cuppa on your way home. Catching up for dinner because someone texted ‘I can’t be bothered cooking, see you at sushi at 7?’. They are the everyday moments that embed a relationship into the very fabric of our lives. Stitch by stitch.

I think of the way the river makes your hair soft and fluffy. I think of bodies coming together on blankets, on sand, overlooking an expansive landscape. So much of my love for these people was nurtured outdoors and experiencing the elements in all their unpredictable magnificence.

Read more: 6 Reasons to Date Outdoors

The First Date

A bottle of wine, a burning sunset, a picnic blanket. Moving from sitting, to lying, to reaching in for the first kiss.

The First Swim

Diving into the salty heart of winter, finding the courage because you’re there to impress. Pushing up from the sandy bottom, opening your eyes to a horizon of sea, to the smiling face of someone new.

The Sex

Wandering off the trail, into the trees. Laughing at the thrill of it, revelling in the intimacy of it. Running into the water afterwards covered in sweat and hunger.

Read more: How to Have Sex in the Bush

The First Camp

Arguing over how to put up the tent, the best place to park, whether the tree branch might fall and kill you in the middle of the night. Sitting in camp chairs, grumbling, happy to be there, but settling into the familiar irritation you occasionally feel at each other. A sign that you’re comfortable, that you can show them how you really feel.

The Parallel Activities

Pulling out a book or journal or box of paints. Sitting there in peaceful silence as the sky changes colour and the pile of firewood slowly dwindles.

The Views

Padlocks engraved with initials and clipped onto fences, keys thrown down below. Someone bending a knee, the glimmer of a ring in the sunlight. The sound of camera shutters from friends behind the lens and laughter by all. The way humans promise themselves to each other in the spaces that give our puny little existence some perspective.

It’s nice to think, as I walk along a busy beach or camp on my own in a national park surrounded by strangers, there are people falling in love over and over, with their friends and their partners, as the sun shines and the rain falls and the river swells. The places where there are no emails and there’s a momentary forgetfulness of the stresses of the everyday. An openness. To each other, and to the world outside.

Read More From Ruby

Why I’m Trying to Walk More Slowly
An Ode to Our Adventurous Friends
Working 9-5 – How Did I Get Here?
Don’t Let a Hangover Get in the Way of a Good Adventure