Last week, our topic of ‘Mountains’ provided us with a wide range of presentations, which were mostly based on personal experiences, making them so fascinating. On the large screen, we saw majestic alpine peaks glittering with snow, we followed an exploration of climate and vegetation zones of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, witnessed America’s biggest ever volcanic eruption when Mount St Helens blew its top in 1980, and learned about the challenges of climbing Africa’s highest peak – Mount Kilimanjaro. Closer to home, the Welsh Black Mountains offer beautiful scenery, and the German Harz Mountains with their picturesque villages and quaint castles inspired popular fairy tales, as well as sagas of witches dancing and brewing their stuff on the highest peak ‘Brocken’. Mountains can devastate human life, as Vesuvius did and will do again, but humans are forever drawn to them – leaving the most surprising debris behind, such as a piano! Whatever our relationship with mountains may be – we are always in awe of their beauty and majesty.
by Ute O’Meara