SEASONALITY, RIVERS AND TRADE ROUTES
TL;DR
For unexperienced folks, such as myself, the above picture is an example of a typical, maybe a little dusty cobblestone road. It's not. What you see is the downstream section of Velika Paklenica river during summer. A great way to end the hike as it goes straight down, when you feel too worn out to bother going up and down.
Velika Paklenica is one of those rivers that obey the law of seasonality and in summer there is not enough water to fill the riverbed all the way to the sea. When going up the stream you can see how first the dust covering the stones becomes a little damp, then small puddles with green algae borders appear, then some water slowly trickling somewhere between the stones. Before you know it, after several hundred meters you stand by a typical mountain creek, overflowing with crystal clear water, with small fish swimming and hunting for the mayflies.
It was surprising for me how, when walking down the stream, the water just seemed to vanish. It felt very unnatural -- the river is suppose to flow, not stop midway through! On the other hand it felt intriguing, since this meant that in summer a good part of the river turned into a well built road. The stones were sort of polished and usually small (there were exceptions to this rule, but didn't happen too often). If walking them was possible, maybe the donkeys could walk them as well? There were many of them feeding on the greens, especially in the upper parts of the mountains, so... maybe?
This on the other hand provokes questions about seasonality. Like, how would it influence some particular parts of the world? The easiest would probably be winter and summer, where in first parts of the waterways, bogs and marshes become passable thanks to the ice, while the latter thanks to the drought. In spring many places, especially forest floor and deciduous forests becomes less visible when slowly covered with first shoots, herbs, budding trees and bushes. In autumn, the falling leaves make for a goood cover, especially for small animals, like hedgehogs. The upper branches of the trees become more visible again, while the forest floor is gilded with the many shades of gold.
For Summer Camp purposes, this clearly relate to change and refuge. Belief and decay could go hand in hand as part of the annual prayers to the gods of river and sun, fighting over domination, when some overtake the other. It could be a more dire situation, when at some point the river runs dry and the land slowly dies (decays) with it. What would remain of it after a dry season? Or two? Or three? What trees and shrubs would survive? What flowers, insects (bees included), animals? Would there be life in the upper mountains, where it is not so hot?
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