Forest bathing the Japanese way
You know them: those photos taken from a tent, flaps open, with an insane view of a mountain ridge, a valley or a sunny beach. Who wouldn't want to wake up like that?
Set up your tent on the Quadenoord camping grounds and you can wake up like this, too. Phone off, senses on. Sleep under the stars, only to wake up to the sound of birds singing, with a view of the wild meadow and forest. Even showering here is done surrounded by nature, in "the forest shower": the wooden shower house where the shower head protrudes through an open roof. Walk barefoot back to your tent for a dose of the real thing: a Japanese forest bath.
Shinrin-Yoku: in reality, an untranslatable word, but the meaning refers to something like the relaxation you experience when you immerse yourself in the forest. Japanese forest bathing is not comparable to a brisk walk in the woods: rather, Shinrin-Yoku involves moving slowly through the forest, consciously engaging all your senses. Looking at a tree for fifteen minutes does wonders for the stress hormones in your body. Yes, staring at the same tree for fifteen minutes, and where better to do that than when you have just crawled out of your tent in the morning?