Story About Marika Mann, the Executive Manager of Estonian Nature Tours

First contacts with nature: childhood memories
I was born in the countryside near the woods and mires. Before school I was mostly raised by my grandmother, who lived some kilometres away in a small homestead. Grandmother lived alone and most of her time was spent on farm work. I had to learn early how to amuse myself. My favourite activity was playing “home” near the farm between the disintegrated stone walls that were overgrown with bushes. I cleared the surroundings of tree branches and decayed leaves then designed, from different moss patterns, “rooms” and “resting corners” for sitting and sleeping. Often I was so intent on my task that I forgot to involve my dolls and doll’s cookwares, time passed so quickly and interestingly...

Sometimes I sneaked away to the forest stream kilometre away. It was strictly forbidden, but I liked to watch the slow running water. I played barefoot along the shore with coloured stones, at the same time taking notice of not being away from home for too long. On the way back, I always gathered bunch of goutweed for the sheep - it helped to better cover up my mischief.

I remember a moment. It was a winter afternoon and my grandmother decided to go through the forest with me to visit my parents. The journey was only 4 kilometres long, but so much snow and stormy weather slowed our pace and it took much longer to arrive than grandmother had expected. Pitch-darkness made us scared of losing our way. When reaching the glade, grandmother remembered that there was a hay barn nearby and went to look for it. Minutes alone in the dark seemed to drag and I remembered that it never came into my mind to break my grandmother’s trust and wander away because I knew I would be totally lost. I was 4 years old, but still aware of the inevitability of the situation and supremacy of the wild nature. All’s well that ends well - my grandmother found the shed and we stayed the night and continued the journey in the morning. Grandmother caught a cold and fever that was hard to get over. Years later, grandmother recalled the moment with terror, what would have happened if I had moved even a metre from where I was told to stay!




At the present
I've spent many hours in the forest and the coast with my clients, colleagues, guides and therefore I have learned a lot about nature. I am like a child of nature -I have respect for all living things around me, including people. I can sit in my garden for many hours and look at the meadows towards the sunset. It is like a movie out there – Woodpecker’s making noises over my head, Golden Oriole singing beautifully, from the distance you can hear Bitterns booming, Tawny Owls hunt in the evening, Goats are bleeting, a Fox is coming closer to the garden...and there are many things you can’t even see or hear. A good and complete life is when you have an activity which grabs you, evolves you and having close people who encourage you. You have to know how to remember that the process itself is more important than the goal. You can’t be afraid to get lost and to be yourself, even if there is a danger to be left alone. And you can’t waste your time thinking about the things you can’t do, but you have to concentrate and put all your energy into things you can do. You have to occasionally remind yourself what really is important in life – having important people around you, moments, feelings, and so on. If you know how to carry these simple things in your life, then you will have a good and complete life.



Sometimes I have experienced this kind of life, but not always. I have to remind myself that the magic is to evolve. I have learned to have a good and complete life during entrepreneurship. I have faith in life!

Marika Mann