European Wilderness Volunteer Diary

The Diary of the European Wilderness Society Volunteers
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740-hour walk and all the wilderness I have skipped

18 January 2022Elena Leonteva7 min readAdd comment

Hi, Servus, Привет, my name is Elena and since January I’m the new ESC-Volunteer at the European Wilderness Society. Here’s the story of my 4297 km long journey from my hometown in Russia to Austria.  From the banks of Volga to the banks of Danube I cross multiple regions and countries, different ecological and time zones on my way to the EWS office. I move through a substantial part of the Earth, densely occupied by humans with gems of wilderness scattered among it. Although unfortunately, I skip most of it by plane, even a quick look over such a natural diversity provides a good....

Skifahren in der Zeit des Lockdowns

10 April 2021Timothy Sung5 min readAdd comment

Hello! I thought I would do a little German post seeing as we’re in Austria and that one of the key parts of being a volunteer abroad is learning the local language (although I’m not quite sure how much of the local Lungau dialect I understand still!). So here goes my winter update… Letztes Jahr habe ich während Herbst darauf sehr gefreut, in Winter Skifahren zu gehen. Jedoch hatte ich damals gleichzeitig Angst davor, dass die Skigebiete wegen der Pandemie geschlossen bleiben würden. Im Lungau gibt es insgesamt vier Skigebiete und in normalen Zeiten würden wir von der....

Arriving in Tamsweg during COVID times

7 April 2021Lia Schlippe4 min readAdd comment

Hi all! My name is Lia, originally from Spain, and I’m one of the new volunteers joining the European Wilderness Society team!  I arrived to Tamsweg the 15th of March, after a long journey that started the day before in Aarhus (Denmark), where I was staying at the moment. As we all know, COVID-19 makes travelling a bit more challenging than normal. So, to be able to take my flight at 07:00h and conduct the mandatory antigen test before departure (apart from a PCR), I spend a not too comfortable night sleeping in my yoga mat in the airport. Far from being done, a six hour layover in....

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Volunteering: an opportunity for more

29 March 2021Julia Ramsauer3 min readAdd comment

Why do you volunteer? Maybe because you want to do something good or because you can learn more about the culture of a country? I personally always used it to gain valuable work experience while being able to live and travel in an exciting new place. I wouldn’t have thought that I would end up volunteering in my home country Austria, and even less that the volunteering opportunity with IVY would lead to a full time contract of employment. But that’s exactly what happened. Six months in Tamsweg Looking back to when I first arrived, I grew a lot – professionally and personally....

Interview with Gintare Tamulyte

24 March 2021Julia Ramsauer1 min readAdd comment

For nine months, Gintare volunteered with the European Wilderness Society. As her time comes to an end, she tells us in an interview about how it was for her when she fist arrived to Tamsweg, about her favourite leisure activities and about how she learned to ski like a local in only two months. What stands out in her story is that she experienced many first times here in Austria, personally and professionally, especially because of the contrast of nature and work environment compared to her home country Lithuania. Listen to the interview here and if you want to read more about Gintare....

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My advice: Make plans … and then change them

16 March 2021Jonas Sommer7 min readAdd comment

In January 2019, when I first heard of the European Wilderness Society, I did not plan that I would be in little Tamsweg in the middle of a pandemic in February 2021. Back then, I was in the South African desert during the hottest time of summer researching small rodents. Now I am amongst four different ski resorts in the Alps – the temperature difference between the two is up to 60°C. In between was a wild time with ups and downs, many new experiences and lessons. How it all started I first heard of the European Wilderness Society that January because someone shared on Facebook that they are....