Making tracks of our own.

I just watched the 2013 movie "Tracks"  today on Netflix.  This is the story of a young woman who travels on foot, solo, in 1977, traversing over 1600 miles of grimly barren Australian outback. (Of course, now I will HAVE to read the novel). 

What is the appeal of this sort of tale?  Heaven knows, I devour any movie or novel of this ilk.  So far, I have rapturously followed the exploits of  Bill  Bryson, Cheryl Strayed, Robyn Davidson, Christopher McCandless.  Christopher was not as lucky in that he did not live to tell his own tale.

I  know that I am not cut from this cloth.  But I admire the drape of the fabric.

I am that girl who stoically watch the monitors on her gymnasium's treadmill each day, delighted when the workout is complete.  And yet, conversely, I think nothing of setting a lofty goal of accumulating the miles and will happily pedal or hoof over a hundred miles per month at that same gym.  If I have a vision, I will  achieve it.  In fact, I become a little obsessed with it.  The bigger the vision, the more enthusiastic I become.

It  is one thing to pedal 20 miles of an evening, knowing that I can go home and lounge on the sofa with a glass of my favorite red.  It is quite another to walk for a month without the promise of locating a potable water source.

And yet, I  think in each of us the adventurer resides.  Thwarted adventurers, to be sure. Time constraints may derail us.  Many of us are tied to jobs and dependent families that keep us close to home every day. Physical limitations may prevent us from setting out on foot into the great unknown.  Budgetary concerns are a very real concern.  While many of us would love to shrug off the detritus of the day to day, very few of us can actually do this.

Ms. Davidson says "If you think of all the enduring stories in the world, they're of journeys.  Whether its "Don Quixote" or "Ulysses" there is always this sense of a great quest - of a person going away to be tested, and coming back."

Sometimes the "test" is not the journey itself, but the unstructured time one gains while on a journey, which allows, or even forces, a person,  to reflect inwards, on something other than themselves. 

Looking within can be the hardest journey that we will ever take.

While on safari, I began to look at how I fit into the world.  Not how the world revolved around me.  I realized I was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.  While this sounds depressing and fatalistic, in actuality it was quite freeing.  We are unique but we are not necessary.

The world will not stop for me when I am gone.  People will grieve, I hope, but I understand that it will not be forever and it may be not even be for long.  The human spirit is resilient.  We rebound and rebuild.

In Nature, the wheel of life is apparent.  There is no artifice.  Every animal is a link, and serves a purpose;  all seem to be neatly fitted into the grand scheme. 

So, then, what roles do humans play?  Why exactly ARE we here?  To exercise dominion over animals and the land?  And if so, why? For what purpose?  We seem to be the wild card in the deck.  Our behavior is not predictable and often it is not laudable.  Collectively, we destroy as much as we create.   We can be unquestionably brilliant and undeniably brutal. 

Walking dusty footpaths in Africa, I marveled that I was actually THERE.  On the continent where all of us got our first beginnings.  (As we all know, scientists have determined, without question,  that we can all be traced, genetically, to eastern Africa, regardless of how we classify our nationalities today.)

So, why did these earliest humans brave the great unknown;  why did they leave the relative security of  their tribal communities, the only home they had ever known?  Why did they venture out into a world that was surely fraught with peril, unlit, unexplored, uncertain? 

Maybe they too, felt confined.  Maybe they craved to leave the fold, to take the journey within, to test their fortitude, physically and mentally.  Perhaps their wanderlust is hardwired into all of us. 

So then, perhaps, traveling is a necessary component of survival.  We'll never know for sure, but perhaps its all irrelevant.  Whether you travel to the moon or to Maine or to Mozambique,  travel is travel.  It changes the perspective of the traveler and that in turn, changes the world. 

“Capacity for survival may be the ability to be changed by environment.”   - Robyn Davidson

 

 

Change

“In picking up a rock I could no longer simply say, ‘This is a rock,’ I could now say, ‘This is part of a net,’ or closer, ‘This, which everything acts upon, acts.’ When this way of thinking became ordinary for me, I too became lost in the net and the boundaries of myself stretched out for ever.” 

― Robyn Davidson, Tracks

Variety is the Spice of Life

We have all heard that variety is the spice of life. Actually, it could be said that life is the spice of life.  And since life is decidedly short, it should DEFINITELY be fun! 
A good vacation stays with you long after the bags are unpacked.  A great vacation stays with  you forever.

Below are some itineraries you can really sink your teeth into! 

Itineraries

Contact Sue at sue0611@gmail.com for the latest inforrmation and new itineraries.

Dr Suess goes safari????

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent."
                                                                               - Dr. Suess

ChaZen Nature Reserve, Free State, South Africa

I know a lot of people who suffer from "analysis paralysis".  This is the inability to make any decision for fear of making the wrong decision.   While everyone has periods of indecisiveness, people who suffer from analysis paralysis run the risk of allowing life to pass them by.  After all, not making a decision is really....when you think about it....simply making a decision to not decide.

When I tell people that I have gone to Africa, they tend to look at me with wonder in their eyes, much as if I had told them I had scaled Mount Everest in my bathrobe.  "I could never do that!" one woman exclaimed.

Actually, I DID, surprisingly, precious little to place myself there.

I packed a bag.  Someone drove me to the airport whereupon someone (or someones) piloted an airplane, me onboard, either asleep, watching a movie, or sipping a glass of wine, and someone else collected me and my belongings once I'd arrived my destination airport.

Basically, all I had to DO was to show up on in Washington, D.C., on the appropriate day and remember my passport.

I expend more energy on any given day in my hometown here in Virginia, shopping for groceries, taking the cats to the vet, keeping the cars maintained and the house clean.

The good folks at the Wildlife Center of Virginia, located in Lyndhurst, Virginia, have been partnering with ChaZen Nature Reserve, offering their custom, boutique safaris for many years now, and what I am sure must be a myriad of moving parts for them appeared effortless to us.  Deliciously well balanced and artfully presented meals and snacks appeared at an alarming rate and from out of (apparently) no-where, at all times of the day, every day.

Our rooms were spacious, attractive, clean and very comfortable.  The shower in my chalet was the size of my entire bathroom here at home.  Beds are outfitted with orthopedic mattresses and linen counts must be high - the bedding was like butter.   Fluffy comforters and warm blankets kept any early morning chill at bay.  Energy is solar and propane and was abundant all during our time there. (The staff will happily recharge camera batteries and other necessary devices.  I believe that one of my travel mates slept with a CPAP machine which can be accommodated without hesitation,)   The Reserve has been made fully handicapped accessible, as well.

Meals alternated between indoor and al fresco dining, weather conditions considered.  We all loved sitting on the observation deck, enjoying an afternoon cup of coffee, home baked treats and conversation, watching the sunlight dapple the rock formations of Vredefort Dome, so close you felt you could reach out and touch it.

Nyala strolled the grounds nearby, one greedy little fellow appeared multiple times daily, trying to appear unobtrusive, one eye nonchalantly focused on the kitchen's back door - secretly hoping to secure left over lettuce and food scraps, we were told.  He was a comforting sight, patient and serene and not at all disturbed by our gasps of appreciation or the shutter snappings of our cameras.

At the end of each day's activities, we would all gather into the lounge area, sink into oversized leather sofas, enjoy a glass or two of wine, share laughter and conversation and listen for the soft thrumming of the drum, which signified the ladies in the kitchen had delivered yet another extraordinary meal to the adjacent indoor dining room.

All meals were served buffet, so hungry diners could ensure their appetites would surely be satisfied.

 Evening game drives would be especially magical.  As the warm African sun sank below the horizon, the stirrings and the rustlings of the bush increased.  Sleepy animals sloughed off their slumber, shaking off their stupor to enjoy the cool of the evening and hopefully, fill their own bellies with necessary nourishment.

"Sundowners" were a safari highlight.  Stopping the jeep, we would disembark to enjoy the magnificent vista, stretch our legs, while again as if by magic, a table would suddenly present itself, spread with cheeses, crackers, fruits and adult libations to enjoy under the canopy of stars.

ChaZen Nature Reserve is a place that gives as good as it gets.  The Viljoen family are benefactors of their community, employing and serving the people there through charitable endeavors and educational outreach programs.  The ongoing expansion of  the Reserve boasts a first class Education and Conference Center, which strives to impress the next generation on the importance of conservation, not just in Africa, but globally.  

ChaZen is located in the Free State province of South Africa, about 90 minutes from the international airport in Johannesburg.  It is 40,000 acres of incredible beauty as far as the eye can see and for all of its immensity, the lodge felt warm, cozy, comfortable.  Just like home.

Time traveling.

I mentioned to a friend of mine that I had started a blog about my recent vacation.  "Aren't you supposed to do that while ON vacation?" was his reply.

Hmmm.  I don't know.  Are you?

Perhaps there is an entire world of blog etiquette that I don't know about.

What I CAN tell you is that it takes a fair amount of time to compose one's thoughts and jot them down, and so I cannot imagine dedicating that much time to remembering my vacation while still actively on it.

For me the joy is to sit in my quiet little house and to reflect.  To watch the snow melt slowly and bask in my own warm memories of a "borrowed: summer.

October in Virginia's mountains is glorious, certainly, but it is after all, still October - the death knell of  my beloved summer.   I boarded my flight from the States to South Africa in middle October, with the daylight dwindling earlier and earlier.  Definitely sweater weather.

Stepping off the plane in Johannesburg, in the late afternoon, the sky was a soft, warm, pink, and the air was deliciously comfortable.  For the next two weeks I was transported back to balmy climes, shirt sleeves and shorts.   Endless summer for the price of aeroplane ticket.

Not a bad deal.

Images of Africa.

No words.  Just enjoy.