Holding ON
The joy of travel
21.04.2019 - 15.05.2019
It is the last morning of the last day in the wilderness. I have my coffee in the dark on the deck outside our room listening to the rushing of the river just beyond the deck. I have always liked the quiet of the morning but in three days the scene will be different, back where I started. How will I hold on to the peace and calm of the natural environment, the good part of the disconnect from the world?
Re-entry is always tricky. We have two travel days ahead of us so we can switch gears and great ready. I have already vowed to go on a news fast for at least a week and concentrate on the people closest to me.
The remains of the trip will have to live in my head and my heart. I always have my photographs but the feeling of freedom and adventure is intangible and difficult to capture in a photograph, but I hope I did. From Gorilla trekking in Rwanda, something I talked about for over a year, to sitting on the Kunene River at the Namibia and Angola border, I have done some things I never imagined. The people along the way have been an integral part of the experience and the self drive was so much fun. I will never forget the scene at the gas stations, a gathering place and hub of activity in this sparsely populated country. If someone told me one of the memorable things would be gas stops I would have laughed.
I guess that is what I love about travel, the things that just happen in between what we plan, when my life intersects with the life of the residents of another place, when we can find our common denominator, the things that makes us all the same. For me that is the essence of travel. Not the lions, and elephant, not the museums and famous buildings because as amazing as those things are, for me it is always about the moments when another human being touches my heart. When I sat in the hut with the Himba women and she decide to give me a gift, and then another, and then another. Three small things that she wrapped in a tiny scrap of material that she for whatever reason felt compelled to give me. The ochre powder, the sticks she uses to make her ‘perfume’ and the powdered perfume itself. The feeling of her covering my face with the orange powder and they way she looked at me. A moment in time.
The reason to travel, the human connection.
Posted by Lauriesam 04:13 Archived in Namibia Tagged #namibia #africanadventure #lovetotravel #adventuretravel #africa #feelinggrateful #africanlife #selfdrivenamibia #meetingnewpeople #culturalexchange #namibianlife #himba #feelinglikealocal #livingthegoodlife Comments (0)