Why Walk? For us
the answer is easy. In the places we visit, the people we meet
and the serendipitous experiences we enjoy seem to come to us at pedestrian
speed. The purpose of our travel is to experience life not as we know it, but
to learn, share and connect to it, as it exists, untouched, in a place that is
new to us. Walking simply is the best way to do that.
Much of western life moves
past us through a pane of glass. Cars, buses, trains, planes and more frequently the screen of a cell
phone or tablet, and now, "60 inch HD" televisions make up a lot of
our day-to-day life experiences. Taking an adventurous walk through a foreign
landscape, or along a footpath that has stood for thousands of years, or to
walk into a hillside village and meet an ethnic tribe of people who still live
their lives as their ancestors did generations before them changes
that...Forever
Walking in a new and
different land provides unique opportunities, a new perspective and
typically, much fonder appreciation of our life at home. For a brief week or
so, we can venture outside of our comfort zone. The call of a distant mountain
peak, the power of a deep canyon or the solitude of an ancient burial ground
stirs a form of motivation to walk a bit farther than we usually do.
Indeed the simple sight of
a blind corner just ahead can move us to walk further just to see what is around it. More times
than not it is here where the reward of our efforts payoff and it is that
precise moment when we learn that the whole world is full of corners that must
be explored. You have to connect to whatever is on the other side and walking is "THE" connection.
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| Gene Taylor in a village in South Africa. |
