A number of years in the past, I used to be uncovered to the lyrical, poetic prose of a Grand Trunk commercial. This hammock seller deftly used imagery to promote the sensation of journey and exploration with out ever blatantly popping out to say it. Though they weren’t profitable in promoting me a hammock (no less than, not but), one explicit phrase has caught with me. This phrase evokes a purpose and describes the “true traveler,” an individual I attempt to sooner or later be. The advert is crammed with creatively descriptive phrases, and I argue that there’s no less than one phrase that everybody can relate to. The actual phrase that speaks to my soul is, “stamps in weathered passports.”
I’ve learn that many People, notably millennials, really feel that journey is our id. We’re vacationers, it’s who many people are and the drive for journey and exploration guidelines our lives. When I’m not touring, I’m busy daydreaming about future locations and if I should not have a visit on the horizon, I really feel directionless and anxious. And should you take this phrase, “stamps in weathered passports,” my interpretation is that the experiences from journey are the “stamps” as sights, sounds, tastes, smells, textures, in your “passport,” or soul.
What drove me to this revelation was crossing the border of the tiny, enclaved nation of Lesotho through the Sani Go, a ridiculously treacherous street. After a harrowing journey traversing boulders, crossing streams, and alongside plunging valleys in a tricked-out 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser, we reached the border verify station on the high the place I forfeited my valuable passport, the factor that holds my data of locations visited and sights seen to the bored border agent. She slowly scribbled down my title, passport quantity, birthdate, and nationality into an enormous ledger earlier than giving it a stamp and passing it again.
It took me a second to seize my passport and safely restore it to its place in my rigorously organized journey pack as a result of I couldn’t assist however stare at my title carelessly written into this massive ebook that was midway all over the world from my residence. I used to be tempted to take an image, however rapidly realized that’s not one thing regular individuals do and that I didn’t need to be detained. Nevertheless, I can’t cease desirous about my title written in that ebook. In my temporary lifetime of journey, I’ve been to many locations and had by no means as soon as till then seen a handwritten border crossing station.
All this time, I’ve selfishly been desirous about the affect journey has on me, the stamps in my weathered passport because it had been, however not often take into account the mark my passport has and all of the clues and items I go away behind. What little marks have I been making all over the world? With guides I rent, eating places and resorts I go to, individuals I move on the path? Many make an indelible mark on me, and I ponder if I do the identical.
Touring into Lesotho from the Sani Go is an expertise extra than simply the journey to the highest. From the border verify station, you may flip to the appropriate and go to the “Highest Bar in Africa” or proceed into the unknown. We traveled perhaps ten miles on the one street earlier than turning again round. The views had been crammed with scrubby, low vegetation, dramatic mountains, sheep herds, and sheep herders.
Birding was more durable. There aren’t any bushes all through the panorama, so it’s both trying up for birds passing overhead or stomping by way of the scrub to flush hiding birds. With the dearth of bushes, it was a shock {that a} woodpecker continues to be taking on area. In a single stretch of rocky outcropping, a gaggle of Floor Woodpeckers foraged alongside boulders trying to find ants and as their title suggests, they forage on the bottom in sparsely vegetated nation. We noticed dozens of small, brown birds hopping out and in of the vegetation like Sickle-winged Chat, Mountain Pipit, varied lark species, a Southern Bald Ibis that solely a mom may love, and fewer raptors like Bearded Vultures and Cape Griffon.
The low birding ranges allowed me to watch and take into account those that dwell there, whose lives are so totally different from my very own. I’ve seen documentaries of yak herders in Mongolia, however I by no means thought I’d see one thing comparable with my very own eyes. The herders are nomadic teams that transfer sheep from place to put, staying in brick buildings that dot the panorama. Our native information, Stuart, knowledgeable us that the small flags flying in entrance of some buildings marketed what they offered: white for dairy, yellow for do-it-yourself wine, and pink for meat. Merchandise that the herders bartered for. Whereas driving alongside and on the lookout for flags, I observed my lifer hyrax, a big, angry-looking groundhog-like mammal.
Stuart supplied an exquisite area lunch alongside a stream with samosas, a field-standard hard-boiled egg, and different snacks. A Black-headed Canary was calling from the bushes, a Black Stork was overhead, and a smattering of different species popped as much as see what we had been doing. We didn’t make too many different stops apart from to go again to the “Highest Bar in Africa” for a celebratory beer and I used to be ready so as to add to my international forex assortment with a $20 Lesotho Loti. Once we arrived on the bar, the fog had blown in and we couldn’t see the underside of the valley. A Drakensberg Rockjumper made a quick look and a Malachite Sunbird perched properly exhibiting off its brilliance. A couple of hours later we made it safely again to our lodging with little from Lesotho in addition to a stamped passport and loads of pictures.
So whether or not you’re taking the phrase actually: a passport weathered by time and passage between arms checked again and again by border stations, resorts, practice stations, airports, crammed with stamps of coming and going between among the many, many locations all over the world, or figuratively: your soul and life impacted by the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures you expertise as you journey in regards to the world… we should take into account the affect we’re having whether or not it huge or small as a result of journey is a privilege.
I left Lesotho with 5 totally different stamps from coming and entering into my passport, filling up nearly a complete web page, which appeared a little bit extreme for spending solely the morning and exploring little or no of the small nation, nonetheless, it appears acceptable for the affect Lesotho has had on my soul.
Hear extra about this journey on this podcast: Hannah and Erik Go Birding KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Lesotho.