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 (at the very least, not but), one specific phrase has caught with me. This phrase evokes a aim and describes the “true traveler,” an individual I attempt to someday be. The advert is stuffed with creatively descriptive phrases, and I argue that there’s at the very least 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, significantly millennials, really feel that journey is our identification. 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 when 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 by way of the Sani Move, a ridiculously treacherous highway. 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 examine station on the prime the place I forfeited my treasured passport, the factor that holds my information 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 fastidiously organized journey pack as a result of I couldn’t assist however stare at my title carelessly written into this huge e-book that was midway world wide from my house. I used to be tempted to take an image, however shortly realized that isn’t one thing regular folks do and that I didn’t need to be detained. Nevertheless, I can’t cease enthusiastic about my title written in that e-book. In my transient 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 enthusiastic about the impression journey has on me, the stamps in my weathered passport because it have been, however hardly ever take into account the mark my passport has and all of the clues and items I depart behind. What little marks have I been making world wide? With guides I rent, eating places and motels I go to, folks I move on the path? Many make an indelible mark on me, and I’m wondering if I do the identical.
Touring into Lesotho from the Sani Move is an expertise extra than simply the journey to the highest. From the border examine station, you possibly can flip to the fitting and go to the “Highest Bar in Africa” or proceed into the unknown. We traveled perhaps ten miles on the one highway earlier than turning again round. The views have been stuffed with scrubby, low vegetation, dramatic mountains, sheep herds, and sheep herders.
Birding was harder. There aren’t any timber all through the panorama, so it’s both trying up for birds passing overhead or stomping by means of the scrub to flush hiding birds. With the dearth of timber, it was a shock {that a} woodpecker continues to be taking on area. In a single stretch of rocky outcropping, a bunch 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 might love, and fewer raptors like Bearded Vultures and Cape Griffon.
The low birding ranges allowed me to watch and take into account those that reside there, whose lives are so completely 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 related with my very own eyes. The herders are nomadic teams that transfer sheep from place to put, staying in brick constructions that dot the panorama. Our native information, Stuart, knowledgeable us that the small flags flying in entrance of some constructions marketed what they bought: white for dairy, yellow for selfmade wine, and pink for meat. Merchandise that the herders bartered for. Whereas driving alongside and searching for flags, I observed my lifer hyrax, a big, angry-looking groundhog-like mammal.
Stuart supplied a beautiful subject 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 have been doing. We didn’t make too many different stops aside from to move again to the “Highest Bar in Africa” for a celebratory beer and I used to be in a position so as to add to my overseas forex assortment with a $20 Lesotho Loti. After 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 short look and a Malachite Sunbird perched properly displaying 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 fingers checked over and over by border stations, motels, prepare stations, airports, stuffed with stamps of coming and going between a number of the many, many locations world wide, or figuratively: your soul and life impacted by the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures you expertise as you journey concerning the world… we should take into account the impression we’re having whether or not it massive or small as a result of journey is a privilege.
I left Lesotho with 5 completely different stamps from coming and getting 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, nevertheless, it appears acceptable for the impression 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.
