Let it be wild
Safaris are all about seeing. As my plane is landing in an airstrip in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans a limitless landscape unfolds before our eyes. In the following days, I would receive a master-class on seeing.
Safaris are all about seeing. As my plane is landing in an airstrip in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans a limitless landscape unfolds before our eyes. In the following days, I would receive a master-class on seeing.
Planning a family vacation can be a daunting task. Everyone seems to have their own interests and at times these could not be more incompatible. Mom wants something sophisticated, while Son has recently developed a fascination with mountain biking. Dad is all about going out of his comfort zone… and how can we forget that time we all got stranded because of his taste for the exotic?
Travel changes the person. That much I already knew. In the following week I would explore the other side of the equation, that is, how the traveller can change the world. On a safari in Botswana, I realised that travelling to these endangered places is what will save them in the end.
I often laugh at myself, how I make lists for everything. To-do lists, lists that go alphabetically, lists that rhyme and even lists about lists. I’m a list collector… One list demands constant actualization.
I came to Lapland for the aurora, and in the journey discovered the deep north. It is a sparse monochrome surface of still wilderness which evokes a rich sense of space and time. Beauty appears in unexpected forms: a hue in the sky, a line in the snow, a forest, a birch tree, a wild mouse running in the deep snow. A frozen river bend, and the crackling fire by the camp…
Whoever said that the world is a small place, never travelled in Patagonia. We have been driving south on the Chilean side for several thousand kilometres. There seems to be no end to the landscape. I feels like we could drive for a million more.
My parents and I drive west from Palermo to Tonnara di Scopello, a disused yet picturesque tuna fishery that has been here since the 13th century. It is a popular place for sunbathers and swimmers, but today it’s just me and my parents. And twelve cats. I can picture the fishermen chanting and going out in the twilit hours, between the stacks that burst out from the sea. Time has stopped here.
During my recent trip to the Dolomites, I rediscovered a childlike enthusiasm for skiing. And how could I not? I crossed one snowy valley after another, without eve repeating a line. I went down easy runs that let me take in the alpine scenery, and the beauty of nature. I ventured down harder pistes that demanded my full attention.
The human soul is drawn to certain places, like a moth to the flame. As the day begins, and I gaze to the mists that cover the green mountain forests, I set out to uncover the world of the spirits.
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