Travelling

Before Adam and Eve
Have you ever felt like you were a part of nature, a part of mother earth and a part of the origin of the world? When I was in Africa I travelled in Zimbabwe, before Mugabe went crazy, to Victoria Falls, some of the biggest in the world. Even when the sun was shining, we were drenched after seeing them. Magnificent! Any way the train ride was 12 hours during night time. At some stage during the middle of the night and the middle of no where, the train stops for a while. I wake up and put my head out the window to smoke a cigarette. I can smell the savannah, the dry red earth, the wild and blooming flowers, the trees, and the juicy long green grass, it felt like smelling a thousand different spices. I could hear the cicadas singing from their hidings in every tree and every bush, in the distance I could hear a lion roar and a buffalo breath. The night was pitch-dark and only the full moon enlightened the savannah. This was the real Africa, just like Karen Blixen describes it in “The African Farm” and I enjoyed every second with all my senses. While I was enjoying this magical moment I could hear some big animal crushing the bushes and braches and suddenly a giraffes head on a long brown and white neck appears. It is not two meters away and we look into each others eyes. My heart almost stops for a moment and then it starts to plunder. This was amazing, the real authentic and genuine Africa, much better than the Safaris with all the jeeps hunting the poor animals. I don’t know how long time we stood there and stared into each other eyes. And I could smell him and feel he heat from his breath. I tried to reach my camera, when the Giraffe start to move away.
This was the closest I have felt to being part of nature, this must have been how the world was before beginning of history. This was paradise before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.


A different kind of holiday
Why do we always have to go as far away as possible and across mountains and oceans in order to experience adventures, relax and feel we are enjoying our holiday?
It seems to me if we go to Timbuktu or Reunion for holiday, the value gets higher. The brake value does any way. It is always more interesting to hear about stories from countries we hardly never have heard about. And it is definitely more fun to tell about, mainly because of the admiration.
My self have travelled a lot, visited more than 50 countries and four continents and really enjoy the thrill of arriving to a different place from what you are used to, explore new cities, meet strange looking people and be fascinated and learn about all the diversities. During my travels I have eaten guinea pig with a local Bolivian family, dived with sea turtles, Sky dived over South Africa’s wine district, playing “who blinks first” with a giraffe in Zimbamwe and camped deep in the Amazon next to indigenous Indians. All of this has of course been great and really developing.
How ever, can we not get same kind of thrill in the local environment? Can we not explore out local area even further? In many cases we do not even know our surrounding very well, and are so busy to get as far away as possible to a mountain top in Tibet, that we will never get to know them.
During my years in Ireland, at one stage I lived close to the Grand Canal just out side Dublin. It is a canal which carries on for some hundreds miles from Dublin to Shannon. Originally it was dug in order to commercial transport of goods. But only worked like this for a short while. Today the canal runs through the beautiful Irish landscape with fields, meadows, woods and towns and a few pubs as well. Don’t forget, this is Ireland. A foot path follows the canal most of the way.
One day I was sitting out side one of the Pubs and enjoying a pint while I was thinking about how far it was possible to walk along the canal. At that time I really did not know about the foot path. Then three guys with bag packs came down from the road and looked like they were going to walk along the path. I asked them about their trip and according to them, the path followed the canal all the way to river Shannon. I wished them a happy walk and returned to my pint.
Then I started to think of how relaxed and probably adventurous a walk like that could be. Just strolling along the canal, listening to the water, the birds and the wind in the trees and smelling the flowers and nature. Nothing to hurry about and nothing to worry about. When hungry catch some fish and cook them over a fireplace. When sleepy camp a tent and go to rest. What a life and what a holiday. Instead of travelling for hours and hurrying around in order to see as much as possible. Just stay in the local surroundings and take it easy.
Next week I had taken a few days off work and together with two friends, a tent, fishing poles and the most necessarily accessories, we went to the pub at the canal, had a pint and went along down the canal The sun was shining, the birds singing and the water looked clear and refreshing. After a couple of hours walk we were sweaty to say it mildly and we decided to stop for a few hours and relax.
We looked around and when we did not see anybody miles away, we let go of our clothes and jump in the cold refreshing water. It felt as a shock, but after a minute or two we could feel how nice it was to get the body cooled down. Then we started to laugh… this was just great…. In the middle of Irish no mans land… with out any other goal, than just relaxing. If we wanted to, we could stay here. If we wanted to, we could walk further on along the canal. If we wanted to, we could walk back to the pub and have another pint and camp there. The greatest feeling was that we could do exactly as we wanted to, no obligations, nothing and nobody was waiting for us and we waited neither for any thing or anybody.
We decided to camp there and pitched the tent and baited the hooks on the fishing poles. Then we just took it easy and looked at the clean water and discussed which fish we were going to catch and how we were going to cook it. After some time, please remark I can not tell how many hours or minutes it took, as none of us brought a watch, we had landed a few fish big enough for eating. We are not the biggest experts into fish, but agreed it was trout. It was now time to light a fire, so we gathered enough wood to keep it going for some time. When the fish was ready we made sandwiches of baguettes and fish. This meal was excellent and even it was simple it was one of the best I have ever eaten. Maybe because we were hungry, and probably more due to the fact that we had caught the fish ourselves, that we were totally relaxed, that we were alone just the three of us in the middle of no where and nobody knew we were there. We felt free and independent and sovereign and untouchables…. Nobody or nothing would ever be able to let us down. We did not depend on any thing or any body. We could do exactly as we wanted and when we wanted.
Sitting around the fire we discussed the bigger important things in life, values, time, love, friendship, adventurous and courage. One thing we definitely could agree on was that a holiday like this contained it all and more.
The next day we got up early and continued our adventure down the river. talking about building a raft.

Riders on the Storm
Some years ago, when I went on a road trip with my friend, Claus in the United States, we had the greatest feeling of comradeship and freedom. Do you know when its like the whole is at your feet and you can just do what ever you want and go where you desire. And no matter what you do, it will be great. No one or nothing can stop you?
We had borrowed a car of Claus dad. A 12 cylinder Jag, a real cruiser with wide seats and white leather. Excellent for long drives. We were going across the states from Tennessee, where we picked up the car, to San Francisco, where we should pick up two mates and drive around California and Nevada. A drive of 28 hours and we felt great, the world was at out feet.
When we drive through the desert of Oklahoma, suddenly lightning starts. Out side it is pitch black and we are all alone on the road, the original route 66. We have not seen a car for hours, only the road. With the lightning, the desert is lightning up and we can see mountain ranges far away. The lightning is so away we can hardly hear, and that is what feels like, minutes after.
I am driving and my friend had been trying to tune in to some good music for hours. With no luck. Until now we have only heard praises for the lord, Christian songs and “amens” on the very few stations he could find here in the middle of the bible belt. Claus decides to give it one more chance and as we can see and hear the lightning coming closer, by magic he tunes in on The Doors: Riders on The Storm.
We look at each other, turn the volume up and almost explode of happiness. That was magic. Was this some kind of coinscidence? They were singing about us? Did they play that number just for us? While the night, the prairie and the mountains are enlightening by the flash followed by deep thunder, we continue our ride out in the dark night.
To this day, that moment stand for me as one of the most memorable and magical moments in my life.