The exotic need not be far away
“Two or three hours’ walking will carry me to as strange a country as I expect ever to see. A single farmhouse which I had not seen before is sometimes as good as the dominions of the King of Dahomey.”
–Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” (1862)
December 1st, 2011 at 8:17 am
Having hiked the Appalachian and John Muir Trails and done extensive canoe trips all over the US and Canada, I am sure I have had experiences few world travelers have had. As a nation, we’re blessed to have the diversity and the wilderness that we have and in many cases it’s not far from urban centers.
December 1st, 2011 at 11:59 am
On one of his few and limited excursions, Thoreau visited Cape Cod and apparently one of the first things he saw were dead bodies washed up on the beach. I lived on the Cape for many years and never saw a one. The exotic may have been closer at hand in those days.
December 1st, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Coincidental timing on this, I just read “Walking” while finishing up a trek a week or so ago.
Another of my favorites:
“If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again – if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man – then you are ready for a walk.”
Perfect sentiment to express that focus on ‘in the moment’ that seems so ephemeral in travel now.