Dan’s Travelogue Blog

Mbonise Zulu Cultural Walk – South Africa
March 25, 2008
 
In the early 1800’s, a little-known region in the modern day province of KwaZulu-Natal, along the Indian Ocean in South Africa, was inhabited by a group of bickering African tribes and petty kingdoms. That all changed when the young African warrior Shaka consolidated power in the tribe known as Zulu. Shaka transformed the tactics and technology of warfare in Africa, creating massive demographic upheaval as neighboring African tribes perished before the Zulu juggernaut, migrated to escape, or were assimilated in the growing Zulu nation.
 
Two hundred years later, modern South Africa is still strongly influenced by the Zulu language, culture, and heritage of political and military power. Zulu is one of South Africa’s eleven official languages, and the tribe’s significance in post-apartheid South African politics continues to manifest itself.
 
Against this dramatic historical backdrop, our walk in rural Zululand seems benign and placid, yet the tumultuous story of South Africa is an inescapable filter through which we interact with this beautiful landscape of rolling hills and quiet homesteads. The route begins in Nompondo, just outside Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, one of South Africa’s oldest (we were told that at night you can hear the lions roar).
 
The local guides for today’s walk meet us at the gates of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve and take us to the walk start at Siphosadabletshe High School. Our arrival makes quite an impression. One of our group, Bob, is quickly adopted by a quartet of dark-eyed tots who walk hand and hand with him down a dirt road to the school. We arrive just as school is letting out and have the special privilege of observing and interacting with the crisply uniformed students before they end their day. Though we didn’t learn the percentage of the local children that attend school, education seems aspired to. I’ve seen the girls walking to school from some distance away, conspicuous in their navy and white uniforms, bright white knee socks contrasting sharply against their dark legs. Young Zulu teachers seem inspired and inspiring, and everywhere there is joking and laughter.
 
A teacher leads us on a tour of the humble campus. We meet the staff. There is a computer lab, though we can see that the equipment is dated. An aura of hope and a sense of investment in the future seems hinged precariously to this small compound in a way that contrasts with the lackadaisical lack of activity we witness on the homesteads during the rest of the walk.
 
We leave the school somewhat reluctantly and begin the walk in earnest, following our guides through a patchwork of fields and undulating hills. Eventually, we stop at a farmstead where there is a gathering planned. We all crowd into one of the thatched-roof rondavaals with an equal number of locals joining us, the aged matriarch in the place of honor, and sit on the cement floor with a sense of anticipation. The format for the program is loose. In fact, there seems to be no format or pre-determined program. A couple of kids get up and sing; a tiny tot about 3 years old is coaxed into an abbreviated performance of the famed Zulu foot stomping dance. Choreography and performance-based reviews are not part of the agenda here, but no one seems to care. We all simply feel privileged to be allowed into a home, to see even this far into a culture that most travelers would only glimpse through a professionally choreographed dinner show dance in a resort or tourist stop along the highway.
 
We say “farewell” to the matriarch of the clan, clearly a relative of one of our guides, and continue along the trail back towards the gates of the game reserve. Now we pass several homesteads, and the kids are coming out of the fields and yards to see the odd group of pale-skinned foreigners walking through their tribal lands a strangely distant stretch from any main roads. There is no bashfulness here. A couple young lads of about 10 offer a more aggressive rendition of the Zulu foot-stomping dance. We are surrounded by kids and they seem to want to touch us and laugh with us and have their pictures taken. The openness seems genuine and refreshing and charming.
 
As we walk the last kilometer, the sun is setting, casting memorable shadows over these rolling hills that we’ve trod together, and throwing billows of red, orange, and purple across the western horizon. We finish at the bus with that warm, indefinable, priceless feeling of having connected with a culture, of having peeked just a little beneath the tourist veneer that impedes the view of most foreigners. Now we are ready for the Zulu dinner show dance back at our bush lodge because we know we’ve seen the real thing!

Walk Ratings
I rated this walk 7 of 10 on Scenic Beauty for the lovely rolling hills. Cultural Interactions received a 9 of 10 for the multiple opportunities to connect with the local Zulu population at the high school, the rondavaal, and along the trail. Even though we were next to the game preserve where we had some amazing wildlife sightings the next morning, Animal Interactions were weak during the walk so I gave only a 2 of 10 for the livestock that stared at us along the path. Historical Connections were not obvious, but were apparent to those sensitive to the story of Shaka and the Zulus, the years of Apartheid, and the hope of post-Apartheid opportunities; I gave Historical Connections a 5 of 10. Unique Attributes received a 7 of 10 for being in Zululand on tribal lands next to one of the oldest game preserves in South Africa – hard to replicate this walk in any other setting!

Mbonise Zulu Cultural Walk Slideshow

Cahuita National Park – Costa Rica
February 11, 2008

My #8 walk takes us to a small Central American country that boasts the greatest diversity of flora and fauna on the planet. Lying completely within the tropics, between 8° and 11° latitude north, Costa Rica, along with Panama, forms the isthmus, or land bridge, between North and South America. Over time, this has resulted in an influx of species from both continents. Due to the cataclysmic geology of plate tectonics, a series of volcanoes forms the spine of this narrow isthmus. The result is a remarkably abrupt change in elevation from sea level on the Pacific coast to over 12,000 feet along the volcanic spine, and then back to sea level on the Caribbean side. This variation in elevation, along with an abundance of colliding weather patterns from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, creates 12 different ecological zones within a country only about the size of West Virginia. Amazingly, though this tiny country accounts for only about three ten-thousandths (.0003) of earth’s landmass, it hosts 5% of all known species of flora and fauna.

The village of Cahuita is a quiet, laidback place with a strong Jamaican influence, located directly on the Caribbean Sea in the southeast corner of Costa Rica. This is Costa Rica’s forgotten corner, isolated from the main economic, population, and cultural centers situated in the Central Highlands. Paved roads through the forbidding mountain passes have only reached this part of Costa Rica within the past 40 years.

Our walk in Cahuita begins from our rustic but charming jungle lodge located on the outskirts of town. We trek south along the dirt road leading into the village, flanked on the left by a row of waving palm trees and the crashing surf of the Caribbean Sea. The road becomes the main street of Cahuita, a dusty, potholed, unpaved road that offers a home for a handful of folksy, informal restaurants and cafes catering to the small influx of tourists, the usual number of Central American street dogs loitering in hopes of a handout, and a few businesses providing services to the town’s residents and visitors.

On the south edge of town, a short 4 blocks from the north edge, we pay the entrance fee and enter into Cahuita National Park. The trail is a broad sandy path through a “dry jungle,” intersected at intervals by insect expressways crowded with industrious leaf-cutter ants carrying the fruits of their labor – severed sections of leaves – off to some distant nest. Our trail runs parallel to the azure waters of the sea, often visible through a thin border of palm trees and tropical undergrowth. Around one corner, we encounter a three-toed sloth, hanging lazily in an inverted position as it labors through a slow motion routine of reaching out to pull in leaves for a midmorning meal.

After about a mile, the path is bisected by a broad stream and walkers have a choice: turn around and enjoy the return trip into Cahuita or shed their shoes and wade across the stream to gain access to the most interesting part of the trail. After those who opt to press on cross the stream and are once again fully shod, we resume the trek through the jungle, careful to stay on the trail! – Costa Rica is home to several varieties of poisonous snakes, but by informal agreement the snakes agree to stay off the path and people agree to stay on it.

We reach Punta Cahuita, the turn around point, and take a break under the expansive foliage of the fig trees with their amazing network of fluted roots. As we reverse our steps, we tread quietly, hoping for a visit from the monkeys that frequent the canopy above us. Soon we are rewarded by the arrival of a troop of White-faced Capuchin monkeys. We warned the group in advance that this particular species has achieved notoriety among jungle hikers as pickpockets. Any evidence of food is swiftly investigated by these white-faced little bandits, who can swoop into a backpack after the rustle of paper or plastic in the blink of an eye!

Sure enough, as we enjoy the unusual opportunity of photographing monkeys in the wild, one of our group pulls a snack from his daypack. The response is instantaneous: in a flash, the bag of cookies is in the grasp of a tiny hairy hand high in the palms above our heads.

Wiser and warier, we continue along the trail, observing an increase in wildlife activity as the temperatures rise. Blue morpho butterflies mesmerize us with their electric blue wings. Lizards scamper across the trail. Then we hear the distinctive call of the howler monkey just ahead. It is said that the call of a male howler, staking out his territory in the trees, can be heard farther than any other sound in nature – including the roar of a lion!

The howler makes his case convincingly and we stand below him fascinated, watching the family group as they jump from tree to tree, feeding on fruit and flaunting their complete mastery of mobility throughout the jungle canopy.

Finally we resume the walk and return, in short order, to the stream. We shed our shoes once more, but many opt to remain barefoot and continue back to Cahuita along the surf. Once we reach town, we break for lunch, sampling a few of the tasty, local eateries that offer a Caribbean fare unique to the Cahuita coast. The walk is over, but the memories linger on. The Cahuita National Park Walk offers a rare opportunity to interact with wildlife while reminding us of the attractions of a simpler lifestyle.

Walk Ratings
I rated this walk 7 of 10 on Scenic Beauty, 7 of 10 on Cultural Interaction for the experience in the sleepy Caribbean village of Cahuita, 10 of 10 on Animal Interactions for the monkeys, sloth, leafcutter ants, butterflies, birds, and the iguana I forgot to mention in the narrative, 3 of 10 on Historical Connections for the story of Jamaican influence in Cahuita, and 8 of 10 on Unique Attributes for the thrill of being so close to both the monkeys and the jungle setting.

Cahuita National Park Slideshow

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Arches National Park - USA
February 4, 2008

I had already been to the Grand Canyon and the amazing national parks of southwest Utah – Zion and Bryce Canyon – before I finally got around to visiting Arches National Park in the late 90’s. In fact, I’d already trekked through the majesty of the Alps, stood nose-to-nose with Norway’s glaciers and cruised through her fjords, and been smitten with the lush, temperate rainforests of New Zealand’s South Island and the Lord of the Rings-like beauty of Aspiring National Park. So I thought I had already sampled the world’s top tier of scenic wonders. I was unprepared, however, for the drama of Utah’s Arches National Park.

Our photos struggle to do it justice, but on my first visit, I was struck most, I think, by the stunning reddish hue and the sheer magnitude of these monolithic sandstone formations. I experience a similar sensation when driving through the eye-popping landscapes of northern Italy’s Dolomite Mountains. Their rugged, treeless, limestone peaks are peerless in the starkness of their beauty, a masterpiece of God that puts even the superhuman effort of Michelangelo’s matchless marble David in its proper cosmic perspective.

Yet the Dolomites are a range of mountains, the southernmost of central Europe’s Alp. At Arches, we are transported through a sculpture garden of a different sort – and at eye-level. We aren’t looking up at magnificent mountains; we are wandering through what feels like the workshop of a whimsical, world-sized wizard. We are like Jonathan Swift’s Lilliputians, scrambling around the half-finished building blocks in the giant wizard’s workshop, exploring a multitude of massive, bizarrely-shaped red sandstone formations before the master is finished.

The formations are somewhat spread throughout the park, sprinkled across the central Utah desert as if the master sculptor intended to keep each project separate from the other. So our walk in Arches is conducted in three parts. We begin the Windows Section with the Turret Arch, then trek with delight through the massive North and South Window, huge sandstone edifices through which the forces of nature have somehow carved massive openings, or “windows”.

Part three takes us along a lovely flat trail past three formations of the Devil’s Garden– Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch, and Landscape Arch. But my personal favorite is part two of the walk, a trek out to Delicate Arch, the signature formation of the park. After hiking through rather uninspiring desert for a mile or so, the trail follows a sandstone ledge at the base of a large formation on the right. We have open visibility to the left but are blocked on the right by the formation the trail hugs. After following this ledge for about half the length of a football field, the sandstone wall tapers down to meet the trail, and as we round the last bend to the right, we’re confronted with the spectacular, sky-sweeping silhouette of Delicate Arch.

Situated conveniently at the base of a natural sandstone amphitheater, it is one of those wonders of nature that makes instant soul mates of all present as we share the rare delight of this special place that we somehow sense provides a moment we will never forget.

Walk Ratings
I rated this walk 9 of 10 for Scenic Beauty and 8 of 10 for Unique Attributes due to the bizarre rock formations unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere. I gave no points for Cultural Interactions, Animal Interactions, or Historical Connections.

Arches National Park Slideshow

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My All-time Favorite List of Trails
February 1, 2008

People often ask which is my favorite Adventure. Of course, every part of the world has it’s own unique character and charm. The unexpected discovery of that special blend of qualities that can only be found in the new place you are exploring is one of the special delights of travel.

An easier question to answer is “which are my favorite walks?” During the past 16 years of creating and leading Adventures, I’ve had the pleasure of developing and enjoying walks in over 50 countries on 6 continents, and continue to uncover new “favorites” each year. In musing over the trails we’ve trekked, I developed the following criteria to help choose my current TOP 10 Walks:

• Scenic Beauty – the WOW factor
• Cultural Interactions available during the walk 
• Animal Interactions during the walk 
• Historical Connections during the walk 
• Unique Attributes not available elsewhere

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting one walk a day with a description of the walk and a link to a series of photos of that walk, finishing with my favorite walk. Here’s Walk #10.

Walk #10: Gap of Dunloe - Ireland
This beautiful nature trail traverses a winding, single-track road through a mountain pass in Ireland’s Killarney National Park in the southwest corner of the Emerald Isle. The first half or more of the walk follows the track as it parallels a mountain stream that winds its way down from the pass over rugged, rocky terrain that feels like it could have provided a set for a scene from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Massive boulders sit on either side of the track. One of the more memorable, about as large as a good size house, was split by some unknown cataclysm of the past, allowing the trail to bisect the two halves that remain.

The stream widens into lakes a couple of times during its journey, and suffers the crossing of the track above it several times on picturesque stone bridges, arching gracefully over the moss-lined course. The bridges blend artfully into the landscape, as does the track, adding rather than detracting from the stunning natural beauty of the pass.

On the far side of the pass, the terrain softens – more trees, more grass – and leads downward to a larger flatland stream that meanders quietly from pool to pool beneath an overhanging phalanx of trees. The trail ends too quickly at Lord Brandon’s Cottage, where the group rendezvouses for lunch at a simple café on the edge of the lake.

The walk is officially over, but our journey continues from Lord Brandon’s Cottage by boat across the reaches of Upper Lake and into Muckross Lake. The boat driver shares tales of the past, including a story of Napoleon’s emissaries who left his name carved in stone while in search of sturdy Irish horses for his cavalry.

The passage between the lakes provides opportunity for another short stroll through delightfully different landscapes. The stream connecting the lakes is too shallow for the boats to manage fully loaded, so we disembark on one side and take a lovely trail over a stone bridge, pause to watch our boatman maneuver his charge downstream, then continue through sun-dappled forest.

Following the rendezvous with our boats, we continue across Muckross Lake and disembark on the far side, completing the Gap of Dunloe Walk – an Irish classic.

Walk Ratings
I rated this walk 9 of 10 for Scenic Beauty; 6 of 10 for Cultural Interactions due to the horse carts, Lord Brandon’s Cottage, and the engaging humor of the boat drivers; 3 of 10 on Animal Interactions for the grazing sheep and working horses; 2 of 10 on Historical Connections for Lord Brandon’s Cottage and the quirky association with Napoleon; and 6 of 10 on Unique Attributes for the charm of the stone bridges amidst the wild yet serene scenery.

Gap of Dunloe Slideshow

Watch the blog in days to come for the 9 other favorite walks!

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December 22, 2007 

Following is a personal message regarding the meaning of Christmas in my life. It is intended as a heartfelt communication from me to the readers of this blog, not an expression of official WAI policy or position. While travel has been intensely relevant to every corner of my life, not the least my views regarding the Christmas message, this message transcends travel, as does the Christmas message itself. I share my thoughts on this amazing “Mystery of Christmas” in hopes that it may enhance your Christmas season. Merry Christmas!

I just returned from Branson, Missouri after a week of shows and walks – a truly festive walking adventure. We were deluged with a multitude of Christmas messages during our stay in Branson, some traditional, a few commercial, and, being in the heart of the Bible Belt, many that were religious. Having been raised in a home where mandatory church attendance was part of the weekly routine, all of this was as familiar as mom and apple pie. Yet over the past 15+ years, as I’ve traveled abroad and grappled with the complicated and often messy human history of the planet, many questions related to this Christmas message, the Incarnation – God becoming man in the form of the Galilean Jew, Jesus Christ – have percolated through my heart and mind.

In spite of my upbringing, I wondered initially whether Jesus was a real person. Is the babe in the manger a myth or a man? If a man, is his story accurately told? If accurately told, is he truly God or one of a pantheon of great moral teachers? I’ve puzzled over the Christmas theme, that the Creator could be more than one entity - the mind boggling concept of the Trinity - and commission one of themselves to engage earth as a human with the express purpose of becoming the universal sacrifice to redeem mankind from their lost condition of sinfulness.

I’ve questioned why sin was allowed in the first place; could not an all-powerful God have created a world that was safe from sin and evil, saving us all from the pain of our own vice and weakness and the counter-intuitive anguish of repentance? As I’ve traveled and studied the story of the planet, I’ve been dismayed by the abuses of religion, and of Christianity in particular – sordid chapters from the Crusades, the religion-tainted conquests of Mexico and South America, the recurring theme of Catholic/Protestant hatred and violence, corrupt televangelists, and the unfolding disaster of sexual abuse within the ranks of Catholicism, to name a few. I’ve also been mystified by the “relationship” that Christians claim to have with this Jesus Christ who became a man, and with God, his father, and maybe our father too.

Questions remain, yet in the process of observing culture, history, and religion across the globe, and simply muddling through life, I have arrived at a few Christmas conclusions. The first sanity-saving revelation all questioning minds are forced to accept is that much is unknowable, that we are limited in our attempts to understand a complex universe by what one friend calls the “inadequacy of our three pound brains”. Entire realms of activity beyond our awareness, control, or ability to comprehend intersect with and influence our lives on a regular and recurring basis.

Beginning from this foundation of human limitation, I became convinced early on that there are more reasons to accept that Jesus existed than to believe he was a mythical figure. And if the historical record of what he said and did is reliable, as I now believe it is, it is not possible to accept him merely as a moral teacher. His own words and deeds assert the supernatural reality that he is God. Once I accepted the record of his teachings as accurate, I could no longer consider that he claimed to be anything else. Amazingly, even though we live in a world where nightly newscasts convincingly report that chaos and destruction are the norm, Jesus conveyed the reassuring message that by observing the way he lived out the contradictory balance of mercy and truth, we can witness the confoundingly compassionate nature of God.

I have studied the Bible and accepted that its message is true. In many ways, its lack of specificity can be maddening, but in the most fundamental, life-impacting issues, I have found it complete and sufficient, holding the secrets to life for those willing to mine its riches. We often complain, however, that spiritual issues are too complicated and difficult, that it shouldn’t be so hard to find God. Meanwhile we labor collectively to unravel the intricacies of quantum physics, to conquer the challenges to putting men on the moon, to master the incredibly complex weather cycles of the planet, and to provide virtual reality through the internet. I have finally accepted that it is reasonable that the God of the universe be at least as complicated as his creation, and warrants at least as much considered study.

As I studied the Bible, I’ve understood that the Christmas message of Jesus’ birth was part of a plan God set in motion before he created the universe. The universe he created was fallible only because he endued us with the power of choice. He crafted our natures with free will, the gift of choice that gives us the power to love God and live in harmony with his stated order, or reject him, and live in rebellion.

The power to choose lifts us from mindless automatons to free-thinking individuals with the capacity for volitional relationship, voluntary interaction with each other and with God. But it also creates a messy web of failed choices and their consequences. In the logical, orderly universe that God created, actions have meaning and impact; therefore sin has consequences. It’s clearer to me now that the Christmas message reveals God’s love in making allowance for our inevitable abuse of the gift of choice, our ability to choose to deny God and need to be saved from ourselves.

I’ve realized that we do not live in a vacuum devoid of outside influences, that evil from outside this world penetrates our culture, influences our thoughts, and manipulates our bad habits and warped tendencies. I’ve learned that what is bad is usually just something good that has been corrupted by evil. I’ve realized that though the concept of “sin” seems antiquated to many in western, modernized nations, I am a sinful person (just ask those who live with me), and I am far from alone in my rebellion against what our hearts tell us is right.

I’ve seen that this evil has played a major role in history. Sorting through the historical record requires some detective skill to compare reports that sometimes conflict, then factor in the influence of the author’s point of view. In that process, I’ve discovered that most of the disgusting, discouraging stories of atrocity committed by the religious or in the name of Christianity were not motivated by faith, but by greed and personal gain. The label of Christianity was simply a convenient banner to fly, lending credibility and cover while more typical human motives of avarice and lust for power drove the deeds that achieved notoriety. The perpetrators were rarely men and women of faith – they simply manipulated religion to serve their purposes.

Meanwhile, I realized that our 21st century modernized culture has also been manipulated and conditioned to be skeptical of or conveniently forget the great good accomplished by Christian causes (witness, for example, the Christian-based names of hospitals listed in any phone book).

I’ve admitted that structured Christianity struggles to remain relevant. A strangely hypnotic “churchianity” syndrome seems present in most churches; walking through most church doors transforms the average American, including me, into a hypocrite, struggling to pose as more “normal” and “perfect” and “spiritual” than they really are. A favorite writer, C.S. Lewis, once stated that Christians are both the best and the worst reasons for belief in Christ, and the Christmas story. I concur that it has been Christians who have most confused me, but also Christians who have made the most positive differences in my life.

So, in summary, I have concluded that the Mystery of Christmas is one worth sorting out, that if there is anything worth sorting out in life, the message of Christmas is it. I am trying, in fits and starts, to be a follower of Christ, a Christian, attempting to align my life with his teachings and with an ongoing conversation that he has with those who take the time to listen, developing that mystical “relationship” Christians often talk too glibly about.

The spirit of Christmas is alive, surviving the commercialization and outlasting attacks of secularists. The message of Christmas reminds us that we have good reason to hope, that there is help in the struggle of good against evil, that God is still in control and life does have meaning, that there is a day coming when the message of that first Christmas – “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men” will be fully realized.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and may you be enthralled with the Mystery of Christmas this holiday season!

Dan

Comments regarding this message are welcome at fun@walkingadventures.com, subject line: Dan’s Christmas Message