Following my travels in Hungary, France, the USA and Mexico in 2001, the South African Summer was spent visiting family and friends, touring by motorcar on the East Coast of South Africa, camping and swimming, doing hiking trips in the Cape mountains.
I was conscious of not having achieved my my aims of self-improvement yet and continued my travels in 2002 to experience a wider world. The first stage was a month-long visit to Malawi in South-Eastern Africa, travelling by public transport, consisting of ever overcrowded buses, taxi-buses and open trucks. From the capital Lilongwe I made my way Norhtwards up the shore of Lake Malawi, sleeping in Resthouses, with bare facilities, eating plain local meals of maize or kasawa porridge, with some vegetables, fish or meat. Swimming and snorkeling in the fresh water of the lake was great, also the locally brewed Carlsberg beer, boiled peanuts and fresh bananas, but mosquito nets had to be draped over beds at night.
From the village Chilumba, I took a three-day voyage on the vessel Ilala, crossing the lake to the Mocambique coast, stopping at islands in the lake to deliver and load goods and passengers. From Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear I went back to Lilongwe and then to Egypt for two months. I found the people in Malawi to be friendly and warm, living in poor economic conditions, but always good-natured and willing to share living space and possessions.
In Egypt I visited the normal tourist sites in Cairo, Aswan and Luxor, doing a camel tour of Giza, seeing the Coptic church at Almuharraq where the Holy Family stayed for some time. I bought food at the local suq’s (roadside markets), drank tea in the ahwa’s (the coffee- and tea shops reserved for men only), where the sheesha water pipes are smoked. The Middle-Eastern foods were strange: breakfast of fuul (chopped salad vegetables and deep-fried falaffel balls of chickpea stuffed into pita bread), karkadeh tea made from dried hibiscus flower petals, fresh fruit and sugar cane drinks, sweet fatir puff-pastry, fresh figs, grapes and water melon. The two Libyan (Western) desert oases of Dakhla and Kharga were exceptional. I bathed in the hot water pumped up from deep wells 1000 metres deep, eating fresh dates (there are more than 1,5 million date palms in the desert). From Aswan I took a 3-day trip on a felucca (traditional sailing boat) on the Nile to Luxor, meeting the friendly black-skinned Nubians from the South and touring the Valley of the Kings. A bus ride took me to the Red Sea, then via Suez to the Sinai peninsula. At the seaside towns of Dahab, Nuweiba and Tarabin, on the Gulf of Aqaba, life is utterly laid-back, the tourists snorkel and scuba dive to the coral reefs with multi-coloured fish, long evening meals are taken sitting and lying down on mats and mattresses next lo low tables. At night I slept on the beach to catch a cool breeze which would also drive away the mosquitos. At Mount Sinai I hiked up the mountain in late afternoon to see the sun set, slept on the mountain and watched the sunrise in the company of a horde of tourists who made the journey in the dark before daylight, then visited St. Katherine monastery and the site of Moses’s burning bramble bush. In Alexandria on the Mediterranean I could swim in the warm sea, view Greek-Roman museums and join the throng of citizens in the evenings on the promenade. Back in Cairo I visited many Muslim mosques with their stunning carpets and mosaics.
The people of Egypt impressed me with their non-aggressive attitude and strict religious observance, although the continuous commercial pressure on tourists was less pleasant.
From Egypt I flew to Paris, France to undertake a walking tour of 1500 km lasting two months through France and Spain, known as the Chemin de St. Jacques in France and the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Pilgrims have walked, cycled and ridden on horseback for a thousand years from all points in Europe to the burial site of the apostle James. I started at Le Puy-en-Velay in Central France, hiking with rucksack by day and sleeping in Gîtes (youth hostel- type accomodation). The towns and countryside is magnificent and I made many acquaintances among the pilgrims from all over the world. Some monasteries provide shelter to the pilgrims as well as good communal meals. From St. Jean Pied de Port one crosses the Pyrenée mountain range into Spain, then walk in Northern Spain to Compostela, near Cape Finisterre on the coast near the Portuguese border. In Spain overnight accomodation in the refugios is crowded and the crianciale card must be shown for stamping at each overnight stay to obtain entry.
After the long walking tour, I spent a month in the North of Portugal, travelling by bus and train, up the Douro river valley, exploring the area from Porto to Coimbra, moving back and forth to the coast and ending in the capital Lisbon. I returned to Cape Town in November 2002 and would now like to share some of my spiritual impressions with you.
Before commencing my travels, I knew that a happy life required both a healthy body and a healthy mind. My new lifestyle after retirement enabled me to eat healthy food and to keep fit by partaking in outdoor activities. Achieving a healthy mind was less straightforward. I found the ideas expressed in M. Scott Peck’s book: “The road less travelled” most helpful. In short, our lives are filled with problems and difficulties. Avoiding or ignoring these problems, or blaming others, is no solution, we have to meet them head on and devise a solution that we can live with. This meant that I had to accept responsibility for my own life and actions.
One of my aims in undertaking the pilgrimage in France and Spain was to confront the mistakes I had made in my life so far. I did this in a structured way, first listing all areas where in my opinion I had gone wrong, both in my professional and family life. Then during the long daily hikes, I worked through each problem, analysing the circumstances and reasons for my errors. A pattern emerged, the same basic errors in reasoning, wrong decisions, wilfulness etc. repeating themselves. Out of this process came three lists of actions: things I could still do to remedy wrongs I had done, a list of things to avoid and lastly the positive actions to concentrate on in future. Then I put the memory of old problems that had plagued me for so many years behind me and resolved never to let them bother me again.
I developed the concept of Y, the fork in the road, symbolising the choices we are faced with numerous times every day, having to choose freely between the low or the high road. The books by Steven Covey: “Seven habits of highly successful families, people, etc” were helpful here. Humans differ from other life forms by being able to make choices based on moral grounds. When facing a decision, I learned to take time first to consider, to stand back and review the principles involved and then choose a course that I can live with and defend.
I was still searching for a way to be less self-centred and to improve my attitude to life. I found a beginner’s guide to meditation that pointed the way to awareness of the Self and again the principle of: ‘the buck stops here with myself” was foremost. Any change or improvement had to start in my own mind. I commenced the daily practice of changing every negative thought about other people and to observe myself closely, evaluating my daily thoughts and actions against my own principles. How difficult it is to adhere consistently to the simplest of ideals such as honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, humility, caring for and sharing with others unselfishly; I had to re-establish and get to know the person I really am and to discard any actions or thoughts that were false and not in conformance to Me.
I have commenced travelling on this road and recommend the journey. It provides me with the means of disciplining and controlling myself. It also is the way of searching for and finding that inner core of peace and awareness that is the essence of a human life.
Greetings to all.