Travel

Far from the madding crowd

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By Brendan Seery

2 months ago

As the sun crept behind the craggy tops of the Chimanimani Mountains and the wind whistling up the valley started plucking at our jackets, the pretty young girl and I looked at each other, both recalling our conversation earlier.

Leopards. Here on the high border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, they were common. And presumably hungry.

Words were not necessary. We shuffled quickly back inside my two-man hiking tent, taking a few swigs of Van Der Hum liqueur from my plastic water bottle.

That helped quell the unease and the knowledge that, if anything happened, we were on our own.

There was no other human in this remote valley. Paradoxically, though, in the morning, we felt we were the only humans on earth.

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The strain of overcrowding

That feeling – of solitude and space – is almost impossible to find these days as tourist destinations bulge at the seams.

We ran a news story a while ago about local residents in countries like Spain and Greece being up in arms because they are being crowded out by tourists and losing the enjoyment of their own homes.

Looking at the pictures of the “selfie generation” squashed every which way into every little corner of the picturesque Greek island of Santorini, I knew instantly: I would rather not go there than have to contend with that mass of humanity.

In 2018, we visited Prague and the experience was, sadly, much the same.

The large main square in the town was so filled with tourists that passing from one side to the other was like swimming upstream.

I get irritated by crowds like this, so it was fortunate that we found a little café – also almost full – which served brilliant, chilled Czech pilsener beer.

The crush actually took away a lot of the pleasure of appreciating the historic city, especial because at every turn there was an idiot or two with a selfie-stick and cellphone wanting to immortalise themselves in front of a statue or Prague’s famous clock.

I know I am in danger of sounding like an old fart but I am from a social and journalistic generation who believed in telling stories via pictures.

And, unless you are an Oscar winner or Olympic gold medallist, you are not the story… Does it bug me that I never got shots of myself in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Brandeburg Gate in Berlin?

No, because I am not connected with either of them in any way… and, therefore, don’t belong in any picture.

OVERCROWDED. Tourists are walking in the Phuket Walking Street during a night market that takes over the beautiful Thalang Road in Phuket Old Town every Sunday evening. Pictures: AFP & iStock

The quest for solitude in travel

We had brunch with friends the other day and they told us of their planned river boat cruise in China.

That has still to become overcrowded with Westerners, but it is growing in popularity.

We all agreed the future of travel for people who like solitude is not looking rosy… unless you have buckets of cash to buy that isolation. And, it’s not as though only European countries are affected by this.

In the Masai Mara and Serengeti reserves in Kenya and Tanzania respectively, you spot lion by looking for the Toyota Land Cruiser traffic jam. In our own Kruger National Park, brake lights are a dead giveaway.

Even wanting to take in the beauty of Cape Town via the cableway has lost its appeal for me, because I know I will just get annoyed by the tourists.

The pretty girl who shared the tent with me all those years ago has the same view as I do today and now that the kids are out of the house and she’s retired we can take our trips when the crowds of kids will be absent.

There are a few places we have found here in South Africa, where we can recapture the atmosphere of the Chimanimani – without the leopards, of course.

But, if you don’t mind, I’ll keep those places to myself. Two’s company, after all – and more than that is an annoying crowd.