[MD] travelling vs tourism

[gav]

end tourism now!!!!!!!!

tourism is corporate travel: the mobile spectacle.
comfort and convenience are paramount. tourism is for
wieners.

i just spent 5 days on fraser island, walking and
camping. i ran into 10 other walkers, all cool,
friendly people from all over the world: germany, US,
slovenia, australia. they all were totally rapt in the
environment, were part of it and knew that to despoil
it was out of the question: like masturbating in front
of your mum.

the tourists come in their droves in buses and cars
into a world heritage jewel and they shit on it and
they whoop and holler and display their retardedness
for all to see. again the whole world is represented
but it is the yanks and brits that are the most
obnoxious.

lake mckenzie is a pristine freshwater lake that is
dazzling to the eye. pure white silica sand fringing
the perfectly clear water that contains the azure blue
of the cloudless sky above. thick forest encircles the
whole and creates what must be a shining eye to the
birds above. on this pure white fine fine sand are
flung dozens and dozens of cigarette butts. five years
ag - my last trip - i would have had to search hard
for one, but now the tourists are here in droves and
their mindless destruction follows them, the shadow of
their conflicted, twisted selves. this is sacrilege!
this is blasphemy! this is so abhorrent, so wrong.

it is hard not to look upon tourists as dross when you
are a traveller. you must always keep the heart open
but this means that it flows outward in its pain and
frustration also. the word 'tourist' is pejorative
around the world and this is an example why. 

and yes i have been both. i have been both tourist and
traveller and perhaps all travellers start as
tourists. it is important to remember this, i tell
myself. the traveller is an individual; the tourist is
part of the herd. the traveller is guided
intellectually, aesthetically; the tourist socially.
the tourist IS a lower form of life and this is why it
seems so.

but i should end with my own experience because it was
very special. i spent the time with an ex-girlfriend
whom some of you know. our time together was a ritual,
a transformation. one relationship ended and two began
on that trip and we are both different people than a
week ago.

 to be literally alone - noone around for 10 or 20
kms; to be in ancient beautiful forest. to begin to
feel the power, to begin to see the energy, to begin
to get the 'aha!s' when your mind makes the connection
between aboriginal art patterns and the subtle
energies of these truly wild places. to be silent and
still and have the forest come to you and envelop you
and absorb you and to begin to give gratitude and to
begin to feel it coming back. the power spots of this
world are the wild spots and they are in danger. the
reason is always the same: the giant fears that which
it can't understand; and it then destroys what it
fears. 

i want to live in a world where nature and i are
entwined lovingly to the point of no distinction. 
i want to live in a world where life is cultivated not
detsroyed, for that is our unique power as humans: we
can be custodians who nurture and protect the entirety
of the planet. we could create paradises beyond our
dreams, instead, as a species, we are manifesting hell
on earth. i guess thoreau saw it coming.


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