![]() I am so excited to experience this adventure with him. Derek Butler, my cousin and hunting partner since we were boys, is coming along. A couple of other significant life changes have played into this, but I wouldn't say I like to venture far from home or my loved ones like I used to. If I explore these feelings, I think they're rooted in a newfound sense of comfort close to home. I'm starting to wonder how much the lockdown changed me when I never thought it did. Now I can make the trip happen on a grander scale. Instead of a trip to South Africa, we spent our residency on Zoom. ![]() I was to end up in Port Elizabeth, where I had a short, three-day safari. I would extend the trip by a week to rent a car and drive the Garden Route, which runs along the southern tip of Africa. We were flying into Johannesburg, and then we were working across the country to Cape Town. ![]() We already had our tickets, and everything was booked. In 2020, as part of my MBA program at the University of Missouri, our international experience was supposed to be a trip to South Africa. They highlight the beauty and vastness of the continent but also sell the reality of being in a land where you are not at the top of the food chain. These heroes of mine penned accounts of their adventures in Africa, including tales of woe and desperate trials of physical and mental exertion. I'm drawing upon the words of Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ruark, Peter Capstick, and E. I'm sure it has a lot to do with facing the unknown. I can't pinpoint why I'm experiencing these feelings of trepidation. I usually live with a bag packed, ready to hit the road at a moment's notice, but I'm nervous now facing the grandest adventure of my life. Being on the opposite side of the world, amidst dangerous games, multiple days of travel away from my loved ones, and responsibilities at home, has my stomach in knots. Quite surprisingly, I feel unsettled about this journey. Within 24 hours, I'll be traveling to South Africa on safari. The Dark Continent has loomed as a dream for decades.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |