African Safari - Rock beats person everytime

When I think of Travellers I have a specific couple in mind. Doug and Geraldine Smith – sitting at home in their Miami Condo with their air-conditioning blasting. Doug’s in his bright Madiba Shirt and pink shorts. He is showing his friends photos of his recent holiday to Africa. Photos like: Geraldine on Table Mountain, Geraldine in front of the entrance to Robben Island, Geraldine, in her giant sun hat, standing plump and sunburnt next to a line of lean Maasai woman in the Serengeti.

"So what was Africa like Doug?"
"Well, it has the world’s highest free-standing blah blah", says Doug.
"Gee Doug, that sure is somethin’."

In my mind: Doug is your average traveller, and your average traveller has a fascination with two general things when travelling: One - Famous attractions and 2 - photographing themselves next to famous attractions.

Why is it that if you tell people like Doug the world biggest elephant turd is in sunny Strandfontein – he will take precious holiday time to make sure he gets a photo of his beaming face standing in front of said turd? It would seem that Doug is more comfortable exploring inanimate things like the meeting of two ocean points, an old castle, a monument, than he is in exploring the modern realities of local life – realities like everyday people.

It’s behaviour like Doug’s, that makes me lose sleep at night. It’s behaviour like Dougs, that has me losing all faith in the modern man.

If I read one more description of a place as having the southern hemisphere’s biggest concentration of (insert random useless object here), I think I’m going to have to throw myself off a cliff.

Maybe I’ll go jump off Cape Point - that turd of infamous proportions that shows you the power of marketing. It doesn’t even matter that it’s not the real meeting of the two oceans – so long as we all agree it is. It’s Tourism 101: Suspend fact for the marketing pull people! And it seems we’re all totally ok with this.

So folks. I have a request – please, please, please - forget being green, eco-lovely or whatever other fashionable travel trend is happenin’ right now. Next time you travel, focus on doing one simple human thing. Take some time, skip one or two of the major tourist attractions, and head for local hang outs. Make a real effort to try and connect with local people – I don’t care how you do it, over beer, playing dominoes or doing the African Macarena in some dingy bar at 2 am.

Do that, and hopefully you’ll get a true sense of somewhere else’s reality – that’s what travelling is anyway isn’t it? Finding that common thread in strange lands – the one that makes you feel connected – the one that tells us, despite difference, we’re all human, and we’re all in this together.