Any route will deliver

Summer hiking without a breeze challenges in this terrain. Meandering through the scrub presents endless encounters with plant, rock and the occasional animal, darting or in frozen mode. The mind blurs the detail within minutes into semi-forgotten glimpses. The overall experience leaves traces treasured in recall, unequalled by any other form of living, depending on the rank ordering of values.

Monotonous cicada song resembling tinnitus dwells in memory afterwards, alongside the sensation of heat and exaggerated silence. Consciousness wanders, intermittently forced from reverie to face features of stark reality requiring full attention, more often for the hiker not familiar with the veld.

The kneaded hills resembling tomorrow’s bread continually present new suggestions for impromptu route changes, shaping the unique adventure of the day. The long walk is never to be forgotten.

In the human mind never is a finite, unpredictable notion, adjusted by hope and sometimes rewarded by erratic recollection later in life.