The Only Way to Travel is On Foot

The past ages of man have all been carefully labelled отмечены by anthro­pologists . Descriptions like «Paleolithic [ˏpælɪə′lɪθɪk] Man", "Neolithic Man", etc., neatly искусно sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropolo­gists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label "Legless Man". Histories of the time will go some­thing like this: "In the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large build­ings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth-dwellers of that time because of their extraordinary удивительный way of life. In those days people thought nothing of travelling hundreds of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts подъёмники для горнолыжников and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred испорчен by the presence of large car parks."

The future history books might also record увековечить that we were deprived лишены of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's- eye views of the world — or even less if the wing of the aircraft hap­pens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred расплывшаяся image of the countryside constantly smears размывают the windows. Car driv­ers, in particular, are forever obsessed страдают with the urge сильным желанием to go on and on: they never want to stop. And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention заслуживают упоминания. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: "I joined the navy морской флот to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea." The typical twentieth-century traveller is the man who always says, "I've been there." You mention the remotest, most evocative вызывающий воспоминания place names in the world like El Dorado , Kabul [kɑ:bl], Irkutsk [′ə:kutsk] and somebody is bound непременно to say "I've been there" — meaning, "I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else."

When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time look­ing forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on идти дальше again. By travelling like this, you suspend прекращаете all experience; the present ceases перестаёт to be a reality; you might just as well be dead. The traveller on foot, on the

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other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him travelling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with ev­ery step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness усталость. He knows that sound satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward награда of all true travellers.

(From: "For and Against" by L.G Alexander)

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