Beachcomber Magazine 05

OUTSIDE MAURITIUS THE ART OF DISCOVERY 54 Concón dune, Christmas day, Chile. Dune de Concón, jour de Noël, Chili. O ne does not always know why one leaves. If you’re a traveler, you know this to be true. You only know that leaving is necessary – necessary in that it would be impossible for you to imagine a different life for yourself for the year, months or days that the journey will be made of. What’s interesting is that you would be just as hard put to imagine the journey itself, what it is you are reaching for, what you’ll eventually come to find, to see. At the core of every departure lies this paradox: an overflow of imagination. A shortfall of imagination. DEPARTURE In September of the year I turned twenty, I left for an eight month- long backpacking trip across Brazil, Chile and Bolivia. Back when I lived in Mauritius, I spent a lot of time dreaming of one day exploring the South American continent in this way. It was one of those eccentric projects that end up progressively waning away with time and through the limits imposed by the predetermined paths we will ourselves to follow. But sometimes, thankfully, the dream takes shape, the moment is right, the wish very much alive, and the heart simulta- neously confident enough of its roots and willing to surpass them– it is time to leave, with the convic- tion that only the trip itself can really answer the question of “ why ”. 