Escaping The City (part 1)
- Kaylo
- Oct 10, 2016
- 2 min read
Last week , My family and I went on vacation to Mpumalanga. This was my second time visiting the province.
The first time was for my 14th birthday and all that I came back with from that trip was darker skin, memories of the scenery and a full tummy from eating so much. This time around, the experience was something completely different.
Four hours on the road for no television, weak signal, snakes, crocodiles, hippos, mist - "OMG why did I tag along" . These were my thoughts initially, but by the time the moon came up my mindset had changed. Watching my little siblings find other ways to keep themselves busy took me back to my childhood ,a period in my life that I enjoyed the most and in no time we were laughing. I must admit that prior to this trip, I was feeling drained because of academics, constantly debating issues around #fmf , issues in my personal life , FOMO for the things that were happening around me and eventually all of these things put together took a toll on my mental health.
Being away from the city allowed me to clear my mind, remind myself of my purpose and also enjoy that "no notifications life".
Enough about me though.
The secenery in Mpumalanga cannot be described, but at the same time after a visit to the Kruger National Park and God's Window I realised two things.
Firstly , us as South Africans take spaces such as the above mentioned for granted and I myself am guilty of this . I overheard a young man tell his mom that he expected God's Window to be more spectacular, seconds later and American couple came down and the female was overflowing with emotions as she just stood there looking out to what seems like nothing extraordinary to us South African's. In that moment I appreciated our trees, our landscapes, our land more than before.
On the other hand, another issue which was brought to light
was water scarcity.
I will be honest in saying that although I was aware of drought , I never took water scarcity seriously until they switched the water off in my area and even then I remained oblivious because seeing is believing right??
Well, ever since I saw how dry many areas were, the prints of rivers which are now without water I have become more cautious than ever when it comes to water usage in every way possible. (I have some interesting ways to save water coming up in my next post and it's cost effective in soooo many ways)
Anyway, I'm glad I got to be in touch with nature and myself for 3 days and take a break from the city , while driving my mom insane trying to get her to stop so that I could just capture the animals perfectly #fearless! I am also adopting Mpumalanga as I left my heart there, I'm sorry Joburg but it's not me it's you.
Love and Light.
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