Let me tell you about a family who wanted to experience Cape Town’s magic but got more than they bargained for. I need to justify before I get to the story.
Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone. Neale Donald Walsch
Credit NationalGeographicWell.
That’s for you to decide but at least we travel to experience alternatives to our boring routine (generalised for effect ?).
The civilized guests, the wild baboon family; when magical Cape Town was just too much.
I remember Elmarie welcoming a foreign family (embassy dude or something similar stationed in a high rise in Johannesburg) at this beautiful beachside villa bordering the fenced nature reserve with docile wild animals.
By docile I mean not those who will eat you. But it may be a large ostrich chasing you while cycling the reserve or the surprise baboon family visit.
As Elmarie and the guests arrived “Big Baboon” and extended family, joyfully, arrived as well.
A sight.
Jumping, swinging and pretty jolly lot.
But not attractive – less so for the not-initiated. These baboons are tourist stoppers. Intriguingly familiar I suppose. Well, familiarity does not mean we have to love, even, all our own family members.
The ignorant baboon-family passed, got nothing and quickly moved on. As they moved out of the area, across the road, the educated mother and father repacked the car while the kids ran to the house with their stuff. Disappointed they returned. Two families. Gone. A dust cloud as they travelled somewhere safe in a high rise central Cape Town hotel. Boring. While the oblivious baboons, on top of the mountain, were bragging about their achievements.
Moral of the story?
I am not suggesting that you hit the red when going out of your comfort zone but what is an experience all about? A memory?
Is it just to duplicate what you are already familiar with?
You tell me…..
