It can be a fascinating thing, stepping out of your natural environment at the Adventure Travel Show. You start talking about somewhere familiar, and before you know it, the path has led you to another world.
Take Stefan Szepesi. We connected over his Australian experiences (he loved diving the Great Barrier Reef). But between 2006 and 2012, Stefan’s travels were in an altogether more fractious environment. He was an economist living in Jerusalem, working for the European Union and the Middle East Quartet, and spending his spare time walking.
In the footsteps of Abraham
In 2012, he published Walking Palestine; 25 Journeys into the West Bank, and traded conventional diplomacy for diplomacy on foot at the Abraham Path Initiative. It’s a project to create a cultural walking route in the footsteps of Abraham, the legendary ancestor of over half of humanity, who is known for his hospitality and kindness toward strangers. We asked Stefan where the inspiration for the project came from.
“The inspiration to start walking across areas that are perceived to be unsafe and unwelcome came from encounters with the people who live there. If you meet people in the Middle East you realise that hospitality is a value so deeply rooted that people relish any moment to display it to strangers. The best way to find out is through walking, the slowest, oldest and most vulnerable means of travel.”
Beauty and imperfection
It was a journey of extremes, with heartwarming hospitality (Stefan was spontaneously invited in for tea, coffee, lunches and dinners throughout the journey) thrown into sharp relief by the scars that are so much a feature of the landscape.
“The region is stunningly beautiful,” he says, “but the symbols of division and conflict are there and one cannot walk around them. I think it is important that in travel, especially in slow travel like walking, we engage with the real world as it is, in all its beauty and imperfection. Walking is a way to bear witness to the state of the world. ‘Walk, meet and learn’ is a great motto to go by.”
Meet yourself
What has Stefan’s journey taught him? Probably far too much to wrap up in a simple soundbite, but he does say this: “You should postpone judging yourself and others. Instead, listen. It is ok not to box people and episodes into boxes of good or bad, or at least not to do it instantly. I think it is an essential attitude in travel that allows you to meet yourself and others.”
Days after our meeting Stefan was setting out to walk the Abraham Path across the South Sinai Desert (you can find more about it here: www.abrahampath.org)
Which rather led on to our other favourite topic of conversation: would he be using tech to help him on his journey.
“I think [technology] should be valued on its ability to make an adventure happen that otherwise would not be possible. Technology can come between yourself and a real adventure: that of meeting other people.”
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