7 July

More reflections on travel. I’m aware by the way that travel is a passion for many, so this is a fraught topic. But I put these reflections here to give more context to my criticism of it. You can’t climb Uluṟu now. Banning it was contentious. Most simply, it’s not true that we have a right to visit any place we like. People have no right to barge into your home to view how you live. All places are homes, even if not for humans. Uluru the same. But also anywhere else in the world. All the places we visit are somebody’s or something’s home. Tourism is what we call travel when other people do it. We think *our* travel isn’t tourism. But it all is, sorry. There is no ‘authentic’ travel. You are always, in every instance, barging into a home. Often uninvited. It’s why we build tourist zones, to try to shield us from travellers.