travel writing

In addition to Freya Stark, we need to consider travel writer Pico Iyer. Some of my favourite quotes about travel come from Pico.

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to
open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will
accommodate.”

So true. Something magical happens when I travel, something about realising my place in a world so much larger than my own backyard. I was recently talking to a year 12 student who told me he has absolutely zero desire to travel. He's not interested in the world, he is perfectly content with what he has here. What is it that makes some of us feel this desire? Others the opposite? And some lulling in the middle somewhere?

I am sure there is research out there somewhere.