On The Road

English & Experiences of Travel

English Studies 25 Hour Unit

Module descriptionThrough study of the module On the Road – English and the Experience of Travel students will develop understanding of, and further practical proficiency in, the ways English is used by travel journalists, filmmakers and in the travel industry. Students will continue to develop knowledge and skills in, and understanding of, how to use English accurately, effectively and appropriately for practical purposes associated with travel. Their language experiences in this module will extend their capacities to make perceptive judgements about travel advertisements, and to locate and comprehend government advice about travel in various overseas countries. They will continue to improve their skills in the use of subject-specific language in related subject areas across the curriculum, such as studies of different cultures and societies, global issues and tourism.

Students will also have the opportunity to experience, engage with and critique literary texts that communicate, through an imaginative use of language, the profound effects that travel and journeying can have on human lives, and appreciate how literature can teach us about distant and different places and cultures. Texts may include longer works such as novels, autobiographies, films, anthologies, television series and plays. In addition, by engaging with these texts, students will extend their skills in comprehending and responding to texts, and will develop their abilities to use language expressively and imaginatively

Section I: CourseworkIntroduction to Unit

When you hear the phrase, ‘On the road’, what do you think of? Draw an image which you believe illustrates this phrase.

To introduce the unit, students will consider and discuss their own idea of travel – considering purpose and effect.

1. What is travel?2. Why do we travel?3. Where do people go?4. What are the differences between ‘journeys’ and

‘travel’?5. Is ‘travelling’ different to ‘tourism’?6. Does travel have to be physical?

1 Lesson

Life as a JourneyRobert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’ (1920).

Students work through the text, examining each stanza to ask the question: what is this stanza about?

Clues given to class that the roads are a metaphor for choices in our lives.

Teacher to guide students through the text and hold a discussion around students’ own futures, and the decisions they might need to make. Themes to be discussed to include fate/destiny, regrets, importance of decisions, the future etc.

Make sure students understand how this text fits in to the ‘On the Road’ unit. That they might imagine life as a journey. This may help illustrate the difference between travel and journeying.

1 Lesson – limited technique analysis.

2 Lesson – stronger technique analysis.

Negative Experiences of TravelHenry Lawson’s ‘In A Dry Season’.

As a class, Henry Lawson’s short story will be read. Teacher will then lead a discussion: What did Lawson think of his train trip? What techniques did he use to communicate this? Was he effective in communicating his dislike of the trip/bush location?

Tone, limited detail, metaphors, stereotypes, understatement, anti-climax etc.

Students will write their own text detailing a travel experience from their past which was enjoyable. Students should use similar techniques to Lawson in creating their composition.

Students should share their stories with the class. If a student doesn’t have a bad travel experience, they can complete this task by producing a creative composition.

2 Lessons

Positive Experiences of TravelSharing Stories

Students will write notes about a positive travel experience they’ve had, and will use these notes as a guide to speaking to the class about their trip. This informal speech should last three to four minutes.

These speeches will lead in to a listening task, so students should note that they will need to pay attention.

Once all students have finished speaking, they will be given the handout: The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes of All Time. After reviewing this handout with the teacher, they will devise their own quote which would sum up their own story.

These could be written down and given to teacher to read out, with the class making guesses as to which quotation belongs to which story students previously shared.

2 Lessons

Travel Writing‘Chitimba’ By Judy Tierney

As a class the text is read, with teacher clarifying aspects of the composer’s composition.

2 Lessons

Analysis of travel writing1. How does the author attempt to get the reader’s

attention? Do you think this method is effective? Why or why not?

2. What kind of background information does the author give? Why is it necessary? Is there anything that you feel the author left out?

3. Does the author describe the setting? What kinds of details does he or she give? Why? Is there anything you wish the author had mentioned but didn’t?

4. Does the author describe any people? What kinds of details does he or she give about the people? Compare details about people with the way the author describes the location. What similar elements are provided? What different elements?

5. Does the author use any dialogue? If so, what does dialogue add to the writing? If not, where could the author make the story livelier?

6. What is the main event in the story? How do you know?

7. Are there any images or photos in the article? What do they add to the reading experience?

Having completed a guided analysis of the text, students will find their own travel guide online and independently work through the above questions.

To conclude the task, students will visit http://www.molvania.com/molvania/ - this is a mock travel guide. Students will explore this place and teacher will see how long it takes for them to recognise Molvania is not a real place.

Design a Travel Brochure

Students will design a travel brochure highlighting chosen cities from around the world. They will present this brochure to the class. To give students context for this task, they will know that they will be designing and budgeting a world trip for their assessment. This travel brochure task will give classmates an insight into places around the world that they might visit, the events and attractions of the city and costs involving in getting to the location and staying there.

To begin task, teacher to project a travel brochure on the smart board for the class to explore, asking the question: What does the brochure include?

This task could also be completed by viewing physical

4 Lessons

brochures from a travel agency.

Hotels + costs Flights + costs Attractions + costs Events + best time to visit for events Maps

Students will need to include the above information in their brochure, and convert all costs to Australian dollars.www.xe.com will provide accurate conversion.

In presenting their brochure to the class, it may become a persuasive task and students might vote on the location that they’ve been most persuaded to visit.

As students present, opportunities might come up to discuss issues which could be relevant for student assessments:

- What kind/cost of accommodation will allow them to meet their budget?

- Will they be able to survive with only carry-on luggage?

Postcard Task

Students will design a postcode from the location which they just presented on. They will need to include a 150-200 word message which they will send to a loved one back home.

1 Lesson

Section II: AssessmentStudents will need to design an around-the-world holiday which they could embark on in their own gap year. They will be allowed a budget of $12,000 which will need to cover all their costs. Students’ route must allow them to visit at least four countries and their trip must last for 28 days. Students will need to complete an itinerary for each day which breaks down all their costs.

A meals allowance of $40 per day should be allocated, unless a dining experience is included in the day, or hotel provides breakfast. This amount can be applied pro-rata.

All items will need to be individually itemised in an excel spreadsheet. Students will learn basic excel commands,=SUM(A1:A5) =SUM(12000-F31)

7-8 LessonsComplete at home.

Around-The-World on

$12,000 AUD You’ve just finished school and your eccentric uncle twice removed has given you the opportunity to travel around the world before you jump in to your TAFE course, start your apprenticeship or begin your career. He has, however, made a number of stipulations on the way you spend your cash:

You must visit at least four different countries.You must visit at least one non-English speaking country.You must engage with local culture, events and activities. You cannot engage in any activity, illegal or otherwise, to increase your funds.You must complete a full budget and itinerary of your journey before you begin. A daily overview must be completed for each day of your trip, including an itemised budget.An excel spreadsheet containing your budget must be completed for each day of your trip.You need to consider the pre-departure costs of your trip and budget these in to your expenses.As part of your budget, you will need to allocate $40 per day for meals.

A template for each daily itinerary and your excel budget has been provided for you to complete.

Daily Budget: Date, Day 14 – Location

Overview of the day:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Accommodation Local Currency Conversion£ GBP $ AUD

Airfares Local Currency ConversionLocation A to B or N/A £ GBP $ AUD

Item Local Currency ConversionMeals Budget $ 40.00

Daily Total $-

Around-The-World on $12,000 AUDName:

HSC Outcomes 0-1 2-5 6-8 9-10

H1.4 produces a range of texts that demonstrate forms knowledge, understanding and skills gained inconveying meaning through language and other techniques.

Student has not met the outcomes at a 2-5 level as:

They have engaged with the task at an unsatisfactory standard.Student has not submitted their work.Student has submitted their work late.Student has not made a serious attempt at the task.

Student has not met the outcomes at a 6-8 level as:

They have completed the daily itinerary to an unsatisfactory standard.They have not considered the stipulations of the task.Excel spreadsheet is largely incomplete or inaccurate.Large sections of the task have not been completed.

Student has not met the outcomes at a 9-10 level as:

They have not completed each daily itinerary to a satisfactory standard.They have not met all the stipulations of the task.Student has gone over budget.Student has not included all pre-departure costs.Student has not been thorough in their daily planning.Excel spreadsheet is incomplete.

Student has produced a complete itinerary which includes itemised costs of all expenses.

Student has met all stipulations of the task.

Student has completed an accurate spreadsheet of all costs involved in budgeting their trip.

H2.1 comprehends sustained written, spoken and multi-modal texts at an appropriate level multi-modal texts at an appropriate level to enrich to enrich their personal lives and to their personal lives and to provide a sound basis provide a sound basis for current and future education, careers and citizenship.

H2.3 demonstrates skills in using the language conventions of a variety of textual forms, including literary texts, informative texts and texts for vocational contexts.

H4.2 works effectively, both as an individual and within a group, to research, select, organise andcommunicate information and ideas related to a variety of topics.

Student has worked poorly to complete their task. They displayed poor behaviour and consistently detracted from the positive learning environment in the room.

The task may be submitted incomplete where the student has not caught up on missed lessons at home or lunch.

Student has worked poorly in their attempt to complete the task. Student has been unfocused and at times was an obstacle to the learning of others.

Student has applied themselves to completing the task. At times, student may lost focus but did detract from the positive learning environment in the room.

Student has consistently applied themselves at a high standard across all time allocated to project work.

Student has contributed to a positive learning environment.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Title: In A Dry SeasonAuthor: Henry Lawson

Draw a wire fence and a few ragged gums, and add some scattered sheep running away from the train. Then you'll have the bush all along the New South Wales western line from Bathurst on.

The railway towns consist of a public house and a general store, with a square tank and a school-house on piles in the nearer distance. The tank stands at the end of the school and is not many times smaller than the building itself. It is safe to call the pub "The Railway Hotel," and the store "The Railway Stores," with an "s." A couple of patient, ungroomed hacks are probably standing outside the pub, while their masters are inside having a drink--several drinks. Also it's safe to draw a sundowner sitting listlessly on a bench on the veranda, reading the _Bulletin_. The Railway Stores seem to exist only in the shadow of the pub, and it is impossible to conceive either as being independent of the other. There is sometimes a small, oblong weather-board building--unpainted, and generally leaning in one of the eight possible directions, and perhaps with a twist in another--which, from its half-obliterated sign, seems to have started as a rival to the Railway Stores; but the shutters are up and the place empty.

The only town I saw that differed much from the above consisted of a box-bark humpy with a clay chimney, and a woman standing at the door throwing out the wash-up water.

By way of variety, the artist might make a water-colour sketch of a fettler's tent on the line, with a billy hanging over the fire in front, and three fettlers standing round filling their pipes.

Slop sac suits, red faces, and old-fashioned, flat-brimmed hats, with wire round the brims, begin to drop into the train on the other side of Bathurst; and here and there a hat with three inches of crape round the crown, which perhaps signifies death in the family at some remote date, and perhaps doesn't. Sometimes, I believe, it only means grease under the band. I notice that when a bushman puts crape round his hat he generally leaves it there till the hat wears out, or another friend dies. In the latter case, he buys a new piece of crape. This outward sign of bereavement usually has a jolly red face beneath it. Death is about the only cheerful thing in the bush.

We crossed the Macquarie--a narrow, muddy gutter with a dog swimming across, and three goats interested.

A little farther on we saw the first sundowner. He carried a Royal Alfred, and had a billy in one hand and a stick in the other. He was dressed in a tail-coat turned yellow, a print shirt, and a pair of moleskin trousers, with big square calico patches on the knees; and his old straw hat was covered with calico. Suddenly he slipped his swag, dropped his billy, and ran forward, boldly flourishing the stick. I thought that he was mad, and was about to attack the train, but he wasn't; he was only killing a snake. I didn't have time to see whether he cooked the snake or not--perhaps he only thought of Adam.

Somebody told me that the country was very dry on the other side of Nevertire. It is. I wouldn't like to sit down on it any where. The least horrible spot in the bush, in a dry season, is where the bush isn't--where it has been cleared away and a green crop is trying to grow. They talk of settling people

on the land! Better settle _in_ it. I'd rather settle on the water; at least, until some gigantic system of irrigation is perfected in the West.

Along about Byrock we saw the first shearers. They dress like the unemployed, but differ from that body in their looks of independence. They sat on trucks and wool-bales and the fence, watching the train, and hailed Bill, and Jim, and Tom, and asked how those individuals were getting on.

Here we came across soft felt hats with straps round the crowns, and full-bearded faces under them. Also a splendid-looking black tracker in a masher uniform and a pair of Wellington boots.

One or two square-cuts and stand-up collars struggle dismally through to the bitter end. Often a member of the unemployed starts cheerfully out, with a letter from the Government Labour Bureau in his pocket, and nothing else. He has an idea that the station where he has the job will be within easy walking distance of Bourke. Perhaps he thinks there'll be a cart or a buggy waiting for him. He travels for a night and day without a bite to eat, and, on arrival, he finds that the station is eighty or a hundred miles away. Then he has to explain matters to a publican and a coach-driver. God bless the publican and the coach-driver! God forgive our social system!

Native industry was represented at one place along the line by three tiles, a chimney-pot, and a length of piping on a slab.

Somebody said to me, "Yer wanter go out back, young man, if yer wanter see the country. Yer wanter get away from the line." I don't wanter; I've been there.

You could go to the brink of eternity so far as Australia is concerned and yet meet an animated mummy of a swagman who will talk of going "out back." Out upon the out-back fiend!

About Byrock we met the bush liar in all his glory. He was dressed like--like a bush larrikin. His name was Jim. He had been to a ball where some blank had "touched" his blanky overcoat. The overcoat had a cheque for ten "quid" in the pocket. He didn't seem to feel the loss much. "Wot's ten quid?" He'd been everywhere, including the Gulf country. He still had three or four sheds to go to. He had telegrams in his pocket from half a dozen squatters and supers offering him pens on any terms. He didn't give a blank whether he took them or no. He thought at first he had the telegrams on him but found that he had left them in the pocket of the overcoat aforesaid. He had learned butchering in a day. He was a bit of a scrapper himself and talked a lot about the ring. At the last station where he shore he gave the super the father of a hiding. The super was a big chap, about six-foot-three, and had knocked out Paddy Somebody in one round. He worked with a man who shore four hundred sheep in nine hours.

Here a quiet-looking bushman in a corner of the carriage grew restless, and presently he opened his mouth and took the liar down in about three minutes.

At 5.30 we saw a long line of camels moving out across the sunset. There's something snaky about camels. They remind me of turtles and goannas.

Somebody said, "Here's Bourke."

THE 50 MOST INSPIRING TRAVEL QUOTES OF ALL TIME

1. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

2. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

3. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

4. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

5. “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell

6. “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

7. “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb

8. “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes

9. “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

10. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

11. “Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.” – Aldous Huxley

12. “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson

13. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

14. “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

15. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

16″A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi

17. “When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – D. H. Lawrence

18. “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark

19. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

20. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

21. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

22. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru

23. “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

24. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

25. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost

27. “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

28. “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner

29. “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

30. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

31. “The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

32. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

33. “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain

34. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

35. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

36. “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli

37. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou

38. “Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.” – Elizabeth Drew

39. “Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe”……Anatole France

40. “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

41. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon

42. “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” – Lillian Smith

43. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley

44. “Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” – Freya Stark

45. “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

46. “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

47. “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G. K. Chesterton

48. “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

49. “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” – Carlo Goldoni

50. “Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

‘Chitimba’By Judy TierneyPaddy shuffled from the three-room wooden shack carrying two warm Carlsberg beers for Christine and me. We'd resisted his offer of a drink and a place to sit since we'd arrived, ' but we finally relented, collapsing in rickety chairs beneath the leafy umbrella of a mango tree in his front yard and tossing our backpacks on the dusty ground.

I longed for a cool bottle to press against my perspiring forehead, but with no electricity or ice. Paddy had no way to chill them. I pulled my dirty bandana from my shorts pocket and wiped my face.

When the bus had dropped us in front of Paddy's Brothers in Arms Rest house in Chitimba on Malawi's western shore an hour earlier, our mission was clear - to get a ride out of town as soon as possible. Chitimba was merely a transfer point, Paddy's rest-house the last-resort option for travellers unlucky enough to get stranded on their way to Livingstonia, the hill-top village known for its panoramic views, the country's highest waterfall, and its historic nineteenth-century mission. Paddy's place stood at the foot of the twenty-five-kilometre climb up the dirt road, accessible only to four-wheel-drive vehicles or ambitious hikers. Hitching -a ride appealed to our senses far more than the five- hour trek in Malawi's impenetrable heat and humidity. We'd also met an American woman earlier in our journey who had been robbed at gunpoint walking up with her teenaged porter.

'Two or three trucks go up a day,’ Paddy had told us when we arrived. 'One should be coming along to take you just now.'

His words implied a sense of immediacy, as if by living on the main route he was privy to some unwritten truck schedule, so we stationed ourselves by the road. We would later learn that the African expression 'just now' indicates some indistinct point in the future, which could actually be anytime between now and several days from now.

A rooster pecked his way through the leaves around our feet, piercing an unripe piece of fruit on the ground. He appeared to be the most active inhabitant in town. Across the lawn, at the edge of the road, eight Livingstonians also sat waiting for a ride. They waited in silence. Talking required too much effort in East Africa's intense October mid-afternoon conditions. Iwo of the men, wearing loose pants and worn T-shirts with American slogans - one said 'Baby on Board' with an arrow pointing down to the stomach, the other 'Beer, It Isn't Just for Breakfast Anymore' - leaned against a tree trunk and passed the time by staring ahead at the dusty path. The others, surrounded by cases of soda, baskets of live chickens, and various milk crates and striped plastic bags filled with items they had purchased in town, lay on the grass, seemingly apathetic about when the next vehicle would arrive to take them home to the top of the mountain.

I heard a motor in the distance and rushed towards the road to try to negotiate a ride from the driver. The locals sat and stared, and the oncoming truck sped past the turn-off. My watch said 2.30pm, and I wondered how many of the two to three trucks Paddy mentioned had already passed by on this particular day. I looked over at him and saw him staring at me from across the yard, looking amused. 'Poll, poli’ he said gently when I returned to the shade. Slowly, slowly. We'd heard the African mantra repeated over and over but Christine and I had not yet been able to embrace it, to put it into practice. It had been only a couple of months since we'd left our corporate jobs in New

York. Didn't Paddy understand that we had planned every detail of our ten-day journey through Malawi, and that according to our strict schedule, we were to arrive in Livingstonia by sundown?

A few hours later, as the sun sank behind the mountain. Paddy carried our backpacks into his guest room, a dark, cramped space with one window and a line of foam-mattressed beds. Christine and I slipped into swimsuits, grabbed our towels, shampoo and a bar of soap and crossed the street to the path 'leading to Lake Malawi. A smattering of straw huts stood behind the tall yellow grass lining the short trail to the beach.

In Lake Malawi's clear water I began to relax for the first time that day. For several minutes, two young mothers and their sons studied us from the beach, then shed their clothes and ran naked into the water. They splashed over to us, laughing and pointing to the bubbly lather dripping down our hair and arms.

'Do you think this is the first time they've seen soap?' Christine whispered. 'Or are they just laughing at how odd we are?'

She handed the bar to one of the women. One lathered up, then passed the soap to the next until all four were covered in suds. Through a series of charade-like gestures, we learned that Joyce and Tabu and their five-year-old sons, Benson and Cone, lived in the small village we had passed on our way to the lake. They followed us to the beach to dry off, and when we left them halfway down the path, the smallest boy was still clutching the bar of soar), Back at the rest house, Paddy's wife prepared dinner. Dressed in a bright, flowery sleeveless top, an earth-toned striped skirt, and maroon wool beret, she sat on a wood stump cooking rice in a small skillet over a fire on the ground. The entire contents of the kitchen lay scattered across the bare room - a few old pots and pans, a teakettle, assorted plates, spoons and forks, cups, and two plastic water bottles, recycled and now used for cooking oil. I thought about my kitchen at home, stocked with the latest and greatest Williams-Sonoma gadgets, hand-painted dishes perfectly coordinated with placemats and napkins, and the essential electronics, my microwave, blender and toaster. Yet everything she needed for her daily routine rested within arm's reach on the dirt floor. That evening, we feasted on a mouth-watering meal of rice, beans and fish fresh from Lake Malawi.

When it was time for bed, we asked Paddy if we could bring the foam mattresses onto the porch. With limited ventilation in the guest room, we knew we'd be more comfortable outside with the cool, night breeze, under the stars.

He hung a mosquito net, too small to stretch across both of us, from the porch ceiling. Christine and I huddled together under the net for protection against the ants, stick bugs and other creepy creatures crawling around on Paddy's porch. I anticipated a long, sleepless night, but I slept more soundly than I had since we left home.

We awoke at 4.30am to a chorus of roosters, dogs, birds and crying babies. It was almost light, and thirty minutes later, when we crawled out from beneath our canopy to watch the brilliant orange sun rise across a powdery blue sky over Lake Malawi, Chitimba was wide awake.

From the porch, we watched Paddy's wife sweep the leaves across the yard to reveal a clean dirt floor. Colourfully dressed ladies with babies saronged to their backs carried buckets of water on their heads from the lake for the day's cooking, cleaning and laundry. We mustered enough ambition to wander to the lake just in time for the local fish market, where fishermen who had been out all night sold skinny, silvery fish from canoes dug out of tree trunks.

We hurried back to Paddy's, sure that an early truck would pass by on its way to Livingstonia. Paddy greeted us and asked if we wanted pancakes for breakfast. In spite of myself, I was beginning to like this place.

The eight Livingstonians waiting for a lift the day before had resumed their horizontal positions on the edge of Paddy's lawn, their belongings spread around them. Paddy told us that they had slept at the homes of friends and relatives who lived nearby. While we wrote in our journals and watched for vehicles, they sat motionless, without conversation, books or other activities to entertain them. I tried to remember the last time I had sat still, doing nothing, for even five minutes. I'd carried the daily pressures of self-imposed commitments and obligations with me to a continent where rushing got you nowhere and nothing ran according to a schedule.

We tired of watching for trucks. Paddy told us later that several vehicles had passed by that day, but none had turned towards Livingstonia. Even if one had, Christine and I would not have been around to catch it.

By mid-morning, we escaped the sweltering heat for a swim in the lake. It was the first of many trips to the beach that day and many encounters with the Chitimba villagers. Two girls, Chris and Savako, wearing taffeta and lace bridesmaid dresses with broken zippers donated by American relief organisations, ran from their huts as we made our way down the trail. They skipped over, grasped our hands, and led us to the water, gazing at us the entire way, with their little brother following at our heels, Later we met Eton, a mischievous twelve-year-old with a contagious laugh, who loved splash fights and having Christine and I toss him back and forth in the water. And we wandered the beach, exploring abandoned canoes on the sand with a gang of younger boys, their bellies extended from malnutrition and bums exposed through worn-out shorts.

Heading back to Paddy's, we walked with a student who, although he was almost twenty, had not yet completed the eighth grade. 'Many times,' he told us, 'children have to work in the fields instead of going to school, so it takes them longer to finish.' He explained that with too few teachers, the schools have classes of sixty to 100 students. We promised to send books when we returned home so that he could practise reading.

Several of our new friends told us about a big football game that evening. The Chitimba team was going up to play Livingstonia. Around mid-afternoon, hordes of local fans gathered for the long pilgrimage up the hill. I secretly hoped that Christine would not suggest joining them.

Chanting and cheering for Chitimba, the crowd began the procession to Livingstonia. A bright blue, extended-bed Mazda truck overflowing with the town's players followed behind. Christine and I waved at them from the shade of the mango tree, sipping warm Carlsberg’s and pondering what Paddy's wife would cook for supper.

We decided we would leave the next morning, not for Livingstonia, but for a different place, and at sundown, we returned to the beach for our final visit. Villagers rested in the sand, bathed or washed clothes at the water’s edge. Christine took a picture of the mountains rising over the lake and another of several children playing near a dugout canoe.

Within seconds, a huge crowd gathered, each wanting their picture taken. We took individual photos, group photos and family photos. We snapped serious pictures and funny ones and kept snapping until we ran out of film. We wrote down everyone's address and assured them we would mail copies when we got home.

That night in bed on the porch, Christine and I heard singing in the distance. The voices moved closer in the dark, loud and harmonious, and we sat up listening until lights appeared from the mountain. Chitimba's team had won the football match, and the victory parade, singing celebratory songs, was on its way home.

The next morning, watching the town come to life, I wondered how Livingstonia's panoramic views could compare to the serenity and beauty of Chitimba at sunrise. Or how the mist from the Chechewe waterfalls could be more refreshing than bathing 'with the locals in Lake Malawi. Or how exploring the old mission buildings could be more stimulating than discovering simple pleasures through the eyes of Chitimba's villagers.

We told Paddy and his wife goodbye, and he assured us, 'The first bus should be coming along just now.' He was talking about the bus travelling south towards Mzuzu on the Ml. 'It comes by here six or eight times a day. Although today is Mother's Day, and sometimes the bus does not run on public holidays.'

We lugged our backpacks across the street and sat on the side of the road where the bus had dropped us off. For a third straight day, the eight Livingstonians waiting to go home emerged from the village and settled down among their piles of belongings.

We sat for two hours, swatting the flies that flocked to our damp skin. The bus never came.

Eventually a pick-up truck drove by, passing the Livingstonia turn-off; but stopping to pick up several locals standing a few yards down the road. Christine and I looked at each other, grabbed our backpacks and ran over to ask for a lift.

‘I’m not sure where we’re headed,’ I replied, as we jumped in the back. ‘We won’t know until we get there.’

Analysis of travel writing

1. How does the author attempt to get the reader’s attention? Do you think this method is effective? Why or why not?

2. What kind of background information does the author give? Why is it necessary? Is there anything that you feel the author left out?

3. Does the author describe the setting? What kinds of details does he or she give? Why? Is there anything you wish the author had mentioned but didn’t?

4. Does the author describe any people? What kinds of details does he or she give about the people? Compare details about people with the way the author describes the location. What similar elements are provided? What different elements?

5. Does the author use any dialogue? If so, what does dialogue add to the writing? If not, where could the author make the story livelier?

6. What is the main event in the story? How do you know?

7. Are there any images or photos in the article? What do they add to the reading experience?