THE SOUND OF SILENCE
I always wondered what Simon and Garfunkel meant when they sang about the sound of silence. After all, how could there be silence if there were sound? I think I have it figured out.
Here, we are so far away from "civilization". There are no roads to the camps so no sounds of traffic, there are no radios or televisions so no music blaring, everyone talks in hushed voices so as not to disturb the animals. It is so silent compared with the cacophony that we all experience every day as background noise.
Here, you experience the sounds of the animal footsteps as they walk through the grass, it is so quiet you can hear them chewing their food. Except for the occasional grunt of the hippo, roar of the lion, trumpeting of the elephant, or bark of a wild dog or jackal, the animals are mostly silent. The noisiest thing is the sound of the frogs at night or the buzz of a insect or the calls of some raucous birds during the day. To me, all these are the sounds of silence. I think I will miss this the most when we leave Africa.
I always wondered what Simon and Garfunkel meant when they sang about the sound of silence. After all, how could there be silence if there were sound? I think I have it figured out.
Here, we are so far away from "civilization". There are no roads to the camps so no sounds of traffic, there are no radios or televisions so no music blaring, everyone talks in hushed voices so as not to disturb the animals. It is so silent compared with the cacophony that we all experience every day as background noise.
Here, you experience the sounds of the animal footsteps as they walk through the grass, it is so quiet you can hear them chewing their food. Except for the occasional grunt of the hippo, roar of the lion, trumpeting of the elephant, or bark of a wild dog or jackal, the animals are mostly silent. The noisiest thing is the sound of the frogs at night or the buzz of a insect or the calls of some raucous birds during the day. To me, all these are the sounds of silence. I think I will miss this the most when we leave Africa.
Comments
Post a Comment