Race Across the World is household viewing for us. The BBC series flings us to fascinating faraway places we’ll never reach.
We gradually get to know the travelling pairs as they open up their lives – a mother and son, old friends, estranged siblings hoping to reconnect. Plus there’s the edge of competition, the pairs sprinting backpack-burdened to each checkpoint. (The sprinting is a contractual obligation for the cameras, I
imagine!)
July – travel time. The evocative smell of sun cream and salt. Of car fumes in the motorway jam. Of freedom and escape. Memories… of beautiful coasts and mountains, of new experiences, of kids’ squabbles in the back of the car, of a beach day skirting tragedy when cut off by the tide.
If we’re not going anywhere this summer ourselves, the thunder of the A30 reminds us that others are. We travel to switch off: much needed rest, downtime far from life’s local stresses. Or we travel to explore: to expand our local horizons, be lifted by different worlds.
Some super-rich strangely seem to see this planet as insufficient, blasting off into space tourism. Somehow the simplest pleasures – a scrumptious ice cream on a splendid Devon beach – can surely be equally satisfying. I’m with Bill Gates, whose travel has led him to channel his vast wealth for the
benefit of the people he’s encountered.
How does travel change us? The BBC’s Pilgrimage series adopts a slower pace than Race Across the World. Over the course of a long-distance walk, the celebrities from different faith backgrounds prove bravely willing to reflect together on their lives and be open to new spiritual perspectives.
God seems to be up for doing the hard miles to walk with them too. May He walk/drive/fly/flop with us as well on any summer travels. Whether we’re racing or plodding, off to new or familiar pastures, may they enrich body, mind and soul. And I’m sure we’ll cope being confined to good ol’ Planet Earth.
Rev David Carrington.
