go! Platteland

All roads lead to new ideas

It was just before sunrise when I drove south out of Cody in the state of Wyoming in the US. I had slept badly–over many weeks–because I was not at peace with myself and felt lost spiritually after a big crisis in my life.

The prairie landscape reminded me of Namibia, especially that arrow-straight climb northwards from the Gariep en route to Grünau, where you will only encounter tumbleweeds and, here and there, a solitary springbok. In Wyoming, however, it was sagebrush and a solitary pronghorn.

There is something astral about travelling an unknown long road on your own: the cabin is like a cocoon around you, the landscape abstract.

A sign at a turn-off caught my eye: “Thermopolis–Hidden Paradise”. I turned off.

Halfway through a desolate valley, the road like a plumb line with its vanishing

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