Silence Is Golden

The world is loud and busy and distracting, and talking is overrated. To reconnect with his inner voice, Erns Grundling did a hike in the Eastern Cape and he didn’t say a word for two days.

My good friend JP, a psychologist from Grahamstown, called me one night. “A colleague and I have decided to do the Alexandria Trail again. We’ll be a group of five. Do you want to join us? But…”

Before he could finish his sentence, I agreed. The two-day, 36 km Alexandria Hiking Trail in the Woody Cape section of Addo Elephant National Park is a favourite of mine. I’ve done it before and I’m always keen to do it again.

However, JP was insistent that I understand what I was getting myself into. “But…” he began again. “It will be a silent hike.”

That’s right. The plan was to hike for two days without saying a word. Not to ourselves or anyone else. In fact, all communication would be off-limits, even eye contact. The idea was to engender a sense of mindfulness while we walked so we could pay more attention to our immediate surroundings.

It was an opportunity to spend some quiet time with myself on the trail, while in the company of others. Hey, why not?

The night before the start of the hike, we chatted around the campfire for old times’ sake: JP, Scott, Mark, Heinrich and I. Some philosophical questions were raised: Does an event have more meaning if you experience it on your own, or when you share it with someone else? Isn’t the point of a hike to spend time with friends, or is there also value in doing it together but in silence? More importantly: If you twist your ankle or suffer a snake bite, do you still have to keep quiet?