For two long we have been estranged from essential nomadic life. Humans
aren't made to sit in front of computer screens or travel by aeroplane;
nature intended something different for us. Walking great distances has
never been extreme behaviour to me. It has forever helped me regain my
equilibrium, and I would always rather do the existentially important
things in my life on foot. If you want to propose marriage to your
girlfriend and you live in England and she is in Sicily, do the decent
thing and walk down there. Travelling by car or aeroplane wouldn't be
right at such a moment. Making a journey like that on foot has nothing to do with being a tourist; you won't find many of them carrying
binoculars, a canteen, a compass and a penknife but no
camera on their travels. In fact, the dignity and identity of cultures
around the world are being stripped to the bone by tourism. I have a
dictum that connected me instantly with Bruce Chatwin: "Tourism is sin
and travel by foot is virtue."
Werner Herzog, A Guide for the Perplexed, Conversations with Paul Cronin, p254 (Faber & Faber 2014)
More on traveling on foot [link to g-book]
