Category Archives: a trail of breadcrumbs

Reaching Borneo

‘A Trail of Breadcrumbs’ continued from Bali to Borneo, where I spent a little too long in Kota Kinabalu before exploring Northern Sabah. This was dominated by a tour of wildlife in rescue centres, albeit impressive organisations, it was a saddening fact that these were necessary. This was only emphasised by the roads being almost entirely lined by palm oil plantations and tour guides emphasising their value to the local economy. Tourism and palm oil are two of the biggest industries in this part of the world, it must be a delicate balance in PR.

There was the chance, however, to follow rivers and explore rainforest, to listen to the orchestra within and to see nature in the wild, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, snakes, elephants. All truly awesome experiences.

The highlight was of course to reach the Gormantong caves that Annie didn’t manage to (she was eventually persuaded she wouldn’t be able to access them). Alas a breadcrumb wasn’t left here, but one did find a home (albeit temporarily) on the coastline of one of the islands not far from Kota Kinabalu and where I had dived the previous week. This was a relaxing, calming pause in the fast paced itinerary and one worthy of marking.

A Trail of Breadcrumbs reaches Borneo, Louise Kenward (2014)

Bali & breadcrumbs.

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Bali, and Nusa Lembongan particularly, remains a very special place filled with incredible memories. As such, several crochet pebbles were left here along my ‘Trail of Breadcrumbs’. Learning to dive I discovered a new country and a whole new world. Overcoming fears and seasickness, living on the beachfront and spending time watching seaweed farmers and exploring mangroves, this was how I started 2014.

Nusa Lembongan, Bali (Louise Kenward, 2014)

‘Breadcrumb’ replaced in wall of coral pebbles washed up from the sea. Louise Kenward, 2014.

A volcanic island, there were few pebbles. Sand beaches were scattered with lava and coral pebbles washed up from the sea. The washed up corals and the volcanoes on the horizon, a reminder of the fragility of the environment.

View for pebble breadcrumb. Nusa Lembongan, Bali (Louise Kenward, 2014)

Java

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A speedy placement of a pebble on my ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ was made in Java. Another train station, but quite a busy one, so there was no hanging about deliberating over where it was best left. Hence little time to document its new home and some hurriedly taken photos.

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Thailand, elephants and a hill tribe.

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Time in Northern Thailand, with the Karen hill tribe was such a special part of my journey. I wrote about it at the time here and here but return to it now as part of the ‘trail of breadcrumbs’.

I had planned a week in Thailand to draw breath after a fast paced journey from the UK, overland by train. In just over 2 months I had already travelled many thousands of miles. This was ‘free time’ before heading south towards Malaysia. Meeting friends in Hong Kong it was suggested that when in Thailand I should visit elephants and hill tribes. With a good deal of research I came across Lek, a wonderful woman who does many brave and generous things to rescue elephants and campaigns for animal welfare. Signing up for the ‘Journey to Freedom‘ project I had no idea what to expect. It was a truly unique and incredible experience. I shan’t retell my story again, as tempting as it is to reminisce. Instead I include it as the next ‘breadcrumb’ and the first time I gave my pebbles to people.

Both were women in the hill tribe, one was the ‘mother’ of the group and the other a woman who could have been missed completely. She appeared on my first night, sat next to me at the camp fire and exchanged glances and smiles. A kind of contact hard to describe and happens most significantly when there aren’t words. Through the week she was almost ghostlike, drifting in and out of the shadows, but always close by.

I took some photos and had them printed to send back from Chiang Mai with the pebbles, hoping they would make some sense.

Yangshuo

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A trail of breadcrumbs reaches southern China and is set alongside the river in shadow of the impressive pillars of limestone in a most surreal landscape of Yangshuo, Guilin.

Yangshuo, China (Louise Kenward, 2013)

The Wall (the Great one)

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There are many great places I have visited, few are bold enough to describe themselves as such, but ‘the wall’ is one of them (and rightly so). The lakes and barrier reef others. Typing ‘the great’ into a search engine guesses the rest of the search as ‘Gatsby’ ‘Depression’ ‘Escape’ or ‘British Bake Off’! All very grounding cultural references. The Great Wall of China was a significant landmark to reach, not least because it was a true marker of the distance travelled. Crossing Russia and Mongolia marked a significant crossing from anything I had encountered before. I had truly left my known world behind, and it would not look the same again.

I needed to mark this significant place in the only way I could, I left a pebble covered in crochet. Leaving one of the ‘breadcrumbs’ at The Great Wall felt like it could be an easy decision. Of course, any landmark as big as this ‘needed’ to be marked. But I didn’t want it to work in that way, those landmarks are ‘marked’ well enough already. I didn’t want my trail of breadcrumbs to be left in all the obvious places, they couldn’t fight with such icons. I wanted them to be quiet pieces that were seemingly random, left in hidden, unsuspecting places. And, despite its size, the accessible parts of the wall are scrutinised routinely, steps swept, litter picked and few secret spots remain. I ventured to find one though, and am not under too much illusion that it will have inhabited its little space for very long before discovered and discarded.

The Great Wall of China, Louise Kenward (2013)

Trail of Breadcrumbs at Great Wall, Louise Kenward (2013)

View for breadcrumb from wall, Louise Kenward (2013)