There may not always be an answer

What does a leopard have to do with stories of the central Mediterranean?

One would expect Hemingway to be mentioned for his islands in the Gulf Stream, his Pilar’s Caribbean travels or his events in Italy.

I have always been struck by the incipit of  The Snows of Kilimagiaro, where the writer tells that at the summit of Africa’s highest mountain lies on one side the carcass of a leopard.  A savannah feline, not of high ground, certainly not of the mountains.

“No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude“.

One does not necessarily have to explain what one is looking for in traveling, what drives us to do it, what we are missing, what δαίμων is behind it.

Meanwhile, let us go, let us sail, let us land, let us dive, let us climb, let us scan.

Then, an answer may be given to us.