The Nomad | ‘Travel has given me a voice and a purpose in life’, says adventurer Ryan Pyle
- From a remote, mountaintop village in China’s Anhui province, the Canadian TV host and author reflects on the nature of travel
With its rise, the sun slowly warms Mu Li Hong village and the surrounding mountains. The morning clouds lift and the mist remaining from the cold, damp night is burned off. Men and women toss empty bamboo baskets over their backs and head down to tend to their fields. Roosters dart between the buildings, making sure everyone hears their calls. A toddler runs ahead of his mother along the path leading across the village. It is that exquisite moment between the calm and chaos, just minutes before the village springs fully into life.
In southern Anhui province, from the mountaintop communities – or cloud villages – the horizon bursts with bamboo forests and tea plantations. My guest house is situated on a hill a little above the village, so I can look down, seated on a wooden stool that feels as if it may at any moment snap into 100 pieces, and watch people going about their morning rituals in the courtyards of their homes. In a reflective mood, I sip on steaming mountain green tea, a high-altitude version that is harvested in these hills.
A sense of peace washes over me, an unexplained familiarity. As the hustle of a day of filming is about to take hold, this moment, these mornings, as a village awakes, are when I reflect on my path.
We have chosen to film Mu Li Hong (for a yet-to-be-aired television programme) because of its setting. There are dozens of villages like this one in this region, but Mu Li Hong is deemed to be special – perched quite beautifully, it’s the most precariously located of the villages – so it is now on the tourist map. Residents are making an effort to spruce it up and prepare for the high season, which is just a few months away.
As I watch, an elderly woman prepares a bowl of warm water in an open courtyard, mixing in medicine for her husband, who appears to have lost many of his motor skills. She moves the bowl up to his mouth and helps him drink. Mountain-village life has many unique challenges and people must play several roles within their community in order for all to survive. The moment is humbling.