Your Journey Has Just Begun

Each week I take a look at The Expeditioner ... an online travel magazine run by Matt Stabile.  The site is amazing and I can't recommend it enough ... Matt's a genius at knowing what kind of content is King.

When I was on the site last week I saw a travel video that is actually a commercial for Grand Trunk Hammocks.  But the amazing thing about the video is that you only see 3 hammocks, and incredible scenery the rest of the 3 minute video.  As Matt writes, "... when’s the last time you saw a commercial about travel that was this inspirational and well done? It’s as if Apple decided to loan out its marketing department for the day to hawk something other than portable electronics."

Created by Texas-based production company ultralite films, this video features sweeping shots of the American West, a gargled-with-dirt voiceover reminiscent of Sam Shepard’s work on The Big Lebowski and enough beautiful slow-motion nature shots to make even the most hardened city dweller want to escape the city pronto.

Here is some of the text ... beautifully written to match the beautiful video:

"People have a love affair with adventure.  And it drives us to step outside the ordinary.  Some of us feel in our shoes, what we all hear in our souls.  It propels us to tap into our curiosity and seek out new horizons.  Whether it's the lure of the unknown and unseen or the charm of our favorite local getaway, the need to travel beckons us with the promise of balmy nights and strange places ... the conquest of paths untrodden and the chance to navigate down streams of culture that become tributaries in the great river of humanity.

But the real magic of the journey is more than the exhilaration of crossed borders. It's the empowerment within the experiences that become part of our being.  It becomes old stamps and weathered passports, campfires, sunsets, deserts and unseen oceans.

Sometimes we travel for the solitude of the experience, the quiet of the mountains, the stillness of the mind and stars.  And sometimes it's for the sheer thrill of the story. Yet sometimes more, it's for the company of new friends that live a world away but share the same dreams and aspirations.

The romance of the traveler is not the wild places of the world.  It's in the wilderness of spirit. It makes no difference where it takes you.  The importance lies in the road you took to get there, explore the trails you never thought possible and live where you are in this moment, place and time.  Because it's time to rejoice, as your journey has just begun."

For more great travel videos like these, visit The Expeditioner's Travel Video group at Vimeo.