Hotelroom - audio piece - Hotel of Darkness

Hotel of Darkness – to be spoken on route to room

He was the only man of us who still followed the sea. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer too, while most seamen lead, if one may express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of a stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them – the ship ; and so is their country – the sea. One ship is very much like another and the sea is always the same.

Now when I was small, I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America or Africa or Australia and lose myself in all of the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth …  but there was one yet – the biggest the most blank – that I was hankering after.

And this also has been one of the dark places on earth ...

Extracts from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.