What Australia Is

One winter day in Australia, sitting over a lunch of kangaroo and vegetables at the Melbourne club, I received some of the best advice I can remember. One very experienced companion asked an even more experienced parliament member what he would say to a young, bright, motivated person starting off in his career. "Write down feelings and emotions as they happen," he said. "Four decades later, you will remember all the places you went, but you tend to forget the things you were thinking at the time." So here is born this blog, and what comes next I dare not say.

This piece of writing -- the first introductory piece -- is much overdue. I wrote for a long time on a train from the Southern Coast of Australia in Adelaide to the Northern Coast in Darwin about what the country, and my first international move, meant to me. That piece was always incomplete. There is this overwhelming feeling as writers that we have to nail everything and be perfect, but this is of course unrealistic. Some things take time to settle in, and an attempt, or leap of faith, is always worth the risk.

Travel is full of buzz words and I do attempt to avoid them. People say they change and grow, and while this is probably true, no one really knows how or to what extent. Best then to just cover my thoughts and memories on a quiet day back in the states to see what stuck.

The Southern Cross

While today is has evolved into a rather overdone tattoo on a stereotypical Aussie, the Southern Cross in its constellational form was one of the biggest symbols to me of the distance I covered and the radically different life I led. I will never forget the dark cold runs I had in the early mornings, looking up through winter clouds, catching a glimpse of those five stars you cannot see in the northern hemisphere. On a 16 hour plane ride you have no concept of distance but through a small airplane window. When the entire orientation of the stars change, you cant help but feel connected and mesmerized by how large our planet is.

Marsupials

These creatures seem to symbolize the entire continent for me, from the intentional encounters to those unexpected. I will always remember that baby kangaroo, scared by the noise of a nearby bird, who scrambled into his mothers pouch for safety. Forging that connection with our animal roots is a delightful way to encounter a new place.

The 12 Apostles

There is something magical about this that speaks for itself. The wear and tear of thousands of years of ocean cutting away at coastline gives you these peculiar rock formations, which someday in the near future will no longer exist. Until then we can still marvel at its beauty.

Fitzroy Island

Fitzroy Island lies about 45 minutes off the coast of Australia, en route to the Great Barrier Reef. During my day there, I hiked barefoot through a rainy mist to the summit of the island. Looking back, you see mainland Australia. Looking out, through the rain and low lying clouds, you see one of the seven wonders of the natural world. As a bonus, I saw two humpback whales making a thousand mile migration. I could not help but feel the connection.

The Great Barrier Reef

90 minutes off the coast of Cairns, you see this hovering just below the waves. They had to remind all the divers not to swim too close as the current would take you right into the coral. One did not listen well, and ended up red with blood and layered in bandages. You can see why it was a complete hazard to ships 200 years ago with only stars for navigation. The entire feral pig population in Australia is due to one such wreck, as another example of humankind's generation gifts to the natural world.

Otway Ranges

Not what most would envision as Australian landscape: lush farmland for cattle; dormant volcanoes with crater lakes; small mountains layered in mist. While only a small portion of the climate relative to the rest of the country, it is one worth remembering.

Outback

The start of a more than 3000 km journey through the heart of the country. One of the biggest sunrises I have ever seen in a sea of red. The Aborigines -- the ultimate survivalists in their time -- were among the only people on Earth who could virtually live without water.

Melbourne

Memories of cafes, bars, suburbs, trams, trains, footy, runs, adventures, etc., will always be associated with home. Something still gets me about that skyline; it is so big and bright and full of life. I would see it from all angles and directions before I left, but none better than the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower.

Though what is a place without its people. The generosity shown across the spectrum will be forever remembered, from those who helped get me there to those who provided shelter, a beer, an income, and an experience. All showed up unexpected along the way. Someday I hope to repay these gifts, but mostly I hope to continue growing and changing in every way travel is supposed to grow you and change you by the time you arrive back where it all began. 

"Yet we think that if railfences are pulled down, and stone-walls piled up on our farms, bounds are henceforth set and our fates decided... the universe is wider than our views of it."
-Thoreau