There may be some of you who have had similar sentiments- the feeling of being in a big city with way more people than you are used to but they are all strangers to you. I worked really really hard to cultivate and curate the vast social and support network I have now; I went to parties where I only knew one person, got lost countless times finding people in bars I had never been to before, and reached out, invited myself to things and everything in between.
Yet, it has taken till this year for me to do what most visitors to Australia do- drive in a van for days and days across the outback. Our itinerary was from Byron Bay to Adelaide.
There were many moments on this trip that were eyerolling-gushy dream-like scenarios. Partly because it was a new romantic adventure shared with the wonderful man in my life, and partly because the scenery and the nature and weather were spot on-you rippa- for every leg of the journey.
Across 8 days and more than 2000 km, I got to stand in hot, sexy tropical rain, slow dance to a drum circle in Nimbin, swim in multiple creeks and waterfalls. Climbed through lush bush in the dark up a mountain for sunrise. Swam in the sea at 6am and 8pm, both times warm and bracing. Ate delicious tropical fruit, drank craft beer. On the road I saw emus, wild goats, gallahs, a wolf spider, a whitetail spider (which I thought was a piece of chocolate I dropped.) Kangaroos, goanna, lizards, a random yabbie on the mountain, a turkey on the mountain. Went to tiny holes of towns in NSW where the heat pours into your nostrils off the concrete and apparently the water at the gas stations is no good for drinking. The regional accents changed with the landscapes. Kids doing 'mainies' on the 50m stretch of main street. MacGyver'd a knife out of the lid of a tin of tuna to cut cucumber for a wrap. Used a tube of pawpaw ointment as a spoon. Stayed a night in the outback where the sunset couldn't even fit in a panorama and the stars were the only other thing around. Slept a night in caves on the beach, went wine tasting, ate cake for breakfast.
Adelaide is beautiful. The hills and the small towns and the gentle, softly spoken people combined with the architecture and quaintness of the city tickled my fancy. For having lived in the same country as all of these beautiful things, I kicked myself for not having explored them sooner, but the opportunity was never there.
I did things I never thought I would get to do. Not because I was scared to do them or because I thought they weren't my style, but because I didn't have the right person or circumstances for them to come to fruition. It made me realise how lucky I was as a kid to be able to explore my own country (which happens to be one of the most beautiful in the world, Kia Ora) with my family, and how sometimes we take for granted what is on our backdoor.
Or 2000km away from your backdoor but still kind of close.
For the first time in my life, I looked out to the horizon that wasn't the sea or a mountain or a building. It was a vast plain outback. Land then sky. Flat and dry. A woman we met at a bar in Byron said that certain stretch of road (somewhere between Broken Hill and the back of who-knows-where, population 70 people, two dogs, one gas station, a dirty toilet and 3 chickens) was really going to be a test on our relationship as it's as dry and as exciting as a stale wheatbix. However, we found that the consistency of the landscape provided a blank canvas for all kinds of ideas to crop up, kind of like how good ideas come to us in the shower. There's something about being trapped in something constant that pushes out creativity.....or sometimes, in our case, some very wonderful moments of honest connection that you don't get to do anywhere than on a long stretch of road as normally you have to negotiate all the things like work and deadlines and instagram and real life stuff that interrupts you.
There are endless hashtags and albums of flash cards you find in gift stores that mention the inspirational educational advantages of travel; so I am not going to.
Instead, these pictures from the trip will paint the rest of the words needed to summarise this post and tie it into a sweet bow.
CRIKEY!
Jj
