No Goodbyes just farewell till we meet again

Saying farewell to my life in Sydney was one of the hardest and saddest parts of my year away. I had made a home in a place so different from every other home I had ever truly had, and my last week in Sydney was a wash of happiness and sadness. The only words I can truly say is Thank You. Thank You Thank You Thank You. Not just to the city and job and apartment but to the amazing people that have graced my life this past year. It was such a year of self-growth that I don’t think most of you know how important you all were to me.

To my ozzy friends, your lovely and what rocking experiences we had. Thank you for making me feel so welcome in a place so different to me. I will miss you but you know I will be back to visit and you all have a place in the world wherever I am.

To my YHA international family and Co. thanks for one of the most fun jobs of my life. That group of wingnuts and lovelies were such a gift and gave me so much strength when life and things were giving me so much doubt. We laughed till we cried, we worked our asses off, we partied and scubed, but more importantly I look forward to having a chance to meet you all again in our respective nooks and crannies of this funny earth, and I cannot wait until these opportunities arise, till then Trucky is hitting the open road.

To the Sangha at the Sydney Buddhist Centre, for providing such a supportive environment for my spiritual path to grow, I have never felt more gentle with this world.

To Liz, for helping me open my heart, I am blessed to have met you.

Peggy and I went drinking at 1pm a Bikie bar with her and her friends, the night ended up with us talking life on her kitchen floor at 2 in the morning, enough said. I love the hell out of you Pegleg

Hi Fei and Byron Bay

The next stop was to swing in for a night and see my friend Fei who was living with her lovely ozzy boy just down the Coast from Brisbane in the town of Maroochydore. Now Fei I have known her whole life, I was best friends with her brother Jie for many years when we were kids and I watched Jie torcher her little sister until she grew up to be a teenager and we actually became friends ourselves. I had not seen Fei for many years but it was amazing to catch up with her and it just happened to be right at the time to celebrate Jie’s birthday, it was meant to be. We ate an amazing dinner and hung out until the early hours of the morning talking life and I felt like she was a long lost relative of my own. I bid them farewell and flew down the coast as I had only 10nish days left in oz.

I spent two days only in Byron and hung out with another oddball collection of travellers, a Brit, some Austrians the French and the Irish, we had a lovely night out and the next day I set off to Sea Kayak with the Dolphins. Now I am not the strongest swimmer but as we got geared up to go sea Kayaking I was beginning to get a tad nervous. The waves were pretty strong and to boot I was paired with a 13 year old girl that was part of the family that was in my group along with our guide, well here is to adventures. Me and the girl who’s name escapes me did pretty alright getting out through the waves. Out in the ocean on these rolling waves you feel so absolutely tiny and insignificant in such a small craft. The Kayaks are tough little guys and just roll with the waves as you feel like an ant on leaf. Riding the waves in was a whole other matter not quite as serene. As me and the thirteen year old caught a wave that was massive and launched us toward the beach and just as we felt success upon us that wave hit another smaller wave and I felt the Kayak doing a summer sault over our heads as we were launched under in the shallows. I emerged from the water gasping and heaving so glad I had a life preserver to find the 13 year old laughing like nothing happened and me like a drowned rat. Now we did not see a dolphin the first time around and they give you a free trip if you don’t see one so after lunch I tried my luck again and ended up with a funny 72 year old grandma that works for a dairy company in Minnesota. She looked to me as the captain with my vast experience of one go already, and we manage to make it out in one try and talked life until our guide and the rest of the group joined us.

This time not only did we get dolphin lucky we hit the jackpot. We found ourselves out in the ocean surrounded by four pods of dolphins, some coming close enough to reach out and touch. What beautiful playful creatures they are they swam and jumped in the water popping out of the backsides of waves playfully In the air with amazing grace and speed. I felt so calm and at peace until it came time for me and granny to ride the waves in. We did better than me and 13 year old did and only tipped when we hit the beach, afterword’s granny gave me a hug and thanked me for being a great captain, funny thought me as a captain of the sea, I suck at basic swimming.

The highway is a Beach?

After Airlie I had a ridiculous 12 hour bus ride through the night to bring me to the town just outside of Fraser Island. At the YHA Fraser, another beautiful little hostel, I ran into an American Guy named Dan who had worked at YHA Perth and knew my old housemate Mya, two small of world traveling in Australia is. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the beach, drinking beer and talking life, spirituality, politics and the such till our jaws were soar, I cannot meet enough cool people they drop from the rafters. The next morning I woke for my two day one night Fraser Island 4w4 tour which was a caravan of three 4w4’s two of which we drove and the front led by our Bogan (ozzy slang for hill billy) yet quite nice guide. Fraser Island is famous not only for its size as a giant Island nature reserve but also for its varying natural beauties, beaches, forests, sand dunes, Eucalyptus and rainwater lakes , wild dingos, and beautiful rocky cliffs.

Did I mention the actual legal highway of the 100 or so km of island is the beach? Everyone pays a hefty fee to get on the island (to make sure there are not to many crazy tourists or ransoms and to preserve its beauty) via a ferry and then when the tide is low everyone cruises to and fro to one of the beautiful hotspots, hikes, and lakes and then cruises back to their campsites or villas on the island when the tide comes in and the road is gone. There are some I would barely call roads going through the jungle that hefty 4w4s can handle, and in our three 4w4 caravan and our 19 person team we went off-roading. Driving on these one lane roads was like mud racing, until you hit the beautiful 8-12 lane beaches and cruised while catching a tune or so at random on the island with almost no transmission reception. My car was a comprise of two Germans(they love to travel oz) two Dutch, two Danes and myself, and after getting one tune on the radio that I claimed was Whitney Houston and was actually Tina Turner, our car name quickly became Team Whitney. This Island is a must visit if you do the east coast because it almost feels like it has a piece of most of the different forms of natural beauty that the world has to offer. We ran through sand dunes that felt like deserts, swam in the Eyucalyptis lake(does amazing stuff for your skin and a rain water lake (I have never seen natural water so clear in all my life) and camped the night in the forest eating great camp food and roasting marshmallows, it felt lovely to camp again.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the Island I ran into my Blond Lady German friends Anya and Isabella again. We bid farewell and I couldn’t believe I had done so much in two days. As soon as I said goodbye to Fraser and got on the bus to continue my trip down south there was my crazy little Swiss friend Lyhn smiling to me from the back of bus, and we laughed and joked till I saw her off a few hour further down the line, did I mention traveling Australia is a small world?

I’m on a Boat annnnd, its going fast annnnd I have my nautical themed cashmere afghan

Following my goodbye to Magnetic Island its attractive beaches and all its charming critters I once again boarded another bus, this one only 4ish hours and zoomed on down to the famous Arlie Beach and the world famous Whitsunday Islands notorious for boasting one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the entire world, I had to check it out. Getting there I headed to Arlie YHA and ran into Carmen (a friend of mine and my original trainer from Sydney Central YHA) who was so pumped to see me and quickly got me looking at Whitsunday cruises choices which I did not think I was going to do prior. I signed upon the Brisish Defendor (an ex 1980’s racing sailing ship) for a three day two night sailing trip to the Whitsundays, I had no true idea what I was truly getting myself into. The eve before bed I shipped out I got what I thought was going to be a quick drink with a few people from my bus( a French Guy, an English guy and a Swiss Girl) and ended up talking spirituality and life with the Swiss girl until three in the morning, what beautiful surprise spiritual friends you can meet over a beer. Her name is Linh and she was a short black haired smart little German Swiss girl. This mixed with an equally quirky sense of humour as my own and very good yet strange version of English we laughed till we cried between deep spiritual talk and mistaken understandings of each other’s English and I knew I would also meet this one again in my travels.

The next day brought me upon the British Defendor, self-proclaimed sexiest boat in the Whitsundays but its three quirky hilarious ozzy crew members. These three Ozzies along with the sixteen other people signed up for the trip left us with a hodgepodge of Americans, Germans, English, Dutch, French, Japanese, two crazy lovely Finnish and one Belgium in a Pair tree. We spent the next two days eating like kings and queens, Snorkelling beautiful reefs and lounging on the deck of the sailboat in the sun. I also got everyone addicted to making hemp bracelets as I brought a few spools along from Sydney, and after a few classes I had more than two thirds of the boat members Macramé-ing themselves souvenirs in the sun. The nights were spent drinking (of course) playing games, talking the night away and enjoying the peaceful sound of the waves and the crystal clear starry sky. Due to the face that it was winter season although the weather barely showed it, the Night sky was the clearest I had ever seen it with an almost 180 degree view of it from the boat over the water. It was like being in a private Planetarium with only a few others and what a magical feeling it was, I had also never seen the sky so clearly upside down before, as trying to find my familiar stars alluded me until I realized the sky I was use to was on the other side of the world. You don’t realize these funny realizations until they sit staring you in the face but I know I will remember that view for the rest of my life. The second day brought us to Whitsunday Island and the White sand beaches best seen in magazines, movies and porno’s(we actually passed a small island with a beach that was famous for the Porno scenes filmed on it in the 80’s, funny). As I walked through the sand that squeaked with each step white as snow across this massive beach that spanned what felt like a desert and was surrounded by crystal clear shallow water and picturesque green island mountains locking it all in I could barely close my gaping jaw or stop from laughing. I sat to meditated in-between the crabs that scurried to and fro and stingrays that jetted through the shallow blue heading to some important secret stingray gathering and was thankful for every little part of my life good or bad that had led me to this moment. Being alive is a wonderful thing

Upon returning to town after the trip sunburned, hung over and awed I tracked down Lyhn who had just gotten back from her separate boat trip. We talked about our silly boat experiences, laughed, made Jewellery ate sushi and she walked me to the bus and gave me the biggest hug to send me on my way, we knew we would run into each other again but if we didn’t I knew I had met another kindred spirit.

A magnetic Island and a couple of Germans

I said goodbye to Cairns and hopped on the bus to head on down the coast to what is supposed to be an absolutely beautiful island known as Magnetic Island, but first I had a solid five hour bus trip. Along this road we stopped at a few different stops and at one place two blond German girls got on and I felt so much that I had met these girls before. They immediately smiled at me with an excited look and I knew we had met but It took me another half an hour of bus ride before I realized that I had checked these girls into Sydney Central Yha Youth hostel and had given (Anya and Isabella) a tour of Sydney on one of their first days in oz some six months prior. We talked a bit on the bus and when we finally got to Townsville, the town on the mainland from Magnetic Island, we would have a drink after they figured out there housing situation. This brief meeting turned into us eating pizza and drinking an entire 24 pack of mid strength beers during a 5 hour powwow on the beach, it was like hanging out with old friends. Leaving them to catch the last ferry to the island I felt like I had made some deep spiritual friends and finally dropped on my bed at the hostel quite drunk and quite happy at 9pm knowing I would see them again in my travels.

The next day brought me a chance to finally hold a Koala, as Magnetic Island is a small one, housing some 2,000 residences, gorgeous beaches, hikes and I was staying at the hostel that housed the Koala and animal reserve. We had a chance not only to hear from the super enthused animal loving activist head of the reserve, but I also got a chance to hold and get photographed with some amazing animals I have never got a chance to see so up close before, I held a Koala(his name was Barny and he has a facebook), an Echidna (platypus/hedgehog with a furry stomach who was best friend with a giant lizard, they ate out of the same bowl together, to cute), three big as lizards, a Black Cockatoo(he ate sunflower seeds out of your mouth), fresh water Alligator’s(about four feet long, with long snouts and only a small piece of tape over their mouths saving your fingers from them, scary) and two sizes of Pythons (non-poisonous and not big enough to eat you, but big regardless). I left my Animal reserve on a natural high and plenty of day left so I decided to go for a hike and see some of the islands beautiful beaches. I spent the rest of the day collecting shells on the beach, hiking beautiful trails leading through rocking bush that would open up all of a sudden into beautiful beaches. At one beach I climbed down this long trail to this tiny beach, finally upon reaching the beach I soon noticed that is was occupied by a few naked old men, I must have missed the memo but I know dad would have loved it there. I quickly headed to a less naked old man populated beach and sat on one of the most beautiful beaches of my life with a line of peaceful palms lining a beach that could have belonged to any tropical paradise in the world, have I mentioned I love oz?

I headed back to the bungaloo hostel and exhausted thought I would go to bed early but instead ended up playing trivia at the hostels trivia night on a team of seven Germans ( our history was lacking but I nailed the TV questions and we landed third place out of eight, nice). The night ended drinking goon(Ozzy getto term for bag wine, appropriately named) and playing cards with my new German friends late into the night, Oh the company you find while traveling, I believe this was my German Phase.

Side Note

please forgive me for being tardy with these entries parts were written at the time over two months ago and the rest amended far after, I hope you enjoy them and if one bores you skip to the next I promise there should be an interesting story for everyone. I am also not writing these just for my own memory but also to encourage everyone to travel and see the amazing sites this world has to offer with your own eyes. These blogs really cannot do these experiences justice so you will just have to go experience them yourself =).

Side Side note: These are written a bit more free form than following proper grammatical rules to best describe my experiences at the time so I hope any teachers out there and the Gods of English can forgive me.