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The Aussie Experience (Continued from previous page)

Following the advice of our fellow Canadians as well as our own research we headed to the coast to visit a national park aptly named “Cape le Grand”. Home to the most stunning beaches either one of us had ever laid eyes on. And so many that the majority of time spent on them is in near isolation. The sand was so white that to look upon the beaches from a distance it appeared as if the ocean lapped against cold glacial ice and snow. The water was turquoise, purple and pink almost appearing like an opal in contrast to the sky. Our campsite was secluded and we actually, for only the second time since arriving, paid for two nights from the start (although we regretted it with the weather change on the second night) we spent the first part of the morning hibernating in the tent as it rained off and on and the wind howled. The relaxation was nice however, and the sky eventually cleared up a bit. We chose to enjoy the day regardless of the weather and set off to climb the highest peak in the park. The wind was insane, ripping at our hair and clothes as we ascended, the climb was steep and up a sheer rock face at some points, with the wind trying to steal our feet from underneath us. At the summit we were rewarded with spectacular views and glimpses of the valleys below through massive holes in the granite.

After descending we headed to a secluded beach to do some snorkeling (we splurged on some new equipment) the view of seaweed was amazing but there wasn't much else to see, thus we headed back to camp. The wind that night was so powerful that there was no place comfortable to sit other than in the car or in the tent. We cooked dinner in the “camper's kitchen” (which is something we've only seen in Australia…usually a sheltered area with gas bbq's or a stove, sometimes even a fridge and sink and most often free for use).

Following the very windy night and some sunburn we decided to move on the next day. The car needed to be checked out again as it was having some problems starting (e.g. not starting at all) the repair was simple and not too draining of the meager remaining funds, but the money was still running out fast so we headed a couple of hundred kilometers north west towards Perth.

As the day was half over by the time our car was fixed, we did not make it as far as we would have liked. The day was suffocatingly hot (we were told 46 degrees) so once again we caved and checked into a cheap cabin that supposedly had air-conditioning. We soon found out that the a/c worked about as well as someone breathing down the back of your neck after drinking a pot of coffee, and the little tin cabin heated up like (I'm guessing)…Hell. We hunted down the caretakers and told them we wanted something done about it or our money back. After attempting to convince us that it actually did work (just not well)by sitting on the edge of the bed and saying “if you just sit still right here you can feel a little bit cool”…just what we envisioned as a relaxing way to spend the night!

With us still not satisfied, even with that wonderful suggestion, they upgraded us to a deluxe (but uncompleted cabin) for the same price. We thought we were getting a great deal! $36 and we even had our own bathroom. The a/c worked (sort of) and it seemed as if we might finally be comfortable…that was until the attack of the flying ants… No one mentioned that the door was not yet sealed, as soon as darkness fell they started to arrive, a couple at first but then literally a hundred or so came in, crawling over, under and through the sides of the door. Steve's heroic attempt to search for the bug killer helped abundantly by letting in another swarm of the little bastards (which we were later informed were a type of flying termite) They tangled themselves in my hair and battered into our backs. We had no choice but to fight back, we practically killed ourselves with bug repellent suffocation and our books doubled as killing machines. We stuffed the campground's dishrags under the door. What an entertaining evening. Eventually we killed enough that we thought we could sleep. We got very little that night; we left as early as we could the next morning.

I suffered a massive bout of homesickness that day. We did however get rewarded with a beautiful campground that evening. The sites were sheltered and very little wind was able to get through, the price was right at $5 per night (which we didn't end up paying anyway) it was cold however, talk about massive climate changes over a short period of time.

We spent the following day visiting the “Valley of the Giants” which not only cheered us both up after a dreary day previous, it was incredible, uplifting and awe inspiring…the enormous Tingle trees, after which the valley was named (duh…) were amazing, some had girths up to 15 metres, the trees are hollow, but still living, insects and fire eat out the middle, yet the trees continue to grow upwards and outwards, sometimes forming huge bulbous mounds on their trunks to compensate for the vertical weight. This park also contained a “tree top walk” which was a rip-off but we wanted to give it a go. The steel platform was constructed 60 metres into the air and hung off suspension wires attached to steel posts, so it sways as you walk the 600 metres through the tops of the trees. The platform itself was pretty cool, but the view was nothing spectacular and from that height you are unable to appreciate the sheer size, magnitude and force of these mammoth trees. It feels as if it is almost an unnatural way to view them. Still, an overall superb experience.

We awoke the following morning to another gray day. We decided to move on. We spent the night in a pretty city (a city here has around 10,000 people unlike the 100,000 it takes to qualify as a city back home) this town is infamous for it's dolphin interaction center, however we weren't lucky enough to see any.

Perth, now being less than 200km away, was our next destination. We were following the lead given to us by the Canadians (they sure gave us a slew of advice didn't they?) After arriving in Perth we checked out 2 different agencies (the one we were referred to and another one) we did not want to pay the fees at either one but we did follow the advice they gave us…Fruit picking… One of the people gave us a contact number for “Ray” in Donnybrook. (200km in the direction we had just traveled from) I spoke with him on the phone. He said that he ran a hostel for couples near the majority of the fruit farms. He informed me that he would not be there when we arrived but just to go in through the back door, find a room and make ourselves at home…that's Aussie hospitality for ya.

The population of Donnybrook is around 1600 (sounds almost as rockin' as it is) When we arrived we decided to ring the bell anyway. The person who answered the door had also just arrived and they were expecting another couple from Perth (us). This was not your typical hostel. Basically it's just a house that we were sharing with 2 other couples. The concept is very open, all the way to the holes in the floor, the toilet is separate from the bathroom and both are set off through the laundry room (which of course, does not contain a washer or dryer) to add to the logic the bathroom lights can only be operated by remote control, after the light switch has been turned on. The furnishings are minimal, but there is a bed and a patio table in the living room, even a small TV, which rests on recycled restaurant furniture (that still has the old logos painted on.) Considering we are actually paying to live here it is ironic how much it feels like a squat house, there are even red-back spiders to share the space with us (supposedly a sting feels somewhat like a candle held continuously against the skin and will only spread unless treated). There is a couple living in the house with us from the UK and another couple who uses the facilities but live in their camper van in the back yard. We are all relatively the same age and get on fairly well.

As we arrived late in the afternoon on the first day we were here and we had no idea what to expect from this place, we waited until the following morning to begin our “door knocking” search for work. Within half an hour of searching we found an opportunity for 2 different jobs. One was working at picking pears and another harvesting grapes for a local winery. The winery had work available for the next day, thus we were officially employed (both ourselves and the couple from the UK)

We began the following morning ant 7am, agreeing to work for the bargain price of 12 dollars an hour (with the 30% taxes taken off of that). The work was relatively easy, snip the grape bunches off the vine and put them in the bucket…after 3 hours we were going insane, almost as much fun as a kick in the crotch… too much monotony for us and way too much time alone with nothing but thoughts. I have a whole new respect for anyone who can make a career out of this type of work. After much discussion Steve and I decided that we are here for a good time not a long time (that's our excuse anyway) we quit at the first break. We did offer our time as “donated” and thanked the woman who owned the winery for the experience. Neither one of us will ever look at a bottle of wine the same way again.

Thus, it is now evident that our trip will be cut shorter than we originally anticipated, however, we figure that not working for the entire time that we are here will make up for that…we're just going to go until the money runs out and catch a flight home. Could be as early as April or as late as May, all depends on how far we go and how many cans of beans we can actually consume before we barf at the thought of another bite of the same “budget” food.

The Aussie couple we are squatting with (forget the term living, that is only relevant if there is air conditioning) are originally from Tasmania. They are a couple of years younger than us but if you think we are adventurous you should meet these two. They surface from the bush every 6 months or so to fruit pick long enough to travel on some more. They have no desire yet to stop. They hunt or catch most of their food; their stories are both shocking and hilarious. They have even enjoyed a big ol' pot of kangaroo stew, happily shared with their dog, who also enjoys hunting. He shared with us the jaw he saved that was cut out of a tiger shark (they threw the rest of that one back) and are also in possession of an incredibly large wild pig tooth, the story of it's origin is not entirely clear. Interesting people. We even stayed an extra night to get a “piss on” (Aussie term) with them, what a riot, too bad they don't have an address or know how to use a computer…we probably would have stayed in touch.

The other couple from the UK seem happier than pigs in mush with the job at the winery (different strokes for different folks I suppose, maybe their attention span, unlike ours, lasts for longer than 15 min) they put in 12 hours on the first day and went back for more. Steve now understands what I mean when I speak of the “wow I want to kick you” type of optimism.

This has however, been an interesting experience and the life lessons learned are very valuable indeed, we understand a little bit more about ourselves, what we can and can't do versus what we are willing and not willing to do…maybe just that one step closer to figuring out that funny little thing we keep referring to as life.

Are you aware that (politely put) baby koala bears eat their mother's excretion? Not a pretty picture but it is true…one learns many interesting useless facts while holed up in a trailer waiting out a cyclone…If you are curious as to the reasoning behind this koala phenomenon…eucalyptus leaves are extremely toxic and baby koalas have not developed a strong enough digestive system to eat them…thus mommy koala processes the leaves first and baby eats the recycled product…yummy...nature at it's finest… If…on the other hand… you are interested in why we were holed up in a trailer you will have to suffer through the rest of the story until we get to that point in the journey.

We left our short-lived fruit picking careers behind in Donnybrook and headed again up the north coast of Western Australia. Our first stop was the “Pinnacles desert” we arrived at the closest campground shortly before nightfall, as the wind here was so strong we checked into an on-site van for the night (trailers that remain on campground lots year round and are the cheapest form of accommodation in most places…and no there is never a bathroom…sometimes there is cooking facilities or even a TV but that is only if you are really lucky) as we unloaded the food containers from the car we discovered that the carpet in the trunk was soaked. This night became aptly dubbed as the “motor oil incident” a fun evening was spent trying to clean oil off all of our meager possessions and of course out of the back of the car…we ended up having to cut out the carpet and the car now sports an “au natural” look in his boot.

The morning brought beautiful sunshine and the perfect opportunity to head into the desert to view the Pinnacles. Our tour book lamely describes the Pinnacles as “a sandy desert punctuated with peculiar limestone pillars, some only a few centimetres high, others towering up to 5 metres” We did however, think it sounded interesting and was definitely worth a look. We were expecting a small display that might make some cool pictures. What we found was one of the most extraordinary sights imaginable. These magnificent formations sent chills down the spine. There were millions of them, jutting out of the desert, like tombstones, reminding us of some mystifying divine graveyard, not of man but of spirit. We could barely speak, it would have seemed wrong to do so. Science provides some explanation or another, in spite of this; neither of us was convinced that this scene could be made in any other way but by an enigmatic miracle.

Departing the pinnacles we headed north on our way to the “Ningaloo reef” to do some snorkeling. We stopped for the night at a park on a beautiful stretch of the coast, the wind was strong again but we managed (with great effort) to anchor our tent to some trees and wrapped our tarp around an old well to provide some shelter, we didn't last there for a second night. We continued north. It is incredible how much the Australian landscape changes from coast to the inland, where the highways run. Leaving behind a tropical environment, we drove hundreds of kilometers through barren desert. Nothing in between gas stations except an environment harsh enough to suck the life out of a human being in less than a day. It can be quite eerie alone on the highway for the most part, sharing the road with only the odd conventional vehicle a couple more 4wd and numerous road trains. The road train is something that I'm sure is not legal in Canada. These massive trucks relate to your average 18-wheeler, but with 3 or four more backs to the truck, the suction of one passing by is more than enough to haul the sleepy driver off the road. I guess that explains why so many Australian roads display billboards with slogans reading statements such as “drowsy drivers die” or “Stop, revive, survive” makes sense, just seems a bit odd to us foreigners.

On the radio (when we actually got a station) we heard of a tropical cyclone forming near our destination, luckily it was too far for us to travel to in a day and we needed to stop a night anyway in the only town that allowed the purchasing of reasonably priced supplies before heading to the scarcely inhabited Pilbara coast. The heat was extreme, somewhere in the 40s again, it is still hard to get used to, the winds were fierce, we checked into another trailer in Carnarvon W.A. and tuned into the news on TV to hear about the cyclone. Thus we ended up in Carnarvon for 2 days, waiting to ensure the roads would be open and Cyclone Monty would not wipe out the towns we wished to visit. (This was the trailer park where we learned the fascinating bit of info on the koalas) All the Aussies were ecstatic…the thought of so much rain…we were fuming.

Monday morning I ran in a heat so severe that my body nearly shut down, it was a very weird experience (and not one I would like to have again, that was the price I paid for waiting until after 7am to run instead of my usual 6:00, damn late night koala shows keeping me up past my 8:30 bedtime) The extremes from one country to another, even from one part of this country to another are insane concepts to grasp, something we never understood until feeling it for ourselves. People here can't wait for winter when the temperatures are in the mid twenties to low thirty's.

Finally we decided to brave the drive north, ignoring the now slighter, possibility that the cyclone, would hit the Ningaloo. We took precautions and phoned the town we were heading to. They said that they were still hoping that the rain would hit but it had not come yet. Our first stop was Coral Bay. The campground we stayed at that night almost blew us out of the country; the tent was tied to everything possible and anchored at least twice from all of its poles. It was a real joy to get camp set that night. We were also accompanied by our dear friends, the Face Eating Flies, trying, in their own special way, to ensure that every outdoor experience is as uncomfortable as possible. Almost as if the extreme heat, lack of freshwater and cyclone winds weren't fun enough. We did get to hit the ocean a couple of times and the morning was rewarded with a pretty underwater snorkeling trip along a part of the Ningaloo Reef. We were not however, blown away by this experience (other than almost literally) Coral bay was over-priced and under construction, the population was around 100 and the town was pretty much ripped up in order to provide some more money sucking venues for the ever increasing number of rich tourists who can afford to stay in their pathetic choice of accommodation. It was definitely time to move on.

We headed to the furthest northern tip of this particular area of the coast. The town we ended up in is called Exmouth, which is around 1300 km north of Perth. As we are well aware of how little time we have left here, and the heat is too extreme for camping (unless you are more insane than we are) we decided that budget accommodation was the way to go here. We spent our first night in a backpackers hostel, actually acquiring a room in with our own bathroom and a very powerful air conditioner. That was where the luxury ended. The entire area was built on concrete and the rooms appeared to be converted storage lockers, complete with wide doors and tin walls. But in comparison to a suffocating night in the tent, it seemed like Heaven.

Our plan in reaching Exmouth was to find a cheap place and stay a week, since we have rarely had a day where we were able to get a break from setting up, unpacking, packing etc. We were both tired. The tin can, unfortunately, proved to be too claustrophobic in its windowless glory for either one of us to stand for a second night. We packed up again and found the next available budget accommodation, which proved to be quite small as well, just enough room to walk around the bed but it was bright and pretty, the main drawback being that we were unable to park our car outside the door. It was fun to carry all our gear in from the car, through the courtyard and into the motel room. At least we thought we might stay there a couple of nights.

After unloading we grabbed our wetsuits and snorkels to head into the Cape Range National Park and explore the Ningaloo Reef. What an outstanding adventure it was! After the disappointment of the much acclaimed Coral Bay, we were skeptical about what we would actually see when we explored the reef from this particular point (after all this one was free with a park pass) we headed to Turquoise bay. To participate in this trip the diver enters the water 400 metres down the beach, it is rightly called a “drift snorkel” as the current is so strong that you can really only move in one direction. No swimming, other than to reach the coral, was actually necessary. The current carries you over the coral with little effort for the swimmer. All we were told was to remember to get out before the sandbar or the current can carry you all the way out to the sea. The sights here were pure magical bliss, the colours and variations of the coral were amazing and the abundance of fish was dazzling, we were suspended just a metre or so over the coral, surrounding us on all sides, a feast for the eyes as well as the soul, the scene was of another world…spellbinding…

Over an hour and shriveling up like prunes we finally headed out of the water and back to our motel to clean up. What seemed like such nice lodgings when we checked in proved to be a big mistake. The room had heated like an insulated oven in our absence and the pathetic little air conditioner did nothing to cool it down. There was no staff in attendance to check the problem. We sweated, showered, sweated some more. To paint a picture of how hot the day was, getting in the car we burned our fingers on the metal door handles and Steve had to drive with a cloth over the gear shift to prevent his hands from burning. The steering wheel was so hot it could only be grasped with the fingertips for as short a time as possible required to drive. Eventually we were able to contact the motel manager who moved us (yep moving again) to another room across the complex, thankfully the air conditioner worked a little better here (still not adequate though) Thus, morning brought another move.

At the beach, in town, anywhere we went, the flies went with us, I had opened my mouth to say something by the car and got a good choking dose of protein. Steve suffered the same fate a few hours later. The only way we can somewhat adequately compare these flies to the ones at home is by saying these ones are just so rude. They refuse to stay away from your orifices; the mouth and the ears are probably the worst, but the eyes and up the nose are not a barrel of chuckles either. People here have adopted all kinds of funny habits for dealing with them; from layers of 80% deet insect repellent (which still doesn't really work), walking with pieces of bushes to swat them out to the way, to wearing bug nets pretty much all day. We caved and purchased some very attractive green and camouflage head nets (it was the cheapest ones we could find) they really add a real zest of sex appeal to sunbathing (sure makes it a hell of a lot more comfortable) the flies continue to crawl over our bodies, but hey, were used to that now.

We followed the hot night at the motel by contacting the most run down looking establishment in the town. Hoping that these dilapidated looking trailer homes (sweetly named Exmouth Villas) would provide nightly accommodation. The price per night was insane as they were meant for long-term rentals. We heard the weekly price and what the lodging included and were instantly sold for a week. We moved into a one-bedroom unit with our very own bathroom and cooking facilities. It was fairly clean and functionally (not tastefully) furnished…Paradise…not packing up the car for an entire week…priceless…

And these are the days of our lives….

After another (almost complete this time) unloading the car we headed to a couple of local beaches. The first was clothing optional (we wear our bug nets of course) but the beach itself here was disappointing. Way too rocky to comfortably enter the water…and in this heat…you need to enter the water a lot. We realize how spoiled we've become in our selection of beaches. There are just so many to choose from, if they are not exquisite, we simply move on to the next one. Seems uncanny how many people flock to the shores of Lake Erie, or the toilet we call Lake Ontario, when here as long as you are near the coast, you are most likely near a beautiful and secluded beach.

We leave Exmouth on March 12th, by the time we reach Perth again, we will have been here just over two months, and we will be pretty much completely broke. It is sad that our journey will be cut short but the alternative is only to work here. That option was already ruled out (although we still kept our eyes open in case fate threw something in our path)

Exmouth itself is a fascinating town. We were a bit weirded out by it when we first arrived, probably just because it is like no town either one of us has ever seen before. It is a desert town, but the coast runs along one side of it. The red dirt is everywhere here, as are the wild emus. The town was originally established as some sort of communication point between USA and Australia, however that was eventually shut down and now its main attraction is that it is the last town before heading into Cape Range Park and the Ningaloo Reef (about 60 km away). The townspeople have worked hard to make the desert landscape more attractive to tourists. They have planted palm trees and the odd Gum. However it appears that these trees need a lot of water as the sprinklers run for hours a day. It seems a shame to us to use that much water when it is such a scarce resource in the area. The desert region does have its own unique, although haunting, beauty. It is a strong and demanding environment that deserves much due respect, as do the incredible animals that inhabit it.

The desert stretches to the coast, which is bordered by rolling rock hills and sand dunes, falling into the ocean and its magnificent, turquoise waters. To stand upon the highest peak and look out over the contrast is as if to look upon the miracle itself, of life and death.

Our next couple of snorkeling trips were, of course, amazing, our third trip in brought us again to the beautiful shores of the Bay to ride the drift another time. As we were into the water to our knees, getting set with our fins and masks, someone from down the beach shouted to get our attention. There just happened to be a shark swimming about 20 metres away from us. An attempt to chase it and get a picture proved useless, as they're quick little buggers, however it was definitely a cool sight. Nonetheless, on another excursion, we did get the privilege of seeing a sting ray that we managed to chase long enough to get a shot of, our only disappointment (although that word disappointment seems almost sac religious when used in any reference to the Ningaloo Reef) was not to get the opportunity to come face to face with a sea turtle. Maybe next time.

Another day on the beach (yea I know, what a tough life) was not as sweetly rewarded. I thought I had some strange allergic reaction but to what…I could not figure out. My right side, hands, feet and other parts (the price one pays for the ability to visit clothing optional beaches) were covered with really itchy red bumps. An attempt to see a doctor only gave us the option of paying at least $110 just to talk to a nurse. Luckily the receptionist was able to tell me that “oh, those are just from the sand flies” to which I replied “thought I would have seen something eating me like that” naturally her answer was “well you can't see them” (as if I was completely off my rocker not to know that) we were wearing our fly nets, but since those simple little black flies (or blowies as they are called here) weren't fun enough, we needed some bugs that we couldn't see that could actually get through the nets...lol… at least it wasn't an allergy.

We did end up somehow losing track of the days but luckily we figured out (almost too late) that we were supposed to check our of our shack/cabin on Friday not Saturday (everyone screws up the dates right? What month is it again?…) fortunately I had enough time to wash out the really smelly clothes, by hand of course…as always on this trip…they dry in about half an hour in the heat. Did I mention that the coolest day here was probably around 37 degrees?

Our journey down the coast from Exmouth to Perth went faster than either of us anticipated. We made the 1300 km trip in 2 days, there was a kind of quiet sadness surrounding us as we both tried to come to grips with the understanding that this part of our lives was coming to an end. We did talk of ways that we could stay longer, but with a little more comfort in travel, however there were no conclusions and we soon realized that it was time to go home.

We spent Saturday night in a town called Lancelin about 150 km north of Perth, supposedly there were some excellent opportunities for windsurfing lessons on the beach here and we figured that it would be a good way to go out in style. We spent another night in the tent. The campground was crowded and obviously popular with the kids as by midnight there were still groups screaming, drinking and blasting music. We couldn't sleep for the noise (God, did we feel old) we ended up picking up the tent, with everything still inside, and carrying it to the other end of the campground. Finally we got some peace and quiet.

The next morning we headed off to the beach to try our hand at windsurfing. Unfortunately, the guy who ran the lessons must have taken the day off, as his caravan was not even there. Must be nice to have a job where your hours read: “I'll be here when I feel like being here.” Oh well, such as life, wasn't meant to be… we headed into Perth to scope out the car lots and figure how we were going to get home.

Once again the city overwhelmed us and we ended up heading for a secluded trailer part on the outskirts. Everything was closed (as absolutely nothing is open, except bottleshops, in Australia on Sundays) so we drove around locating the travel agents and car lots that surrounded the city. We checked into a cabin and started the process of cleaning out Tommy. We marveled at how adequately the arrangement of the car suited our needs for living. Everything had a place and it was all accessible to us by opening the doors. It took practice, but in our opinion it was a good system and worked well for us. It was a strange feeling to realize that we would not be loading our car up again after this night. We spoke little and hugged a lot during the cleaning process. The trailer we rented for the night was became a sorting zone and looked a lot like it had been hit by a cyclone.

We looked at our meager possessions deciding what to keep and what to give away. The things that had meant so much to us and made our trip comfortable (such as the folding chairs and tables that took us so long to find at affordable prices) were useless to us now and would have taken up too much room in our luggage to bring home. We ended up donating the furniture and dishes to the Op Shop (the Salvation Army-type store that was so helpful to us throughout our journey) and we left all our food and camping guides in the camper's kitchen where we were sure that it would be used and appreciated by people just starting out on their own adventures.

In the morning we headed off to the travel agents to find a flight home. As the 29 hours of traveling it took us to get to Australia in the first place was soooo brutal we decided to look into the possibility of a stop over on the way home. We had heard from a previous travel agent that we were allowed a free stop over in either Honolulu or Hong Kong. We spoke with two different travel agents from different agencies and learned that the only flight out was not until the following Saturday (6 days away), the second travel agent, however, jokingly told us that we could catch a flight that night. All the mentioned flights went from Perth to Sydney to Honolulu to Chicago or LA and then finally to Toronto…we told the agents that we had to talk and that we would be back with our answer later.

One thing that we did not know was how difficult it is to sell an out of state car in Western Australia…it is a long way to travel to any other state in order to get the plates changed and the registration renewed in the state the car comes from and very expensive to get plates changed from state to state. Most people we spoke to told us that it was not worth the time for a car as old as ours (even though we insisted that he was a wonderful car) we shopped around at a few places and learned that most people felt the same way. The best offer we could get for his adoption was $800 even though in our eyes it was worth more than millions.

Of course the knowledge that our beloved car would no longer be with us soon and than funds were very low, helped us to make a very spur of the moment decision…we would take the flight that left that night. We moved fast, going back to the trailer to get the stuff we were giving to charity, dropping it off, picking up some groceries and heading back to the travel agent to by the tickets. The only flights leaving Honolulu left either 2 days after our arrival or 9 days after our arrival. Can you figure out which option we chose?

It was a tearful goodbye to our little car; it felt so strange to leave it behind. We had to turn over custody to a wreckers (as they felt "he" was worth more because his organs could be donated) thus, our memories of that car will live on for a long time.

Our flight left shortly before midnight...

Although I say it may be sad that our journey will be cut short I don't entirely speak the truth with that statement, I am looking forward to going home. There have been a great many lessons learned on this adventure, some the biggest breakthroughs of our lives…from a realization of the power of choice, to the degree of extremes, to a better understanding of what we believe to be the process of evolution all the way to the sum of the above, that being that balance is the key to all things in life.

I absolutely despise, loathe, detest, dread… (You get the picture right?) the cold. Therefore, we would come to the conclusion that the opposite of cold would then be more desirable…I guess I was wrong on that one. Extremes are extremes, plain and simple, which is I suppose, why they are labeled as such. (Duh) hot or cold, both can easily kill and both can be as uncomfortable as hell, just as both can send your modern day human being rushing to the comfort of a synthetic environment. We learn here that there is a need for balance. (Where that place is for us…we still have no clue)

This knowledge began the road to the realization of a newer evolution. We are aware that man is capable of living as he did hundreds of years ago, sleeping under the stars and living off the land. We are also aware that man can now sustain life in a completely synthetic environment floating in space. Man can live in the city or the country. It can all be done with success. The point I am trying to make here is that times have changed. It is natural for man to live with a foot in the natural world and a foot in the synthetic world. Perhaps this is normal evolution of the species. Again the understanding that it is the balance of the two that makes for an amicable environment.

However without the power of choice we could not learn any of these lessons. We know that we can live in a mud hut, we know that we can live in a house or an apartment or even a dumpster, what the most amazing truth to all of it is the ability we have to chose which of these environments suits us. I know that it is different for different people and I am not pretending here to preach some newfound fundamental truth, what I say here is relative only to what we have learned for ourselves. These are lessons of which the words were already known, but the completeness of the meaning did not materialize, was not felt, by us, until we got across the world.

My point is that before we left, we knew that we wanted a change in our lives, We felt that we wanted to commune more with nature, that we needed a break from what we were doing, the timing was right and circumstances were right at the time to enable us to do it. Roughing it in the tent (which I now realize in itself is still a synthetic environment and blah, blah, blah) was great fun. However, after a while it became less so, more taxing, on the mind and the spirit, more and more like a chore. I felt guilty that I was no longer enjoying my freedom and mobility and that I longed for the comforts of home. I now understand that I have a choice, yet there are no regrets and we have the most awesome memories to take with us.

That simple power of comprehending the choice, even on such a miniscule matter, can now apply its logic on millions of other aspects of our lives. Again with the balance. (I know …big yawn) but…it's exhilarating! It may be wonderful to camp, hike, swim and stay active all day… but it's also fun to laze around on the weekend in our jammies and watch TV. We are fortunate enough to have the choice and it's okay.

Yes I am aware that we will have to go back to work and that the choices will then be very different, but (I know I'm repeating myself) now we are aware that it can be balanced. Not everything has to be jumped into headfirst and with both feet at the same time. Its okay to test the waters first, may not always be an option, but when it is you have no idea how comforting it is to finally understand, after 26 years of always trying to experience everything all at once, that all we do, in every breath of our existence is, in itself, an adventure.

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