What does it feel like to go home?

I arrived in Australia October 28, 2009.

I depart Australia May 22, 2010.

Wow, I did it. Nearly seven months, I did it. I did it. I did it!

I am so proud of myself, I achieved respect, gained friendships, made life changing decisions daily and I'm coming home safe. (Well a couple scratches, a few bites, but only minor. Managed to stay away from the spiders and snakes!) So what does it feel like to go home? A relief.

Home

A bed guaranteed to be home, a real home, a home I can always go back to no matter what. Comfort, my family and friends, hugs. Not living out of a backpack. Not eating meals alone. I am so happy, so excited, that I am not getting much sleep in the night.

Home

To be honest, I have felt more alone the closer I get to going home. These last few days, anticipation lingers and utterly leaves you disappointed. In the sense that as you count down your time left in Oz, your still alone for that much longer.

Home

But conformity comes with traveling, and my travels have not ended. While I am sure to find myself content while in Atlanta, my venture continues nine days later. On June 1 I move to England with Matt (not to forget a small 4 day trip to Ireland with my girls Deborah and Trish to get the European party started). I will not technically be a backpacker anymore, we will be stationary in a town outside of London about 1.5 hrs Southwest of the city, then we will move into London come fall for him to start his MBA.

Home

What does this mean? I go home, then I start a life in a new home. My life adventure continues, and I could not be happier.

HOME

Promo video

And for some uber humiliation...

This was techinically my first job in the Whitsundays. As I was interested in scuba diving, I did a promo/sale video to go online on the clients website. Beware of the flying projecticles! And it only took one take.

My Vantage Domain

Some of my breathtaking glimpses of beautiful Australia.

Picture locale chronologically:

1. From speed boat looking onto mainland Australia, around the corner from Shute Harbor, Queensland.

2. Foreground - Sugarcane fields. Background - rolling hills of Queensland norte of Airlie Beach, sur of Bowen.

3. Off my back yard balcony Cannonvale, Airlie Beach, Queensland overlooking Whitsunday Islands and Able Point Marina.

4. Infamous Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, QLD

5. Shute Harbor tropcial bush walk vantage, Airlie Beach, QLD

6. Whitehave Beach

7. Whitehaven Beach with mid afternoon shower

8. Storm bruing on flatlands, south of Airlie

9. Abandoned tracks outside Airlie

10. Cloud blanketed sky, Plants Whitsunday, sunset

11. Summit of high hill, a National Park in Hurstbridge, north of Melbourne, Victoria. Suffered from massive bushfire Feb. 2009. Charred tree tops and vegetation regrowth are visible.

12. Sunrise, Proserpine, QLD.

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Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road, honestly... is not that much of an ocean road. While you obtain spectacular views for, perhaps, half of the venture - the other half of the road is just slightly inland a couple hundred meters off the cliff/shore line, through some farm land or through small towns. But that makes since right? You can't have a road right on the 100+ meter cliffs... can you?

Yes you can.

The Great Ocean Road lives up to its name when you sit back, and take in its spectacular being. Going into it with trying not to preconceive any notions on what you think it may look like, the outcome is 'awe' rewarding.

Matt and I set out for the day from Melbourne, 1.5 hours south of the city, (and without getting lost) we traveled "the Road." Matt went in to race mode for a bit in our rental car pictured above, took the corners like a champ and even a bit quick on some. When a single guard rail stands 2ft. tall to protect you from a rocky cliff and a cold Pacific Ocean, you tend to focus more on the panoramic views ahead.

An hour plus later, we made it to the 12 Apostles which are stretched over kilometers of coastline- so you drive to each of the Apostles locations. You park in 'car parks' and take a nice walk to a scenic lookout which you saw in the videos. Only eight Apostles remain standing as tall rock and sediment formations that cascade along the breaking waves off the shore line, so we traveled to many different locations and pulled off the road to seek out all the Apostles we could find - upright. Upon looking on wind and waters combined efforts of erosion, one can see how a small base can only hold for so long until its 'Jenga like topple' will occur.

Another keen observation when gazing on the horizon... Antarctica seemed not so far away.

Never-the-less: The weather was great and we enjoyed our day trip. The cool part was taking in the views on the way back to the city as well from the other direction.

So what do you need when you go on the great ocean road...? Rent a car for the day to decide when and where you would like to stop (so you are not at the will of a bus tour and time limits), good music, snacks, a lot of memory card space on your camera, decent shoes, a sun shiny day, and a kick ass "G'day" in an Aussie accent.

So, will Matt and I go back and venture again on the Great Ocean Road... ?

OH YES... and on motor bikes too.

____

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Sydney, Australia - where Nemo was found

After the Christmas and New Years holidays I flew back into Australia arriving in Sydney. Coincidently, a fellow golfer from Oglethorpe University had just begun an internship there as well. Finally, someone I knew from home, a common face, someone I trusted without the 50 questions of getting to know you and deciding whether or not you want to continue or end a conversation and/or trust a new face.

Sydney is beautiful and reminded me of being back in Atlanta. There was always something going on, always something to do... ode to the urban life. With spectacular buildings, views, transit systems, people and culture I can't wait to get back to Sydney in late March.

Here is a video from the first go-round... enjoy!

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Bushwalking the Whitsundays

Bush walking is a commonality in Australia. There are bush trails everywhere, which pretty much means there is an established walking trail with historic relavance, a protected site, or beautiful views. This trail has all three in the Whitsunday Islands National Park. After a few hours sailing from Airlie Beach and Able Point Marina we arrived at Hook Island an Nara Inlet. Here is stands a cave with aboriginal drawings maintained on its stone walls as you will see below...

The view at the top overlooking the inlet where we anchored for the night on the catamaran to the right.

Some drawings on the cave at the top of the trail

Me, touching an aboriginal handprint carved into wood

And the excitement of completing an Australian bushwalk!

Diving the Rainbow Warrior

For my Christmas present from the Suggett Family, they kindly said... "Do you want to go scuba diving for Christmas?" I was awe strucken. My immediate response - smiling in excitement, "YES!". Little did I know, they had done their research and found one of the best scuba diving companies in the Bay of Islands, HQ Dive.

We went in to HQ Dive to have a little chat and low and behold, I am able to start my advanced certification course. Once I have completed this dive I will have one of my five qualifications to become an Advanced Scuba Diver.

I was diving on Christmas eve, waking up bright and early to catch a small bus out to our location from the dive shop. I showed up... and they told me the trip was canceled due to big swells out of the bay near the Cavalli Islands where we leave from. What a damper in my day... a little upset I carried myself to the golf course for a round... and played like crap.

But putting a smile on my face because it was Christmas Eve after all...

Christmas morning was spent in Opito Bay on the beach with Matt's parents, Bob and Liz, and we had company of about a dozen after 15 minutes of being there. New friends and even people we didn't know joined the champaign celebration, smoked salmon and scones for Christmas morning. :)

Then we had a beautiful "linner" (lunch+dinner) or a "dunch" (dinner + lunch) where we stuffed ourselves with ham, salads, chutney and more with great family friends of the Suggett's just a few minutes down the road. Can't forget the Christmas Pudding too!!

But no presents, because we had to wait for Matt to arrive :) So we actually had our unveiling of gifts on the 28th.

So, my trip was then rescheduled for the 26th and success... I was on my way to scuba dive.

So a little about the rRinbow Warrior, it was a Greenpeace boat build in 1955 and used as a British Research vessel, turned fishing boat, turned environmental safeguard. "The Rainbow Warrior ship was used as support for the demonstrations organized by Greenpeace against various activities undertaken by different countries contrary to safeguard the environment and marine species. "

"The ship was sunk by agents of the General Directorate for External Security French 1985. To prevent an incursion into their territorial waters. That Greenpeace wanted to carry out to protest French nuclear tests to be conducted in the Atoll Mururoa, In southern Pacific Ocean. The ship was refloated, but the damage was such that made it impossible to repair so it was transported in 1987 toward Cavalli Islands which was sunk to contribute as a sanctuary for marine life." (thank you Wikipedia for the info)

More here: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior

The dive was remarkable. What was only suppose to be about a 25 minute dive, due to the depth of 30 meters, or 60 feet turned out to be a 38 minute dive. I was accompanied by two crew divers, two male advanced divers and one other female. The female had trouble equalizing on her way down the decent line, so I was worried we wouldn't have much time to see the ship. But we did.

After reaching the ocean floor 32 meters down, I looked up in amazement at the bow of the boat (pictured below, but not me in the pic). The boat actually came to rest almost perfectly upright, with a slight tilt to the starboard side. Covered in illuminating anemones, it was stunning.

We swam down the port side, up to the galley where we were surrounded by fish the entire time. We were able to penetrate the boat and went in through the galley where there were more fish!

After circling the boat our instructor almost ran out of things to show us because we still had plenty of air left.

After our decompression stop on our ascent, I played Rock, Paper, Scissors vs. my instructor and won 3-nil (that means 3-0) for the Americans :) Fighting the current to get back in the boat once surfacing, I sat back and smiled and emraced the moment. I had just completed my Deep Water Certification Dive on an iconic ship wreck. Wow.

Eating lunch on an uninhabited island and allotting time for my surface interval, there was a second reef dive as well. South of a Cavalli island, sheltered from some of the currents, we decended again. In tall weed grass, rock and fish. Visibility was 20-30 meeters, very clear for ocean diving, so I really had a fantastic day to dive. Then we got a surprise...

We swam into a clan of sea urchins all mounted on rocks, the instructor pryed one off with his knife and broke the top bit open. Then we were swarmed with fish. A sea urchin is a treat for fish and the instructor actually put a sea urchin in my hand, and fish were eating from my hand! But while they eat, they are quite agressive and the urchin pokes you in your hand too :) The best however, is that when the fish eat, you can pet them as well!! So I was actually petting fish! I also saw an eel!

This was a truely amazing experience and I thank the Suggett family for this kind gift!

The sinking in the Cavalli Islands, where my scuba instructor sat and watched as a spectator.



Upon arrival of the moring site, we were briefed on the dive site, how cold the water was (about 58 degrees Farenheit), and how we will dive the wreck.



This is the boat as it stands, tilted to the port side. (not me pictured there)

THE RAINBOW WARRIOR!!!!