Gone walkabout

“I arrived wanting to get back to nature. I departed not wanting to go back home. Beware, when you’re reading this I am probably on my way home.

The last couple of days in Oz have been quiet. First I went to surf camp at Crescent Head (North of Sydney) to learn to stand on a board. And I did it, about twenty times. After three surfing training sessions I can stand on waves. Most important rules: having fun and looking cool. AND I LOVE IT! But it has been tiring so I haven’t been doing much on the last few days before I fly back home.

Yesterday I spent my last day on the beach and said goodbye to the beach and sand. Bye bye Bondi. Today I will say goodbye to my friends. I will not miss the cockroaches crawling on my legs in the mornings, but I will miss Nicki – my Oz-buddy. Luckily she promised to visit me back home.

Now it is time to go. I’ve traveled 14,000 kilometers. Desert, rainforest, reef, beaches and mountains, goanna’s, dolphins, turtles, kangaroos and koala’s, I’ve seen it all. Surfing, skydiving, rafting, driving left, conquering the desert tracing the colonists’ footsteps or partying on the Gold Coast, I’ve done it all. Dreams have come true. It was like living someone else’s life. It’s a cliché but it has two sides. I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends and sleep in my own bed, but I know I am not done in Australia. There’s so much more to it. Still, it is time for this Dorothy to leave Oz and click my heels to go home.

It is true what people say, sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself. In Australia the Aboriginals call it going walkabout. I hadn’t expected to learn more about myself and change during my grand Oz-tour. It did happen though. I got more perseverance and got a tan.

It was an amazing time I never would have wanted to miss. Thanks for everything to everyone who took part in it. I can’t wait to learn more. It might be when I will be back in Oz (yes I will go back, I’ll promise myself this) or back home. My wanderlust hasn’t been satisfied yet, but the next couple of years I will fulfill other dreams first. I had many hours to think about what I want and what I want to do in this life. As Hugh Jackman says in the movie Australia ‘In the end the only thing you’ll own is a story so you’d better make it a good one’.”

This was the last entry of my online travel journal (in Dutch) while I was travelling in Australia in 2008-2009. And it stuck to me ever since…