Wednesday 2 May 2012

One year on

This week marks one year since I departed Adelaide for my journey around Australia. What an incredible time it's been. I've......

- driven across the Nullabor
- swum with whale sharks on outer Ningaloo Reef
- discovered that gaffer tape can help a van that is on its last legs continue another 2000ish kms across desert country before finding a mechanical saviour
- watched the full moon rise over the mudflats in Broome, to watch the 'Staircase to Moon'
- seen the sun set in many spectacular places, including Darwin and Uluru
- touched dinosaur footprints
- found a new confidence in myself
- driven 24,000kms
- worked on 2 films. One an indigenous movie filmed in the heat and beauty of Western Australia's East Kimberley. The other a comedy/horror in the stunning Adelaide Hills.
- walked through the lush Daintree Rainforest, Australia's largest.
- camped under the stars and woken up to a crocodile & goanna basking in the morning sun at the front of my van
- swum on the Great Barrier Reef
- been attacked!!! by sandflies in Port Douglas
- not hit ONE kangaroo!
- repulsed a large group of women from the CWA with my BO, as we all checked in to a caravan park. t had been a long (4 day) hot drive across to Queensland from Tennant Creek.
- met some eccentric, interesting, lonely, adventurous, courageous, exciting, intriguing and generous people. A number of who I now call friends, and others who I may never see again, but will never forget.

This list has much more to add to it, but this shall do for now.

So it is now one year since departure, and although I am currently enjoying the comforts of being back 'home', there is still more of the map to cover. The rest will be done on shorter trips, but it means that at this stage, I can't yet answer the question 'how long can it take to lap Australia?'

In no particular order, some photos from my journey that make me smile.

Thanks for reading!