september 25, 2001
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These digital photos were all taken by Rob, with whom I have been traveling for two months. I have my own photos but it was just easier (and cheaper) to upload these, rather than scanning mine. From left to right:
Row 1: mulla mulla, a beautiful desert flower spotted on the Larapinta Trail in the Macdonnell Ranges of Central Australia; Mount Sondar, also on the Larapinta Trail, which we climbed on the first day and from where we spent two additional days hiking out in baking hot desert sun; an outback road on the way to Carnarvon Gorge in south Queensland; a green tree frog found staring up at me from the toilet bowl in our road house camp in Camooweal on the Queensland/NT border
Row 2: a different perspective of Uluru, that famous big red rock in the desert; me on the beach of Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island
Row 3: sand patterns formed by sand crabs around their burrows; our camp on the west coast of Fraser Island, where we spent four days hiking, three of those without seeing another soul; me preparing dinner on the Larapinta Trail, preparing fresh bok choy and trying to ration water in the desert; near the end of a particularly long hard day of walking along the western beach on Fraser Island, irritable from finding ourselves stranded for four hours on the wrong side of a tidal creek at high tide, I ate a large amount of peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon - this is how Rob found me an hour later
Row 4: view from Nina Peak of Ramsey Bay and the mangrove channels of northern Hinchinbrook Island where I spent four days and three nights hiking on my own
Row 5: on the Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta, surreal rock formations near Uluru; and another desert flower, growing where it seems impossible with so little water and so much baking sunshine.
I'm in Adelaide in South Australia and heading towards the Grampians, Melbourne, Canberra, then Sydney. Rob and and I have finalized going our separate ways as he boarded a Sydney-bound plane this afternoon and I have a month to make it there by road.
posted by tina 9/25/2001 05:52:09 PM
september 11, 2001
Would you believe me if I told you that it was possible to get bored with travel? That it is possible to suffer from a kind of ennui, when you can't motivate yourself to do anything? A few weeks ago, it started happening to me. After eight months away from home, I have started to feel disenchanted with this whole experience. This is one of the problems of long-term travel, especially for someone like me who is goal-oriented and needs both focus and challenge. Initially, traveling is something different and exciting. However, because travel is necessarily aimless - you essentially decide what to do from one day to the next - extended lengths of time at it becomes draining. I think it leads to stagnation and, in my case, hits at my self-esteem. I feel useless, my actions without meaning or impact beyond my own personal growth. To a certain extent, particularly in the rainforests on the east coast, the things I was seeing were just things to gawp at with very little meaning anymore.
So this is what I have decided. I'm no longer staying in Australia for the rest of the year. I am no longer going to circumnavigate this continent. Instead, I have left Cairns (on the east coast) and have spent the last three days driving to Alice Springs and the red centre. After a bit of time here, I'm heading straight down to the south coast and back around to Sydney, with a few small detours. I should be leaving Australia by the end of October (at the latest) and will spend a couple of months in Asia before heading home in January. Will this solve anything? I'm not sure and, if not, I have an open ticket back home where I may be able to fulfill this need to do something.
In the meanwhile, some comments and observations. Last week, I went snorkeling at three sites off the outer Great Barrier Reef. I think it's safe to say that this was one of the things that momentarily rewakened my excitement about travel. The reef is an entirely different world and I only reluctantly left the water when it came time for the boat to leave. If you are in Australia and you hesitate at the cost of a dive or snorkel trip, it will be a major loss for you.
Next observation, however obvious it may be. Australia is BIG. I thought, because I am from Canada, I would understand a little something about distance and size. However, I just spent the last three and a half days driving from Cairns to Alice Springs. I'm not talking about driving, stopping and looking, and then driving some more. I'm talking about direct driving - 800 kilometres a day - on dead straight roads with nothing but empty space all around and massive blue sky curved overhead. We filled up the car at road houses, really only a place to refuel where you have to fill up or potentially run out of petrol before arriving at the next road house. In Canada and the States, there are towns, cities, villages along the main roads. Not in Australia. The fact of this continent is that much of it is totally empty, except for kangaroo and cattle road kill. There is a cattle station in Australia bigger than the state of Texas. The first night we camped behind Burke and Wills roadhouse, in the middle of nowhere, and there is something almost claustrophobic about all that wide open space, landlocked, with miles and miles between us and the edge of the continent. At the same time, the outback is compelling and I didn't get tired of looking at the landscapes and its colours, even after three days of sitting in a car and looking out the windows.
posted by tina 9/11/2001 11:30:20 AM