Dear Blog,
What an appropriate place to start. Don’t you think?

It is one day, to the hour, before out adventure officially begins. Unofficially, it began the moment I dropped my pen, picked up my bag and headed home from my last exam almost a week ago. Even then there was a tantalizing sense of change on the tip of my mind as the weeks of cramming became seemingly irrelevant and were replaced by; anxiety, fear of the unknown and the more discernible tension about the isolation from family and friends. What will become of neglected friendships? Will they wane with the turn of time, as we diverge down the many different paths of life. What commonality will we have when we meet again? What will you show me of your path?

The weather reports for Darwin, a blanket of black plastic at 34degC and humid. Darwin will be our first stop (and last) in our home land before our flight to Singapore early next week (at 3am!)

As the time edges closer, the questions are endless and seemingly rise out of the most obscure corners of day to day existence; what will I find? What am I looking for? What am I leaving behind? What types of place will we stay? How on earth will we communicate in foreign countries? What lesions will I learn? Where will I end up? How will things be different to Oz? How effect does wealth have on peoples lives?

While Ellie (my partner of 18 moths) has been planning, working and saving for this trip for over a year now, for myself the decision is deeply rooted in my personality and expressed as a trait to jump at opportunities as they arise (compensating in some part for the rigorous logic that defines me). It was only two months ago I committed to the ambitious journey over land that will take us through South East Asia, Ancient (and modern) China, Russian winter then on to Eastern Europe before settling in Germany for some a crash course in the language. It’s a Journey of 20,000km or equivalent to half the circumference of the Earth – on trains, buses, automobiles, foot and hopefully bikes.

My motivations: to get out of my comfort zone, to challenge myself, to meet new people, laugh and cry, to do something unique, to understand the world as it is (not as it is shown to be). The journey could be summed up as a quest for relative truth, meaning and understanding, spliced with a desperately needed break from responsibility I have so often searched out, accepted and clung to for meaning.

Love, peace and respect,

Nathan

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Posted on November 23rd, 2006 :: Filed under Travel
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