The last week of our trip together. That's what the past 7 days proved to be, when I plucked up the courage to book a flight for Wednesday morning, the 22nd of July, back to Cairns. Maybe an unexpected turn of events. Not the fact that the trip would be coming to an end, but more the fact that I decided to fly back to an amazing place, I had already seen.
After 2 days of being in Swan Hill, I knew that I had to take action. I had to make a decision, I had to take that leap of faith. I had different options and opportunities. Jason had offered me a job with him in Adelaide, on the farm. He said this from the very beginning, so I had that in the back of my mind. But the more the trip progressed and the more I seen of North Queensland, the more wrong it felt for me to decide to stay in Adelaide and work on the farm. The work for one, was something that was stopping me. I haven't worked in over a year, and for my first job to be on the farm, out in the middle of winter in South Australia (day time temperature of around 14 degrees..and freezing mornings..I've turned into a real cold-blooded person.. (which I might have been, even before getting to the north of this amazing country)), would definitely be pushing myself too hard and too fast. Another reason why it felt wrong to stay in Adelaide, was that I wanted to keep on moving and be the independent traveler I dreamt I was going to be. It was such a hard decision to make. And if I'm honest, staying in Adelaide would have been the easiest option.. I would be in Jasons company (which I, quite frankly, didn't want to have to miss) and I'd be earning money, I wouldn't have to pay for accommodation or a flight, and I'd be settled for a short while. But choosing the easiest option isn't always the right option.. And I'm not one to choose the easy way out either..
So, on Friday, I sat behind the computer, in Swan Hill, without anybody there to influence or interfere with my decision. I nearly chickened out, once it came to clicking the "confirm flight" button. But I didn't. I clicked the button. I then started to feel sick to my stomach, nervous and it felt so so wrong knowing that on the 22nd of July the trip would definitely be ending and I would leaving Jason. I got back to Johns house, the mate who we were staying with while we were in Swan Hill, and me and Jason couldn't quite believe that I'd done it.. We both never thought that I'd go through with it. But I did. So to ease the nerves and the sickly feeling we then went down to the river, the Murray, with the 3 of us and had rabbit in a campoven (a big steal pot, in the ground, surrounded by coals, which takes hours and hours to cook, but is absolutely delicious..), a fire and some drinks before setting up camp and sleeping in the bush, for one more time. Very surreal I might add.. seeing as though it was here where we used to hang out every weekend, when I was here back in 2006. And there we were, last Friday night, sitting with the 3 of us once again.. Crazy..
Anyhow, we ended up staying in Johns until Monday morning. I know, I know.. much longer than we anticipated, but there you have it.. We got comfortable being in a house, and being in Johns company and having a couch to slouch on and heat in the evenings and a larger space to move around in, compared to the 1.5 by 1.5m in the van. We were spoilt for a few days. We visited mates of Jason, on Saturday afternoon. I had such a blast, was fed some beers and I felt so at home.. (even without the beers I would have felt at home..). They were the first aboriginal family I'd gotten to know and vaguely remember from the farm I used to work on. They welcomed me into their home, and I didn't want to leave.. Amazing people.
Finally Monday morning came, and it was time to get on the move again. It was a day of driving from Swan Hill to the South Australian boarder. It was our last night to camp out in the middle of nowhere, along the river Murray again..(it's the longest river in Oz by the way, so we followed it the whole way back towards Adelaide). The sunset was pink, and the stars had never shone so brightly.. All because there was no moon.. They were brighter than anywhere we'd stargazed, when we were up in the North. Amazing!
This wasn't the end of the final week just yet.. There's more to come..xxx
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