Townsville Bulletin

Get moving to catch your dreams

-

“THE world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

In many ways that is so true, but it leads to the ever- popular argument of why waste money travelling the world when you can travel our country first.

That’s true, but with an attachment – the future is not promised and if you have a yearning, follow it.

So this is how I see it, and it’s so different to many of my friends’ views, after all it’s a personal thing, follow your dreams first.

This glorious country of ours is safer and easier than many at the moment – and yes I’ve not seen enough as some may say – and I look forward to a motor home adventure in time.

But after a week of magic at Uluru, I feel more settled with my Australian adventures. Though at this iconic Australian destinatio­n with many a brochure extolling the great opportunit­y to learn from the traditiona­l owners, see local dancers, local music – there was little.

We saw no indigenous guides at AAT, no local didge players, no dancers – whatever the reason, we weren’t told. I was hoping for a local experience but it didn’t happen.

Maybe other private companies do it, not AAT. Not knocking the young Canadian guide and a young Aussie, they were OK, that’s just the way it is.

Perhaps I was wrong to expect it. Having said that, we loved every minute.

Back to my point on following dreams, I’ve backpacked many places, now I can’t even carry one due to a crook back. Years of sport took its toll.

I had many dreams to follow and though I wanted to travel this magnificen­t country, I decided on world adventures first – glad I did.

I couldn’t do the six- day Inca trail now, dive the Solomons and the PNG wrecks, crawl inside the Great Pyramid, trek Tibet, jog the Great Wall, climb the steps at Potala Palace, crawl into the Tomb of the Eagles on the Orkneys and lots more of my early backpackin­g days. It’s a choice, just so happened the right one for me. And now I have memories. No doubt I’ll have a few calls this morning about this, I hope so, it’s truly a decision for the individual and as a kid spending time as a jackaroo and living in one of Australia’s great tropical cities now, I guess I’m doing OK.

Oh yes, and I would have had to say no to Afghanista­n now and, other than Jerusalem, that was my greatest adventure. There’s much of the world to see, the way I do it just may have to change a little. And as for the wonderful Red Centre, it’s not to be missed.

 ?? with Steve Price
steve. price@ townsville­bulletin. com. au ??
with Steve Price steve. price@ townsville­bulletin. com. au

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia