Awestruck in Istanbul, at home in Ireland or running from a Queensland brown snake, Roy Slaven’s alter ego, John Doyle, yearns for the countless wonders of travel.

Travel is the opportunity to engage with wonder; the difficulty is forming a scale. I can wander into the backyard and be visited by two songful butcherbirds who have befriended me. It’s a short trip but wonderful.

I’ve stayed in a bed and breakfast in Kinsale, Ireland, that came with a boat. There’s something arresting about cruising down a river of one’s direct forebears to dine on locally sourced fish with a pint and a glass.

I’ve had the pleasure of sitting quietly in Justinian’s masterpiece, Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, trying to imagine the impact its soaring Greek geometry must have had on believers of all faiths in its long and chequered history.

To sit in a canoe on a cloudless late summer’s day on Loon Lake in Wisconsin and watch the local beaver shore up his sturdy, stout-sticked dam wall while a small black bear sits on the shore, watching with seemingly equal fascination.

For me, travel is discovering wonders that must be preserved. I had the privilege of spending a little time with scientists on the Mary River in Queensland. There were plans afoot to dam the river to allow for development and they were keen to show me what would be lost. They netted two specimens, the first a Mary River turtle. Unique, it breathes underwater through its cloaca. It lives for a very long time. Unchanged in 40 million years; a living fossil. And the Queensland lungfish (pictured). Unique, it can live on land for up to five days. It lives for a very long time. Unchanged in 100 million years; a second living fossil from one extraordinary river.

I was with a good friend on the Darling River near Louth. We pulled ashore in our tinnie to look for fossils. We clambered up over the bank to discover two large brown snakes in the act of procreation. We assume it was the male who disengaged immediately and charged at us at speed. We clambered down the bank and struggled aboard our vessel as a large red kangaroo joined the snake in challenging us. I’m glad we had no camera – some events are best left to the memory.

All travel is welcome. It can broaden the mind and the behind. Be it stumbling across a vast field of stromatolites northeast of Broome that had lain unknown to most for 400 million years or sitting in a theatre on 42nd Street watching a production of 42nd Street, I’ve learnt to treat each leaving of the front door as the opportunity to find wonder.

I am now double-vaxxed, primed and ready, craving the day when my Girl and I can sit on a silver bird of freedom to explore, discover and learn. NEED TO KNOW ................................................................ John Doyle’s memoir, Blessed: The Breakout Year of Rampaging Roy Slaven, was released this year