Today I took a big leap in to the past.  The constant stare of old photo albums and scrapbooks of travels past from the bookshelf near my desk has been getting to me.  So today I traveled back in time to 1985 when I started a new job, with a new husband in a new town (but with the same two great kids), we built a new home and lifestyle and with new eyes and ears we started to travel around Straylia and from then on it was unstoppable travel…and continues with the Mexico thing in 2015 –  30 years later!  So before I stretch myself for Mexico, I’m going to work out what I really love/loved about travel and why….then put the highlights and photos down for those great kids to share when they grow up – hey they are only 34 and 40 yet.

Highlights in 1984 were:

.  our wedding – December – 40 degree heat in a little community hall with friends and family – some in thongs – after a family ceremony in the front yard of my parents’ home at Birkdale.  Where’s the travel in that?  TNH (the new husband) was working in Townsville (busy with producing the Musical Oh What a Lovely War and settling in to a new job and new school at Kirwan High)  and I was in Brisbane, so a trip to visit with the kids and check out the place had been on the agenda in late 2014 and then TNH flew down for the wedding.  He must have thought all the arrangements happened by magic, but it all seemed to go well…..just bloody hot!  My brothers wore shorts and thongs as it was coolest.  The bride was subtle in a pink dress….oh my god, I’ve just noticed I have the same hairstyle, but now it’s white!!!!! The kids were part of the bridal party and about to travel away from their Dad and start a new life in the Deep North…. Deep Breath!  But we had loads of wine to start the cellar – now, 30 years later, our cellar is much more classic and stable – as the heat of Nth Queensland meant we had to drink it all pretty soon after we got there.

1984 had been the holidays to adjust to each other, the kids and TNH unbecoming a bachelor……some pieces of poetry oozed out of me in those early days of travel to unknown places in Queensland – camping at Girraween National park

Girraween

Molten moulds welded in disarray

Nature’s seemingly sedentary structures

This granite grandeur supreme in its majesty

How vain is the frail shell of humanity

To ignore the silent signs.

Cool, calculating guns sway distant disdain

Upon the relentless trail

Lead by sophisticated sophomores

Declaring scared vows of conversation

And appreciation of its myriad mysteries

How blind is the Shellian superior

The folds of the valley hold the key

The boulders glare down

The portent of future human foibles

Man is the infinitesimal ant

But the 1812th overture will rain disapproval

From the gathering storm clouds

And Girraween will be at peace once more.

Early Morning – National Park

The incandescent hum of gas cookers

Beats the birds to the waking call

Mist enfolds the monoliths

In a cosseting, cleansing cloud.

The relentless forces of nature

Are impressed upon the subconscious

By the endless trek to the amenities block

And the cacophony of cutlery upon makeshift tables

Yet only last night the stars stood still

For human eyes to marvel

No sound of human trappings

Disturbed the satin envelope of night

Now shrill

The strident sound of morning.

Yep – 1884 was behind us and we were travlyn to a new zone in our lives….to a pokey motel room on Bowen Rd.