Wow, three+ years goes by rather fast. So, what happened?

Well, I made the trip to Adelaide, spent a week camping out the front of a café in North Adelaide. There just happened to be two car parks that had no restrictions on them. Adelaide is very scenic, as was Port Augusta. I found it rather amusing that in the middle of the city was a huge paddock full of horses. Just a sign of things to come.

After spending a week in Adelaide I made the trip along the Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne. Met many wonderful people along the way, some of which I caught up with years later. I spent a year and a half in Melbourne, in various forms. I camped out of my car and got familiar with the free showers around the city, a friend put me up for 3 months, I got a job and rented a room in a share/boarding house and explored a large range of a great city. If I ever end up back in Australia, Melbourne is the place I’ll go.

Hold up, end up back in Australia?

Yeah, so while I was in Melbourne I met several people from Canada, all who suggested I visit. While it seemed like a good idea, I knew I wasn’t going to go half way around the world for a few weeks of exploring. That was until a friend suggested I look into a working holiday visa. Well that did it. I looked into it, and then applied. The next thing I knew I had the acceptance letter. Seeing that I couldn’t think of a good reason not to use it, I sold almost everything I owned (including the Troopy *tear*) and got on a one way flight to Vancouver, via Singapore and Shanghai.

I got a PADI open water license in Singapore, which was a hell of a lot better that getting it in Melbourne and about the same price. Saw some great reefs off Malaysia and also caught up with a few friends while there. I spent 2 weeks backpacking around China and hit up Shanghai, Louyang, Xi’an, Beijing and then back to Shanghai for the flight out. The trains and sleeper carriages in China are excellent and a great way to discover the country. I hiked the Great Wall of China in Jinshanlang, discovered a cool band in Beijing, and saw the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an. I got asked for photos on occasion (being a 6′ white male with a large beard and hence an oddity) and had way more ‘stealth’ photos taken. Although they weren’t that stealth as I saw them and made faces where I could.

After arriving in Vancouver, I camped on Vancouver Island (Otherworld 2012), went to Critical Massive in Mt Vernon, Washingtion, where I fell in love, hit up Burning Man 2012, spent lots of time discovering Washington and British Columbia, found some excellent (and not so excellent) house mates and eventually decided to get a job. It’s still amusing to me just how wonderful the place I work at is, heaps of cool people, excellent projects and the right work environment. Best job I’ve ever had. Finally I ended up with an apartment to myself and enjoying life, I wouldn’t want to change anything in my past, because my life now is the result of a random encounter and if I had done anything differently, I would not be here now. The present is awesome.

So that sums up the last three years, on to the next adventure….

 

Stay tuned.

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