Epipany.

I have looked forward to writing this blog. I apologise for the delay, however there was an event that I really wanted to write about. The choices were do a blog at the usual time, and then write about what I wanted too next time around. However I was reluctant to do that as I didn’t want to forget anything, as it is now fresh in my mind. I hope that this instalment is as enjoyable for you to read as it is for me to write. So let’s begin.

When I write blogs, sometimes I just type what pops into my head at the time, there is no structure, no definitive beginning middle and end, and it’s just words that I process in my head onto a laptop. I do make notes as things happen that I feel may be worthy of writing about, but a good 95% of it just as I write. This blog is really different though, as it is my intention to get a few points across. If I succeed then hurrah. If I don’t, then I will still pretend I did. Self-worth is an amazing thing.

We went to an AFL game a few weeks ago, and it was brilliant. Australia is a country that has really solid values on sport. From an early age, children are encouraged to become active in sport. Sport takes up a big amount of people’s time and money. This is a brilliant thing. I think that our country needs to adopt a similar approach. Since being over here, I have not yet seen one group of children hanging around like you get back home. They are always at the local bike centre, or sports centre. They have it spot on. The AFL game lasted about 3 hours; it cost $10 to enter. Compare that to a sports event back home. The prices to watch sport here are stupidly low. Due to this, family outings involve making a hamper, grabbing some drinks and watching a game. The end result of this is immaculately conceived. It’s the simple things that make a huge difference. Home and away fans sit together, and you always make new friends. Would that happen back home, in between the abusive chants you get at a football game? I don’t think it would. Sportsmanship is huge over here. The players shake hands after the game. They aren’t false smiles they display either. They’re genuine and sincere, the players respect each other. You don’t see “respect” banners around the sporting stadiums; it isn’t something that needs to be encouraged. It’s just there. At half time, kids are openly invited onto the pitch to have a kick about. I watched in awe as a few hundred people descended onto the pitch at half time. One of the players knocked a ball around for a few minutes with a young lad, no older than maybe 7 or 8. The kids face was absolutely priceless. Would you ever see a man utd game, where at half time the kids came onto the pitch and were able to interact with the players? I’m guessing no.

I completely forgot to mention a few blogs back that I am going to the gym. There a quite a few of us who go regularly, and I think, scrap that, I know that my motivation that was lost somewhere about 6 months ago, is firmly back. I have got the bug back; even now I know what routine I will be doing tomorrow. Along with a much healthier diet, there is no reason why this ‘stocky’ blogger cannot drop a lot of weight and become healthier. In this climate, the amount of walking we are all doing, and the drastic change in diet, I would say that it is impossible not to become a lot fitter. Bearing in mind, it is expensive to eat junk food over here. It’s cheap to eat healthy. Why can’t the UK follow suit? I’m sure you are already well aware that I am a huge lover of meat. I adore the stuff. And it’s cheap over here, which means that I am getting a good amount of both white and red meat. And before the health brigade come along saying you shouldn’t eat too much meat, I know. I’m fully aware that too much meat can be bad for you.  But we live in a world where 5 years ago, tomatoes were deadly. 12 years ago, the world was going to end. If we believe everything we are drip fed, then we would all be robots. The fact is, I am sure, that my diet now, is 100% better than the diet I was on back at home. If the pros of eating meat now outweighs the cons of always feeling tired, having tired skin, then I’m happy. The gym routine is usually getting up between 6-7 and spending a few hours there, pushing ourselves to our known limits-sometimes going over them. A few of the lads I go with work hard. I mean hard. I remember at my old gym in the UK, a vast majority of the people there used the gym as a social club. Training to them meant congregating around a running machine and gossiping for an hour. Or constantly checking yourself in the mirror. The dudes I go with now have one thing on their mind. Training. They do train hard. I pity anybody who criticises people who go to the gym, the shallow minded attitude some people have is laughable. I’m really loving going to the gym again, and I think this could be the changing point in my life that I feel is deserved to me. I hope that upon my return home, I shock a lot of people, in a good way of course.

Whenever I talk about the UK, I do refer to it as home. It is my home of course; it is where I come from. I’m proud to be a pom. I’m proud of where I come from. I’m not the type of person who has a flag in his window, but there is a patriotic side of me. But, I could happily live here. I really could. I think that given the chance, if I was offered to stay here on a permanent basis, I probably would stay here. Of course I would miss my family, but I would have them over. I would have my mum come and live with me without a doubt. And I know that if I called here now to tell her I’m living here for good, and she was too, she would be packing her case as I spoke to her. I came to this conclusion not by being thrilled by the weather, or the cost of my particular way of life. It was a culmination of things that subconsciously happened, and peaked when I woke up one morning. Whenever you go on holiday, no matter how nice the destination, the weather, the food, or anything else that is superior to normal life, there is always one thing that you will miss. Your bed. You could go to a palace for 2 weeks, but you will always miss your own bed. I woke up a few days ago, and when I opened my eyes to slowly wake up, my curtains were ever so slightly open, and a slim bolt of sunshine was in my room, through the gap in the curtain. I don’t know why, but I raised my hand to the light and twisted it around a few times. It was at this moment that I said to myself “I love my bed”. It wasn’t my bed. But it felt like it should be. Then I started thinking, that if this was how I felt when waking up, if I felt so content, and so at ease and so familiar with waking up, then why is it wrong to class it as my home? This does now feel like my home away from home. It’s been a month that I have been here, and I love it. I’m doing things like riding the bus. I have probably ridden the bus more times in the past month than I have in the past 10 years. I find it fascinating to look at people, and wonder what they are doing with their day. I see the elderly people, and they always have a smile for you. There is no element of feeling like an outcast, or a foreigner in someone else’s country. It is just amazing. A lot of things have dawned upon me recently. We take a lot of things for granted. Simple things such as waking up in a bed we take for granted. Some people wake up, and they aren’t in a bed. Some people wake up not even in a house, or a building. Some people wake up in a bus stop, or under a bridge somewhere. When was the last time you woke up in a different place, and you felt really uneasy as you weren’t in your own home. Imagine not having a home. We take so much for granted it’s scary. I feel so so privileged to be here. To think that I am in Australia is absolutely brilliant. I have always wanted to come here, I thought that if I was lucky, I may have been able to afford a holiday here. So my advice to anybody, is that if an opportunity presents itself to you to do something different, something that you may be hesitant about, grab it with both hands. Don’t miss out on things that you have never done before. You can’t place a value on your own life, so if you are only here once, live it. Try something new every day. What do you have to lose? What do you have to gain? You’ll find the gains will outweigh the losses. I don’t think I would ever be able to thank the people who made it possible for me to be here. And I don’t think that they realise just what this whole experience will do, and is doing for me. There are 45ish people here with me, whose lives will be altered forever. The power of something like this, will last a long time for us all. At one time, all of us will go through something extremely profound in our lives. Some people go through a lot in their lives. Other people are lucky, and they don’t have to deal with things some of us wish we could let go of. It’s only by doing something that is so evidently amazing, that we realise how fortunate we are. I have a feeling that all of us that have been given this truly life changing experience will come out of it as better people. It’s not to say that any of us are not good people, I mean that this experience will enrichen our lives for the better. It will give us a major confidence boost for all things that we are faced with. I think the realisation for a lot of people has sunk in. It most definitely has for me, and this is why I was so excited to write this particular blog. I knew from the outset that this one would be void of the humour that has been in the past few blogs. Not in a bad way, but in a way I feel I owe it to everyone reading to know I am not taking this for granted. I will come onto this later though.

We went to a place called Crocosaurus Cove last week. As the name suggest it’s a place full of crocodiles. And it rocks. I have never seen a crocodile before, apart from on the TV, and the size of them absolutely amazed me. They can live between 70-90 years. They are cold blooded, so when you hold one (a baby one) they feel like a cold leather settee. And they are strong. Immensely strong. I was absolutely fascinated watching them eat. The strength of the jaw of a croc is equivalent to over 3 tonnes of pressure. Incredible stuff. And they are so majestic as well. They aren’t pretty at all, but they are very majestic. It’s hard to describe, but I think it’s the appreciation of what they could do if they got hold of you that makes them beautiful. When I was looking at the baby crocs, one of them was staring at me for a while, and I wondered what he was thinking. Some of them weigh in at over 8 tonnes, and some can hit 20 foot in length. They are also genetically superior to most living things. They have the ability to heal mentally fast. They have evolved over time to become the world’s most dangerous predator. They can swim at 14k an hour through water, and they can go from being completely still, to attacking in less than 1/10^th of a second. They attack so fast, I found it difficult to get photos of them whilst moving. In the end, I had to use multiple shutters on my camera, and change the shutter speed to capture them in action. But, I got them. You can view the album on my Facebook page.

Also at croc cove were a host of other exotic animals like snakes and iguanas and other lizard type things. They all knew I wanted photos because they stood still for me. They make cracking subjects to photograph, as some of them have vividly bright colours, which really come out when digitally processed. Some of them are bonkers though, and they just ping around their little tanks playing with the sticks and various other stimulants they can play with. I would thoroughly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to go to a place like this to go. It was such an epic experience, and I will be returning many many times before I return.

As I have a good vested interest in photography, one thing I had to do was to shoot a sunset. The good thing about Darwin is that there is plenty of sea, which means there will be beaches. And with beaches come incredible sunsets. I knew I had to get one. Armed with my camera, my tripod, and enough space for 10000 photos, I ventured down to Fannie Bay Beach. The beach itself was just brilliant. There was no mess, no empty tin cans, and no mess. Just a clean, dark sandy beach. I got there with about 30 mins before the sun would be hitting the horizon. Plenty of time to take some test shots to gauge the amount of light I would be letting into the lens. I took my position at the top of the beach by a grassy walkway, so I was pretty much in the middle of the beach, with the trees behind me, the ocean in front of me, and a vast amount of quiet all around me. It was sensational. You can relax so much when you are all by yourself. I do love being around people, as anybody who knows me will testify too. I thrive off being around people, and I do love being the centre of attention. It’s what I crave. But this was heaven. It was so tranquil, so quiet and the views were amazing. I took close on to 400 photos in a little under 2 hours. The sunset didn’t disappoint. There were a lot of people who were walking their dogs on the beach. I always had a mind-set that if I ever saw a dog on a beach, it would be a golden retriever running around its owner with a giant stick in its mouth. Its owner would take the stick from the dog, and throw it into the small tide lapping up on the beach, making the dog bound into the tide and bring it back. My mind-set was absolutely spot on. I actually saw, and photographed a man walking his golden retriever on the beach. The dog did have a huge stick in its mouth, and it was running around its owner with its tail going berserk. I watched them pass me, and it was just brilliant. Something so small, with such a normal feel to it for the guy and his dog, was stunning for me. It’s the little things that you pick up on, that make you appreciate things.

The car park behind me had a few cars on, and people were staying in their cars, just to watch the sun go down. It’s the moment where the sun just disappears that gets you. At that moment, I actually started to think about the earth and the sun, and I wandered off in my own mind about the universe, and how small we as a planet are in relation to whatever else is indeed out there. Once the sun was gone, it gave me an incredible chance to capture the clouds that were over to my left, the edges of which were turning a magnificent shade of pink and orange in places. I used this moment to capture some shots in a format called HDR. It’s a way of digitally capturing images that best show of all the available colours and contrasts. Imagine being in a church and the sun is shining through a window so bright, that the light makes it impossible to see the dark wall next to the window with all the detail in the brick. HDR photos show you everything, in a way that makes the detail seem too much for some shots. You can see my HDR shots on my Facebook, album is called Fannie Bay beach.  Hopefully if you see the photos, you may be able to understand why the 2 hours I spent on my own there, were amazing. I hope you all have the opportunity to find yourselves at ease in being alone on your own to witness such a mesmerising event.

Without a doubt, the best day of being here so far occurred only a few days ago. A group of us, about 30 in total, went to Litchfield National Park. Situated about a 2 hour drive from where we were, it turned out to be one of the best days I can remember experiencing. Before we went to the park, we were going to go on a boat on the Adelaide River to hopefully see some crocs, and to feed them. We were picked up at 7am from our apartments, and we headed off in our own little bus with a driver called Joey. Joey was a proper good bloke. Thick Australian accent, funny, immensely informative, but a thoroughly good guy. You got the impression that everyone he meets instantly likes him. I know we all did. On the drive down there, he always told us about little interesting facts, such as when Darwin was bombed, it was bombed by the same group of Japanese fighters who destroyed Pearl Harbour. But they inflicted much more damage to Darwin than Pearl Harbour. They destroyed Darwin completely, to the point that the entire city was rebuilt. Completely. I was glad he told us this, as my research for Darwin revealed this little fact, and I had told a lot of people. So to get Joey to repeat it made me feel ace. Cheers Jo!

We arrived at the Adelaide River, and were greeted with tea and coffee, and toast. I knew the day would be amazing from this point on. Before we got aboard the boat, we had the opportunity to hold some snakes. As I had covered myself in insect repellent, I couldn’t hold a snake. But I made sure that I got photos of everyone holding the snakes. You could see that everyone loved it, and they all commented on how good it was. Too hold one of the worlds most feared animals must have been absolutely exhilarating. We also found some St Andrews Cross spiders in the bush, and we all took photos of them. When we boarded the boat, we had to walk over a bit of a rickety handmade bridge that creaked and groaned with every movement. When I got on the boat, I was hugely relieved. We were on the top deck of the boat, and we were had no windows so we were able to lean on the edge as the boat took off down the river. We hadn’t gone far when a croc spotted us, and in is territorial way, came swimming over to us. Now, we were on the top deck as I mentioned, in a relatively big boat, one that could hold I’d say about 50-60 people with ease. This croc was massive. Its head was monstrously big. And it floated right by us, whilst one of the guides fed another croc that was on the other side of the boat. The boat was divided into two sections. A left and a right. We were told not to swop sides, as doing this could result in the boat swaying, and ultimately sinking. And as we were told about the crocs showing no remorse for anything that invaded their space, every single one of us obeyed this command. We were told about people who had leant over to far, and had unfortunately lost arms due to the crocs simply pulling them off. There had also been a few deaths. With this, even the people who were still a bit tipsy from the night before took all of the information on board.

After the guide had fed the croc on the left, she came over to our side to feed the big guy who was patiently waiting by our side. She started by simply dangling a piece of buffalo over the side on a piece of wood and some string. After all, why have a lavish method of holding meat, when the chances are it’s going to be mauled apart by a croc? She dangled it about a foot away from the croc. As I mentioned before, they can go from being perfectly still to attacking faster than we can blink. And my god, did he prove that statistic right. With what can only be described as actual lightning reflexes, the croc leapt up like a prowling tiger and went for the buffalo carcass, and he got it no mithers! It was absolutely mesmerising, it was a display of utter dominance from the croc. It was beauty, power and grace all in one. Everyone was totally blown away by it. I think even people who had no interest in crocs were truly astounded by what they had seen. This was repeated a few times, and as the guide pointed out, you can’t train a crocodile, they do what they please, so to witness a jumping crocodile was without a doubt something to cross of my bucket list. We also had the opportunity to witness another one of natures’ greatest hunters but this time in flight. There are a lot of birds of prey around these national parks, and we got to witness about 20 or so Kite birds come in to get food of us. The food wasn’t seeds, it was meat. The guide was throwing scraps of meat overboard, and these kites were swooping down and grabbing the meat mid-air. I only saw one bird miss the meat, but he came for a second take and he got it. Simply brilliant. We then had a nice slow trip back to the rickety bridge, and from there we hopped back onto our bus with Joey and headed off into Litchfield Park.

The drive to Litchfield was of course all about the crocs, and everyone compared photos. Secretly, I knew I had some brilliant images, and I was itching to process them. We arrived at Litchfield, and Joey stopped at the sign so we could all get a photo of it. It marked the start of what was to be one of the best experiences of my life.

The first stop was at the termite mounds. Constructed over the course of 50 years by tiny little termites, they stand around 18 foot tall. Made out of spit and faeces of termites, they are fire proof, water proof, and wind proof. Proof that evolution has done its job pretty well. It shocked me that people were surprised when they looked closer and could see termites over the termite mounds. What else would they possibly expect? They were ugly things the mounds. But still, fascinating. After a few photos of the mounds, we headed off back on the bus.

Our next stop was at Wangi falls. A huge plunge pool that was filled with freshwater from a huge waterfall. Unfortunately, the pool itself was closed due to the potential of crocs lurking around waiting for some food. There was a balcony however that stood over the pool, which faced the waterfall directly. I used this moment to use my tripod and capture some stunning images. Even without my camera, there was no way I could forget the images in front of me. I knew I had to take pictures, so the people who aren’t in a fortunate position as us, at least have some way to appreciate what we saw. The sound of the water fall however is something I couldn’t capture. But I can describe it as a fresh roaring sound. Like mother nature roaring at us. In a good way though. The sound echoed around, and it ripped through us all and we all grinned as it was just out of this world. After a good 80ish photos, I returned back to our bus with the rest of the gang, and we had some lunch.

After our really nice lunch of fresh sandwiches and fruit, we headed off to another spot of tranquillity. We were told to expect a walk down 135 steps to get to our destination, but we all did it, taking our backpacks and bags with us. I was armed of course with my camera and began the descent down to another plunge pool. One that we could swim in this time. About halfway down, there was an elevated platform that overlooked our destination. I whipped out my camera, attached the lens, and shot away. The view was absolutely spectacular. It was breath-taking. You could see the line where the trees met the horizon; the perfectly clear crisp blue sky’s highlighted what can be described as beauty perfectly well. Rich green trees protruded into the blue sky. A perfect backdrop if ever one needed to be created. We headed down the remaining half of the trek; I was last of course, as I was stopping every 20 seconds or so to look at all of the colours of the plants and wildlife that was everywhere. I couldn’t believe the views that I was seeing. They were mind blowing. The bottom of the steps was welcomed by natural steps made from rock that twisted and turned in the shallow part of a stream. A stream which was crystal clear, you could see the rocks underneath. You were able to easily see your reflection in the water as it passed, it was that clear. There was a walk way over the stream as it got deeper. I used this to again capture some images. Thanks to my tripod, I was able to capture some stunning HDR pictures of the stream. Pictures that would later on prove to show me more detail than I could physically see at the time.

As I arrived at the focal point of this particular part of the park, everyone was already in the plunge pool, either swimming around or just taking in the surroundings. Everyone shouted me, as I had my camera, and they all wanted me to take their pictures. I, of course, could not say no. I didn’t want too, because I love the feeling when people see the pictures I have taken. A picture really does say a thousand words. These said a few thousand more.

Before I went into the pool, I wanted to have a walk around, and investigate the area. I of course took my camera with me. I have got a bit of a reputation now of taking good photos. In my opinion, if a photo reminds you of a good time, or it brings back some amazing memories, than no matter the subject or the outcome, the photo is always a good one. I waded through the stream which was broken off about 50 foot from the plunge pool. Luckily for me and my £800 camera, the water wasn’t overly strong so wading through proved very easy. I had worn some walking boots I bought before I came out here, as I knew for a fact I would be needing them for one thing or another. They proved invaluable on the slippy rocks, and they enabled me to crouch in the water to get some pictures of the fish that live in the water. Fish that weren’t scared of us being there. Instead, they swam around your feet, sometimes brushing across your feet. This did cause some of the girls to let out a yelp, but it is all part of the fun.

 It was during this time, when I was crouched in a stream, with literally about 200-300 people in my radius, that I experienced an epiphany. It was a moment that instantly hit me, and shocked me. An epiphany is classed as “a sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life-changing realization that a character experiences in an otherwise ordinary moment.” Ok, so maybe being crouched in a stream holding a camera isn’t an ordinary moment, but nonetheless, it was an epiphany. As I was crouched down, I really wanted to get a shot of the stream at the bottom of the picture, and the top of the picture would show the waterfall. I would be able to capture this by changing the aperture setting on my camera, so that the entire image would be perfectly in focus. Where I was standing was a prime location. Looking through the lens, I had the stream breaking off about 2/3rds of the way down from the top of the shot, the waterfall and pool occupied the top part of the picture. The sun was in the top right hand corner of the shot, and everything was perfect for a shot, which if it had prevailed, would have turned out to be one of the best shots I had ever taken. It turned out, that I would indeed take one of the best shots I had ever taken. Just as I was about to hit the capture button, I noticed that in the bottom left of my picture, something blurred. Now, as I had set my camera to a high aperture, this meant that everything in front of me was in perfect focus. But something was blurring in the bottom left, which meant that whatever it was, it was right in front of me. I pulled away from the camera, lowered my camera down as it was around my neck on a strap, and looked. Right in front of me literally 3 inches away from the lens, was a dragonfly. Bright red, beautiful, perfectly still. I raised my camera to grab a shot, and he moved about 4 inches away, meaning I needed to move. This sounds crazy, but it was like he moved for me. I positioned myself right in front of him, and prepped for a shot. I prayed he wouldn’t move. As I went for the picture, I remembered I needed to change my settings, so I changed to macro, amended some light settings, turned on anti-shake, crouched down and got my lens to within about an inch away from him. The foreground of the shot was impeccable. Bright vividly prominent leaves from a tree proved to be the backdrop of the photo which hit me more than I can possibly describe. In all this time, he didn’t move once, not once. He stayed still whilst I hit about 30 photos of him. Like I say, forgive the epic craziness of the statement, but if creatures could talk, he would have said “Scott mate, come here, I will give you a spot on photo of me, and I won’t move until your happy.” What I can’t stress enough to anyone reading, is things like this don’t happen. Creatures like this don’t stay still. We scare them. Big camera lenses scare these types of things. This is why photographers use lenses that cost thousands, so they can zoom in from yards away. I was right in front of this guy; my lens was literally next to him. It’s a moment which I am not afraid to admit, actually choked me. As I reviewed the pictures of this little guy, I whispered under my breathe “oh my god, I got it!”, and with this he jumped off the little branch he was on, and hovered in the air in front of me, did a spiral in the air and he was gone. For a good 2 minutes, I stood in this little stream, with the water running over my feet, the fish swimming around my legs. For 2 minutes, the noise of everyone their disappeared. If anyone tried to talk to me at this moment, I would not have heard them. I stood in awe; I could not believe what had just happened. To have a perfect picture in sight, only to be amended by a little bright red dragonfly, thus making the image one I will probably never ever get again, was the defining part of my journey I am currently on. I pulled myself out of the stream, and slowly walked back to the area where our belongings were. I put my camera in my bag, took off my now soaked walking boots, and wandered into the plunge pool. Everyone in my group, including the bus drivers, were all having fun and splashing about, and were just generally enjoying themselves. I got about 10 foot in, and found a nice smooth submerged rock, which I used to prop myself on, and submerged myself in the clear water. As I was lying down, I could not get the image of the dragonfly out of my head. I was alone in my own head with my own thoughts, and it was at this time that it hit me. Where I was, who I was with. The opportunity that had been given to me. It all hit me. Like a gust of wind that hits you and invigorates you immediately, the reality that I am one extremely privileged individual hit me. I cried. Silent in action, but dignified in the approach I cried. I was choked up, my eyes watered, and tears ran off my cheek.  Not through sadness, but through joy. Cheesy yes. Soppy yes. But all true. I cupped my hands into the water and splashed myself in the face with water, to simply hide the fact I had a little cry. It felt good. I hope that my gratitude can somehow be shown if people read this. In the space of ten minutes perched on this smooth rock, I took in as much detail as I can. The vivid white colour of the waterfall in front of me. The rich bright green of the trees that towered above us at the top of the rock formation. The smell of freshness, clean oxygen that made you feel cool in your lungs. I can recollect every tiny detail from those ten minutes. To my left, situated about 20 foot away, part of our group were on a rock, lying down in the sun. I think a few of us used this time to think about anything we wanted too. I could tell from their general posture, that they were thinking similar thoughts to me. I looked back over the waterfall area, and once again I was left thinking. Pondering my life, and everything up until this very moment. I replayed things in my head that have happened in my life. Events that have nearly destroyed me, things that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. Things that I thought I wanted to change if given the opportunity. I thought about the things that had changed my way of life, things that had rocked my beliefs and made me question what my purpose was. It dawned on me that everything I have done, everything that has happened to me had all led up to this moment. I had thought previously that my life had had some traumatic moments, well it actually has, but sitting there in Australia, on a smooth rock, watching a waterfall in front of a collective of a few hundred people made me realize that I am lucky. Immensely lucky. Someone somewhere made the decision to bring me here. And I can’t thank them enough. This truly has been, and will continue to be a life changing experience. I can promise everybody reading this, that although I was very much an optimist before coming out here; I will return being even more of an optimist. The feeling of euphoria I felt during the 10 minutes I spent there cannot be fully appreciated until it happens to an individual. I believe in karma, so I know that when I am called upon to help out, I will be there. We can all be happy and content in what we have in our lives, but until we are at the pinnacle of losing something, or until something happens so profound that you can appreciate what life is for, we won’t fully understand what we have.

It was then that the bus driver Joey raised his hands, and made it known we needed to leave. We got out, dried off and returned to the bus. Some of us walked back in silence, wether through exhaustion of the steps going back up or fascination of the thrill, we went in silence.

Our next stop was just a few kilometers down the road, it was again another opportunity for us to chill out in freshwater. This time though, I had no intention of going in. I wanted to photograph everyone who was there, so they too had their own images they could look back on and be reminded of this fascinating time. Everyone was in a good mood, everyone was smiling, and as they took turns jumping in and pulling faces, I captured everybody. I have some pictures where you can see people just thinking as they were relaxing in the pool. I have photos of people wearing smiles that I have never seen before. This place was magical. It brought out the best in everybody all at once. Everyone had a smile; everyone had an aura about them. I think everyone felt elation at some stage that afternoon. I loved taking the pictures of everyone. It made me happy seeing everyone happy.

We left Litchfield and headed back to our apartments. To our home away from home. Everyone slept on the way back, the day had taken its toll on everybody. But everyone agreed when we were back that this was the best day in Australia so far. For me, due to domino effect of emotions that were initiated by a little dragonfly, it turned out to be one of the best days I have ever had. Period.  I could say that I learnt a lot at Litchfield. The fact is, I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know. It opened my eyes to my life, and what it’s all about, it made me realize, that I am here for a reason in Australia. We are all here because we are extremely lucky. It’s not every day that you are given an opportunity like this. It’s not every day that you are given the gift of changing your life. So whilst it is right in front of me, you better believe that I intend to grab everything I can with both hands. Life is meant for living. We live once, our time here is limited. If someone asks you to go out, say yes, see what happens. We say no far too often. And what for? Is there any point in not doing new things? Do you really want to live your life thinking of the what ifs, and the things you have missed out on? Go to the train station, find the schedule, close your eyes, and put your finger on the board. Open your eyes and go to whatever destination you have landed on. Try something new.

Whilst you are sitting about playing with the pebbles, you are missing out on diamonds.

Peace x