2022 Mid Year Semester Break - Yirrkala

 Deciding to remain in Yirrkala due to my recovery from a fall despite the world opening up around me and family and friends visiting many of my favourite places has given me time to sort through the images of travel that are filed away under various platforms such as facebook, external hard drives and Google photos. 

Looking at these collections it could seem that nothing existed prior to facebook, or before I got my first smart phone. Somewhere along the digital path some crumbs of travel have gone missing somewhere. 

Similar to the trip I took to India in 1988 when none of the films I shot developed properly. 

As I began to go through the files, the back ups and the duplicates I thought it might be useful, to me to create a list of my travels to be able to better arrange the storage. That then begs the question why, why file and formalise the memories and contain them in photos?  Will they help me remember, I don't think so, will they make me nostalgic, maybe and is that productive? Or, will they make me realise that I did achieve the dream I had held since childhood, but sitting here, further away from my land of birth than possibly anywhere I've been, I know I have done that. What am I trying to prove?

Believe it or not all these years later I am still trying to prove that I can live my life in the way I wanted to against the narrative that dictated that I shouldn't. 

I began to travel at 21 knowing that once I started I would not stop,  at first  I travelled in a way that wasn't going on holiday, that didn't have a start or finish date, and it was not until 1994 that I went on an overseas trip with a return date and ticket.  

Travelling is where I am happiest, and most challenged, I do not like flying, but I don't suffer home sickness, it's as if my earlier travel was undertaken to find a home. 

I found one in Bali, but then a combination of working visa restrictions and Covid came and put a spanner into the works, temporarily I hope. Staying put has allowed me the time to think about where I 'belong' in the world, what 'home' means to me and it comes back again and again to the concept that I do need a home, but I need the challenge, I need to acquire experiences to bring back to that home, and when I feel adrift I tell myself that the days will pass and turn into stories of survival or revival, of observations and participation. 

I've got this ... kind of.

I am booked to get to Bangkok this September , but Jet Star has just abandoned their Darwin Singapore route .. which I had used my previous credit to purchase a seat on. I have Singapore Airlines to Bangkok from Singapore but I need to get to Singapore, which could be from Darwin by Singapore except for the dates.. there is an issue I need to resolve. 

I am booked onto a Qantas flight in December to Bali - let's see :)