[ News and Events ]
SURFARI HIGHWAY NEARS END
The Great Round Australia Road Trip Winds Down
Category: General
Posted by: tim
After eight months and around 25,000 km we are nearly at the end of our great round Australia road trip. The book of our journey "Surfari" is almost off to the printers and will be published by Random House in November this year. It's been a mission but an immensely inspiring and fulfilling one. I've read a lot lately about the poor state of domestic tourism in Australia but I'd urge my fellow country men and women to get out and see their nation before jetting off to the rest of the world. I thought I knew my country, but I did not. It has been a huge eye-opener to fully appreciate what a remarkable, vast and diverse land it is we live in, and particularly to experience Indigenous culture up close and personal. Seeing the rock art of Ubirr, watching our kids play in a water hole with a gang of local kids in the Bungle Bungles, cruising the wetlands of Kakadu, marveling at the Gorges of the Kimberely - all these things have been at least as awe-inspiring as the great surf we've enjoyed along the way. We'll be home soon and it will be strange settling back into regular life - there's something that feels immensely satisfying about the Nomadic life, being in a new environment every few days, making up the itinerary as you go. It will be nice to get home and have a base again, but I feel certain a few more seasonal migrations will have to become a part of our lives from here on. To everyone we've met and shared the journey with along the way, thanks for your companionship. We've been buoyed by the friendly, honest and inspiring company we've enjoyed along the way. My advice to any surfer weighing up their next surf trip is, get out and see your country. Cultivating a sense of connection to your homeland resonates through your life on so many levels - it's about much more than riding waves. I guess it's about feeling truly at home in your environment. It makes the whole business or true reconciliation with Indigenous Australians feel like our most vital and urgent national project. I don't reckon we'll have truly come of age as a nation until it happens.