Santiago de Chile... The End of the Adventure!

Well, I made it.

This morning I write from Santiago de Chile, the very last international stop on a journey which has taken me across six continents and 53 countries, has seen me cross the equator six times, travel across 40 time zones, and cover 98.61 latitudinal degrees on this amazing planet we are all lucky enough to call home. It’s a journey which has been rewarding, exciting, challenging and even confronting at times, and after 45 flights, over 6000km on a train through Russia, over 11,000km in a truck through Africa, and countless hours waiting in airports, bus terminals, train stations and ferry ports all over the world, in just hours this journey will come to an end.

With only 24 hours here in Santiago, I spent yesterday afternoon exploring the city centre, before heading out to an actual restaurant for dinner last night. Sitting alone at a table, I had no one to talk to, and no one to keep me company – a situation which would have bored me almost to tears at many points throughout the past year; however, on my last night out of Australia, sitting alone and watching the world pass me by was exactly what I wanted to do.

One of the challenges of travelling for as long as I have been fortunate enough to do, is that sometimes it’s too easy to forget to stop and really appreciate a destination, experience or moment. Just yesterday I looked out the window of my plane, at the snow-capped peaks of the Andes Mountain Range below, and it suddenly occurred to me what an amazing experience I have had, yet how common-place it had all become. My year has been filled with spectacular views, once-in-a-lifetime moments, and some of the most extraordinary opportunities I could ever dream of – yet non-stop travel really doesn’t allow the time to sit back and truly comprehend the magnitude of what is seen, experienced and learned. As I head back home, it’s now time to really reflect back on what a journey I have had; reflect on the diversity of the human race, the natural world in which we exist, the courage and determination of people to stand up for what they believe, the joy which comes from sharing our lives with others, and even the challenges which we all at some point are forced to face.

It seems like only a couple of weeks ago I was heading to Adelaide airport, with only a rough itinerary for a year abroad, and no idea how I was going to pull this ridiculously ill-prepared feat off. I was so sick the day I left Australia, and at the time I couldn’t help but think it might be a better life-choice to turn around, go back to bed, and forget this silly idea to travel had even entered my mind. However, I didn’t turn back, and with every new destination I arrived in, every bus, train or plane I boarded, and every challenge I met along the way, somehow the ridiculous feat became less and less ridiculous, and my very rough itinerary fattened itself up into an adventure I never could have dreamed of.

I remember early on in my travels, thinking how foreign it was to sleep in a different bed every night, attempt a different language every few days or weeks, and to spend hours, if not days, sleeping in airports and bus stations, couches or hammocks. However, somewhere along the way this became the norm – a very exciting norm – and all of the sudden it feels foreign to be heading back home, to my own bed, my own house, and the certainty of knowing what the next day, week and month is likely to bring. While there are definitely aspects of home I am looking forward to, and friends and family I am looking forward to seeing, it’s a bittersweet end, for I know I will miss the freedom of travel, the excitement of a new destination, the buzz which comes from achieving what once seemed impossible, and the joy which comes from sharing these moments with the people in my life.

I started this blog as a way to remember my travels, to share these with my family and friends, and to give me something to look back on in years to come. It hasn’t always been easy to write, and finding motivation at times has been almost near impossible, but with a great rush over the last couple of days, I’ve managed to see it through to the end. It’s funny to think about what might happen to the words, thoughts, memories and pictures I have poured into this page, and while many people would hesitate to leave such personal information and intellectual property in the world of cyberspace, I’d like to believe it’s a way of my journey continuing long after I return home. 200 years down the track, when someone Super-Google’s the definition of Smiley Fritz, Olga the train lady, or Underbelly: Stan & Stacy, they might just stumble on this primitive two-dimensional webpage, and somehow I’ll know my efforts did not go to waste.

So, where to from here? I hear you ask. In just a couple of hours I will be boarding my flight back to Sydney, Australia, where my mum Amanda, sister Hannah, and brother Tim are waiting to meet me. With a 24 hour stopover in Sydney, it will be nice to spend some time with family, before making the final journey back home to Adelaide late tomorrow evening. Those of you who know me well will know I have never been so good at the whole ‘knowing which direction to take in life’ thing, and even after a year abroad, I’m afraid not much has changed. Just yesterday I found out I’ve been re-accepted into university (this was a surprise – I assumed there was a black mark next to my name!), and with only one year to go to finish my degree, at the moment that’s looking like the plan for 2013. When I left Australia, I left behind a job I absolutely loved, a team of staff who made every day worthwhile, and a potential career path in a direction I was more than happy to go in, however, as much as things were right at the time, it’s not my time to go back yet.

It’s impossible to know what the future does hold, and I can’t even comprehend how much my year abroad has changed the direction I will take. While the year has failed to provide me with any exact plan of what to do with my life, or where I will be in one, five or even 50 years, I do know the experiences, opportunities and challenges of the past 12 months, and the lessons learned, will still be very much with me in the decisions I make which shape the rest of my days.

To all of you who have read this blog along the way, have left your comments, shared your stories, and given me the encouragement I often needed to keep on typing, I thank you. To the people I have met on the road, in the sky, or anywhere in-between, I thank you for making this year a truly amazing experience, and one I am certain never to forget. To those I will now call ‘friends’ for the rest of my life, I thank you for the impact you have had, the memories we will forever share, and the positive contribution you have made to this world, just by being you. Whether travelling, living abroad, or sharing your house and lives with travellers like myself, it takes great courage and bravery to open your life to adventure, and I congratulate you and thank you for what you do each and every day. But most importantly, to the many millions of people I have encountered this year purely through you living your life, and me living mine, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To have the opportunity, financial means and political freedom to travel the world is a privilege I am so very lucky to have, and to have had the opportunity to walk alongside you in the street, stand beside you on a bus, share a train cabin across Siberia, or enjoy a meal together from a street vendor in a small village in the South American mountains has been an honour, and gift I will never be able to repay. By simply living your life, you have enriched mine beyond what words can express.

And finally, as I finish this last blog entry, I want to remind you all of a quote I read way back on my very first flight on January 20^th, 2012. It’s from the book Tropic of Capricorn (2008, BBC Books), by Simon Reeve, and 365 days after reading this for the very first time, I still believe it to be one of the most important lessons I have taken with me on my travels around the globe, and will take into my future adventures.

“When we leave our borders we should remember travel is a desire of many, but an honour for a few. As such it carries certain responsibilities. For the time has long gone when we could happily settle for weeks on a sunny beach without considering the environmental impact of our travels, or the fact that our boutique hotel is owned by the son of the local dictator. None of us should now be travelling blind, and learning more about the places we visit makes for a more interesting experience, a more rounded adventure. So following the Tropic of Capricorn is important to me, but the real idea is to use it as the central thread of a journey that teaches me more about issues and places of which we hear little in the West.”

Simon Reeve, 2008

Thank you for reading, “From Smiley Fritz to Santiago… A year in the life of an escaped Service Deli Manager.”

Until my next big adventure,

Santiago de Chile

January 19, 2013