Bold Undertakings...

Where does your sense of adventure come from?  Have you ever wondered why we’re wired the way we are…I guess it comes back to the age old question are you born with certain traits and/or dispositions or do you learn and respond to your surroundings and experiences.   Hhhhmmm, it definitely got me thinking this week as I reflected on my venturesome leanings. 

I’d like to think I was born with an adventurous spirit, but in reality I suppose its more likely a bit of both - well at least until they decode the genetics to answer this specific question we’ll have to go with that!  

Where to go....so many choices?!

The more I thought about that question this week the more it puzzled me…you see growing up I had a very limited view of the world and would therefore contend that I had a pretty limited sense of adventure.  But if we take a look at the facts we may discover something else at play here.  Let’s see, (1) The town I grew up in, Clunes was a very small country town in rural Australia - clearly not a lot going on, not to mention it was the 1960’s & 70’s!  Rural, isolated and old fashioned…. (2) We didn’t have much money as dad was often working at least two jobs to make ends meet which leads me to (3) without money or time holidays were out of the question for me and my family, not once did we go on holiday during my childhood.  To say it was a bit dull was a bit of an overstatement.   However, that being said it also provided me with something that many people haven’t experienced - a place where you could create your own adventures?   Sure they weren’t too worldly or overly exciting, but it broke the daily monotony.   Perhaps there’s a clue there…

We lived relatively close to a creek, where we often fished, caught yabbies’ (miniature freshwater lobster), swam and sometimes even ventured into old gold mines which dotted the banks – thank goodness our parents didn’t know that one!  J   You see, Clunes is an old gold mining town, well at least that were its original roots way back in the 1850’s and so to this day it remains festooned with old diggings and even a number of deep and decaying mine shafts.  I wouldn’t let my kids within 100 meters of these places.

San Fran is chock full of interesting things to see and try...yum!

Then there were the endless paddocks and farms that surrounded Clunes, plus the miles of country roads (yes, all dirt in those days) and seemingly endless expanse of virgin eucalyptus bush to boot.  

Some might look at this and think – “wow, what a blissful environment to grow up in” and I’m guessing we’d all pay big money to live somewhere like this now, especially the proximity to a aromatic eucalyptus forest…

As I reflect on it, it wasn’t too bad as it provided us with some pretty unique opportunities that a lot of other kids wouldn’t have go a chance to do if you lived in a city or larger town.   Firstly, we learned to drive at an early age (starting after we turned 10 y.o.) – those dirt roads were especially great for learning to slide a car around a corner (but I’ll leave that for another day), we learned to handle a rifle and shotgun with care, as we’d practice our shooting mostly on cans and fence posts, but also the occasional rabbit or kangaroo when it came within striking distance.   We’d often chase or catch wild rabbits (ferreting or spotlighting when we got older). 

If you asked any of my peers from those days they’d say that it sounds like a pretty average Australian upbringing in the bush, and it was!   Not overly complicated if you know what I mean. 

Haight & Ashbury in San Francisco - cool throw back
to the 60's

 If I close my eyes I’m quickly transported back to my childhood and those simpler times…the feeling of the wind in my hair, the sun, hot and clear as it warms my face, the clear scented air filing my lungs and the unique and beautiful sounds of the bush all around me as I walk through the tinder dry under growth.   There was something about the air that made things brighter or more concentrated, or is it just my youth and the romanticized view of those days?  

Hard to tell, but today when I go back, my pilgrimage is now to the local cemetery where mum and dad are both interned.   Although its a very sad outing, it’s also an extremely peaceful place surrounded by all the things that I just described….it’s a slice of home etched in my memory forever.   I can’t think of a better place to imagine them together.

I can see you now all looking at me quizzically asking so why tell me this story?

Well, as you read this week’s blog I’m cheerfully exploring San Francisco with Zach and Sami for the Labor day long weekend.  We decided that we needed to have an adventure of our own and so in the vein of creating your own fun I challenged each of them to create a daylong itinerary for San Francisco that we’d all actively participate in – the ground rules…there would be no complaints, fighting, or not wanting to go along.  We were all in!

I’m not sure if you’d call it a test, but clearly they’ve had a very different upbringing than mine, and I wondered if they share the same level of excitement I get when I set foot on a plane or in a new city for the first time?   Strangely that unbridled deep down exhilaration has never gone away for me, or likely to given where I am in my life!

TW in San Francisco earlier today with two very keen
accomplices!   

Clearly, it has less to do with the actual adventure, but with their thinking, creativity and excitement of discovering a city on their terms.  So in preparation I gave them some of my old travel books and suggested they spend some time researching over the course of the week.  Wow, talk about excitement when I picked them up last night!

At the end of the day I’d love for them to suggest we explore some little known neighborhood or restaurant off the beaten track but perhaps I’m being a little too unrealistic with my expectations considering they’re 13 and 11 respectively, but more importantly I’d like to think that at some point they’d be telling their own kids about their cool adventures with their dad when they were kids….hhhmmm now wouldn’t that be something!