Indelible Adventures

Interestingly I’ve never been much of a hiker!  I know, hard to believe given that this time last year I was in the final throes of training for my trek in Papua New Guinea but there you have it.  In fact my last foray into anything resembling a hike was way back in 1990 when I attempted to complete the Coast-to-Coast walk across the UK.   What was I thinking? Keith, Boomer & TW at St Bees on the Irish Sea August 1990 prior to setting out for our Coast-to-Coast hike An English gentleman named Alfred Wainwright endearingly coined this famous “walk” for want of a better term, but let me tell you it is a grinding 192 mile from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood Bay in North Yorkshire...   During this epic hike you actually pass through three large, expansive and beautiful National Parks – The LakesDistrict , Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors (yes, I also think of the Hounds of the Baskerville as well when I hear the word ...

My first real career was that of a teacher.   The year was 1982 and I was finishing my third year as a primary school teacher.  This past year had been particularly tough one and the whole teaching thing was wearing a little thin to be honest.   This was my third school in three years and I had so far taught in two rural settings and this past year at an inner city in Melbourne’s western suburbs. My first teaching assignment was in a little community on the Victoria – South Australia border in a town called Apsley.  In those days the head teacher was provided with a house in the community in which they taught, but because the principal was a local the house was sitting vacant until I arrived.   A small three-teacher school on the edge of town surrounded by farms, idyllic setting you’d think but the town was almost devoid of anyone near my age...well of the fairer sex that is!   I was 22 years old and stuck in a town 2.5 h...