Last year I celebrated my 50th birthday. I prepared a brief Photo Essay for JPG Magazine and include it here as it is a great reminder for me when I get too caught up in the current malaise and outlook for 2009. As has been said - 2009 will be fine!
My 50th birthday was next in line. How did I get here (in my best Bryan Ferry of Talking Heads Once in a Lifetime sing along)? More importantly, what to do to commemorate the transition into my next half century. So many choices. An ad from Quantas sealed the deal. Who says advertising doesn't work? Australia it was, and the planning was started in earnest. I booked a flight that would give me a little over a month on the ground. 
Australia is enormous. There's Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania, the Gold Coast, the vast central expanse, and, and, and....I quickly came to the conclusion that exploring the entire country would be like saying you wanted to explore and see Canada in one month. As a born and raised Canadian, eh, I would not recommend that. Historical experience in scuba led me to re-certify and schedule a liveaboard dive boat tour of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Barrier Reef (possible topic for a future Photo Essay). I continued to explore other options and in early April I set off on my journey. I was going to spend a week on the reef and then the balance of the time hopping from one Hostel to another exploring rainforest, interior highlands and beaches. The premise, to explore what is around me, and to explore myself.
The trip has provided me with another lifetime of memories. Seems like I have my fair share of those (more Photo Essays to come). A ritual on my adventure across Queensland was to rise every morning and watch the sunrise. My preference was to attend this ceremony at the beach. And Queensland has its fair share of beaches. I was astonished at the breadth and extent of the beaches. Seemingly never ending beaches. What a sight that must have been to Captain Cook in the days of sailing ships circa 1770. It was on my birthday of that year that Captain Cook first made sight of Australian aboriginals on shore. Maybe that's where my affinity to Australia comes from? Have you ever noticed the pattern of people using beaches first thing in the morning? As morning emerges from the darkness of the night, there begins a procession of runners, dog walkers, tidal flat farmers searching for their really really fresh breakfast choice. And gulls and other sea birds. Predators and prey of different descriptions. And of course the surfers as well. Classical scenes for sure.
Then there is the matter of the "squeaky sand". Early in my travel mention was made by several of Aussie's squeaky sand! And lo and behold, the beaches north and south of Brisbane all have squeaky sand. It is akin to the "creak" of snow at very low temperatures in Canada, but in the sand and where its hot! The sand molds and binds to your bare footprint and it is as much a feel squeak as it is a noise squeak. Its fun to just walk with your eyes closed, and feeling/hearing the sand squeak.
The beaches will long remain a powerful reminder to me of a place full of stillness peace and joy, yours for the taking. When, where and how you take these pleasures is your choice.
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