Hill Inlet, Whitsunday Island campsite.

I sit here in “post holiday shock”, having just got back from a fabulous two week paddling trip in the Whitsunday’s from Mackay up to Airlie Beach.

Over 220 kilometers of island hopping: beautiful beach to beautiful beach and paddling with tailwinds all the way. Probably the most memorable will be walking into a palm grove at the bottom of a steep cliff on Carlisle Island and discovering we were surrounded by literally hundreds of thousands of black and blue spotted butterflies – each wing the size of a small chickens egg.

It was like something from a fairy tale.

Those of you who read my last editorial might remember that at the end of last year I had been feeling fairly jaded. OK, let us call a spade a spade – I was feeling absolutely at the bottom of the barrel. Well, being “off with the butterflies” is exactly the sort of experience that brings the wonder of the world back into your soul.

Taking the time to stop – sit in that palm grove; breath in the sweet smell of the flowers in the tree canopy that were attracting the butterflies; the dampness of the forest; to listen to the chirp of the tropical birds and relax. Wow!

As my seven-year-old daughter said to me recently – “Dad, sometimes you just have to stop, lay down and look at the clouds.”

Hmmmmmm …………….

OK, maybe my butterfly experience will not make it in as the lead chapter in a “How to get ahead in the great big world”, but it was certainly spinning my wheels.

So now that makes two good trips this year and I am looking at getting away for a couple of more weeks in another two months – destination unknown. In fact – I think I will take a map of Australia, face towards it with a dart in my hand and close my eyes.

Where it hits, well that is where I go.

So get ready for some stories and hopefully inspiring pictures over the next year from paddling trips including the Great Ocean Road and the Shipwreck Coast in Victoria, two months from Wyndham to Broome around the north west coast of WA in the Buccaneer Archipelago and the Kimberley’s and the South West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island – the wild Fiordland region.

In between now and then, my paddling focus is to help anyone who is interested get up to speed for long distance trips and expeditions.

I mean hey, who wants to go alone on these trips right!

So you ……… get that boat and get the heck away from that desk. Don’t worry about working that unpaid, unappreciated, unfair overtime.

Have a good read, get inspired and get your gear ready!

Maybe you might want to just look at some clouds ………….

Have a good read and get your gear ready!

Cheers

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