By Erik Skye

January 24, 2011:

"The world is not painted or adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful..." Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet 1844. I saw that stenciled on a wall on Day 10. The natural world of Australia is beautiful.

It’s been a week since I left Australia. Everything in life is now a little different. I don’t know if it’s that I’ve changed or that I better understand who I already was (probably a little of both).

I wrote these articles (“Return to Oz”) as a way to share my adventures with my friends and family back home. It’s from an American’s perspective, highlighting natural beauty and cultural differences for those who probably will never get a chance to see Australia. Or, perhaps it will inspire some to make a trip “Down Under”.

Australian’s have a lot to be proud of. They’ve inherited a gorgeous, wealthy, free country. I see that they’re struggling a bit to find their identity, being so young. But isn’t that a great thing in some ways (a lack of history) – the best chance to define a future?

The aborigines are a remarkable people – just look into their souls and spirits. Learn from them Australia. They're a key component of your character.

Embrace your convict heritage. It was an unfair and cruel system forced by a different country. (I read a 600 page novel about it.) Subsequent generations should be proud to have overcome.

I love music - it truly moves my soul. I was exposed to awesome Australian music while there. Some songs will be among the favorites of my life. Music keeps memories alive, and when certain songs are played again, memories of my Australian journey will come flooding back. Still one of my fav's (Day 20): Australian Crawl - Downhearted (scroll down to song dated 29 Dec 2010)

Speaking of flooding, there was a lot of that on this trip. There was the flooding of Carnarvon in late December (which I got close to), and then there was massive flooding in southern Queensland. As I approached that area from the north, the city of Toowoomba had a great surge of water sweep right through downtown and Brisbane was hit two days before I arrived. As I left Australia, they were talking about the state of Victoria being next. It really is the land of the flash flood.

My trip wouldn’t nearly have been as rewarding without the people. There was Ceren in Sydney (Day 1 & 4), Shane in Camden (Day 8), Tim in Denham (Day 20), Andrew on the plane to Alice Springs (Day 23), Lee in Darwin (Day 24), Dimitri and his group in the Daintree (Day 27), and Nathan in Brisbane (Day 37), to name a few. People are important. I almost wonder – is there even a story without people? If there is, it’s probably not a very interesting one. Thanks all.

I didn't take a cell phone to Australia. It felt good not to have that tether.

I drove just over 11,000 kilometers (about 7,000 miles) and travelled on three domestic flights.

Flying the Tiger Moth was a small victory and a big novelty (Day 8). Spinning it on "film" - priceless! Here's the video: Day 13

The white sands and blue ocean of Western Australia were incredible.

For as much as I talked about (and drank) long blacks, here’s a twist – Nathan (a.k.a. Captain Raw; Day 37) influenced me to give up coffee and instead drink green tea. So that’s what I’ve done (decaf). Nathan said I'm 'dialed in' and 'it's time for me to take it to the next level'. Thanks Nathan, I will!

I’d like to spend more time exploring the Blue Mountains and the Bathurst region. I’d go back to the southwest corner of Western Australia, Port Douglas, Townsville, Sydney, and (from last year’s trip) the state of Victoria. The orange bush is my favorite for visiting, but I found I never stayed long and always breathed a sigh of relief to be back on the ocean again. I can say the same thing about the big cities.

I attempted to select my top 10 favorite photo's from the trip for inclusion in this article. I ended up with a bit more than that! By the way - I took all the photos for "Return to Oz", using a Nikon D60 DSLR camera.

Well, I don’t have much more for ya. I hope you enjoyed these adventures. I sure did.

That’s a wrap! Thanks for coming along.