Making Dreams come true.

-
To make a dream come true you first have to have one. I draw inspiration by reading about other adventures and pursuing different activities.

When I started bush walking, magazines such as the Wild magazine inspired the likes of my trip to the Walls of Jerusalem in Tasmania and the Milford track in New Zealand.

Learning how to nordic ski and joining the Melbourne Nordic ski club got me thinking about snow camping and trips overseas.

A momentous 100 kg scare by standing on some electronic scales in a pharmacy, along with a printed ticket to stare me in the face and then coincidentally nearby there was a bike sale in the cycling shop. This got me into cycling and joining the Bayside Bandidos cycling  – with an apt motto “mid life crisis bike riding gang” kept me there.  Now I have cycling specific  holidays.

I’ve been kayaking since 16 years of age, sporadically I’ve had times up the Nepean river and more recently on the Glenelg river.

Kite boarding, a relatively new sport has seen adventures to Lombok, Fiji and Western Australia.

The choice is too broad with all my different interests, a job and family obligations for the time available; or is it ? Well, there are 52 weekends in a year, 4 weeks of leave for holidays and about 10 public holidays available to most of us Australians. That adds up to a lot of time available to take on various adventures, naturally there will be obligations towards family and such but a good portion can be assigned to and shared with an adventure theme. The trick is to plan out some ideas, do the chores and day to day humdrum stuff before or after work or if one is adequately remunerated engage paid helpers.

Part of the fun is planning and training for these activities. I’m lucky to be living in Melbourne close to the water.  In the morning I can ride with my cycling group, go for a kayak, swim or simply a walk, in the evening the same can occur; though usually after a day of working one finds it hard to be motivated.

So what are my big ticket adventure dreams ? (there are others such as social engagements and family activities but that is a different discourse).  I’ll split them into my sporting interests, the list is bigger than what I’ll do in a lifetime, but that in my books is a good thing !

Walking

  • Engage in some club walking. I’ve joined the YHA club a few years ago but never done a club walk. A walk every couple of months, or at least one !
  • UNESCO world heritage.

    I am mostly interested in the natural sites – 206 listed, but there is a cross-over into the cultural especially if a walk or ride is to be included (a further 832 on that list). I’ve already visited a few.

    Of near particular interest, UNESCO or otherwise include:
  • Canyonlands national park, Utah USA
  • Banff and lake Louise and Jasper national parks Canada – in the winter…. White Christmas.
  • Iceland
  • Los Glaciares national park, Argentina
  • Iguazu Falls, Argentina / Brazil
  • Salt flats of Juyjuy province Argentina
  • Huaraz, Peru
  • Komodo National park and the volcanoes of Flores
  • Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam

Cycling

Kite Surfing

  • Cocos Islands
  • Zanzibar
  • Northland of New Zealand
  • Aitutaki, Cook Islands.
  • Tonga
  • Maldives
  • Cambodia

Kayaking

  • Solomon islands
  • Dusky and other sounds in New Zealand.
  • Canadian river systems.
  • Lakes / river  system of east Victoria.
  • Extended Hawkesbury river system of NSW.
  • Goulburn river
  • Antarctic peninsula (This year !)
  • Raja Ampat, West Papua
  • North Polar regions say Greenland / Norway to see: Polar bear, Walrus and a puffin bird.

Nordic Skiing

  • Telefests in Europe and USA, Canada.
  • Boat tour in Norway fjords, telemark skiing on slopes.
  • Japan – Hokkaido
  • Ski tour Antarctica/ South Georgia. (just missed out on this one as the trip organisers cancelled it.)

UNESCO places I have visited so far:

in Australia:

  • Great Barrier Reef
  • Lord Howe Island Group
  • Tasmanian Wilderness
  • Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
  • Wet Tropics of Queensland
  • Shark Bay, Western Australia
  • Fraser Island
  • Greater Blue Mountains Area
  • Ningaloo Coast

Croatia

  • Plitvice Lakes National Park

Montenegro

  • Durmitor National Park

New Zealand

  • Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand
  • Tongariro National Park

Peru

  • Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (and Choquequirao)
  • Manú National Park

Slovenia

  • Škocjan Caves

USA

  • Redwood National and State Parks
  • Yosemite National Park
  • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Blog Indexes:

Comments

Post a Comment