“That’s the arm pit calling the ass crack hairy.” From the Aussie outback.

Periodically I have a desire to find remoteness, that feeling of connection derived from disconnect, to experience the simplicity that stands true in nature. This time I found it in the red dust, the red earth and the drive to set foot in the vastness of the Australian outback. 

There is something about the space between the land and the stars, the trees and the creeks, the corrugated tracks and the blue tongue lizards, the grass trees and the salty crocs, the sweat and the bloody midges; present is an instinctive instruction as real as the urge to breath in, and, the urge to breathe out; simply a knowing is felt.  

As I bury my feet into the riverbank sand, warmed by the days heat and look down stream up at the stars that reflect on the silky water calmed by knotted mangrove roots, there is a truth as real as nature itself; that we are natural beings and have a place amongst this natural world.  

It has taken a lifetime to do a brother’s trip. Finally happened. Ample hydration supplied by Great Northern Brewing co.

With this thought I find comfort and am reminded that not so long ago, this same feeling I carried on one shoulder and the other carried grievances of mine and those I shared love. A challenging balancing act.  As gaining access to the remote, the vast, the adventurous comes with compromises; compromises in explanation but in application are better described as costs.  

To go somewhere is to leave somewhere, to invest in the now is to not invest in the future, to be there is to not be here, to live with the risks of adventure is to not live the acceptable life.

Are the costs worth it?  As I sit here on the river bank and watch my brother’s headlamp scan from side to side keeping one eye on the crocodiles and one eye on his fishing rod, I can say yes.   As much as I’ll carry the red dirt on all my belonging out of this back country, I’ll also be content in having invested in experiencing life with my brother’s arm around my shoulder and mine around his; as a brother’s bond stretches to all lands and across all boundaries.  An investment that pays out in the form of great memories and deepened trust.  If there is a bond that rivals a brothers, it is the one created from experiencing the ardours challenges with others found at the clinch moments within an adventure.   To be fortunate enough to experience the adventurous with my big bro leaves me grateful and focused.  If there is one impression that the rugged nature of the Aussie back country has left me with; it is the knowing that we are innately connected to this earth and with each step we get closer to returning to the soil. 

The track in which we take is ours to form or follow; the adventure is within our choices.   

If you have read this far, well done and Thank you for being here.

Now the important question, are you a hairy armpit or an ass crack.

Leigh