"Straya"

Sometimes when I travel, I find that I get giddy at the thought of getting to my destination. From the moment I step out of the plane I feel a rush of excitement and nervousness and the entire trip seems like an intensely short holiday speeding before my eyes. Australia, or "Straya" as it is known to the locals, was nothing like what I just described.

Since I was little I remember saying that for my honeymoon I would go to Australia. Don't ask me why, it's one of those things with a meaning I have yet to uncover. Anyway, I got here, unmarried, and certainly not anticipating bathtubs filled with rose petals, feasts to my senses or scenes in amber, being devoured in bed by my beloved! That's probably why I was not giddy on my arrival and wondered if I had flown half way around the world to encounter more of the same life left back home.

The thing is, Australia has grown on me. It's gotten under my skin slowly, with care, like sand that creeps into every last nook and cranny. And so gazing through the hot air at the stretches of eroded, dry, red stone and sand of the desert, I've asked myself: what is it about this place that has me thinking I will discover something here I cannot quite see with my naked eyes?

And so, I have experienced Australia slowly, visiting friends in places I would probably not have chosen as top destinations otherwise, and feeling all the luckier for it. I came here without a plan, without looking at the weather forecast, and without understanding the vastness and history of this massive land. For that, I ended up drowning my taste buds with the wine of the south, witnessing sea lions basking in the sun of a white beach, chancing my way into the outback in the intense red heat of the desert's summer and lulling myself to sleep under the pristine desert sky with Orion, twisted, guiding me from above. I have experienced a new found self-love and confidence, and felt more than just the hot wind caressing my body.

I would have never picked up a book on aboriginal people, their history, their demise or their art form had I not come here. I suspect I would have never understood the power and will to survive of these people, under the toughest of situations, had I not ventured into the desert and even spoken to one or two during my walks through Alice Springs. The thing is, it's not a given in Australia. Things are not thrown at you, in your face ..... you have to seek things out and learn in your own time and willingness. And if you give it long enough, you will eventually find that the people and the place really has a lot "down under" it's rugged, dry surface.