A New Adventure

After five months abroad I return home. I re-establish relationships with mixed results.

I return to my work. It eats my life. Around the edges I battle entropy.

Hours, weeks and months disappear.

I am not happy. I snarl like a trapped animal.
My life sleeps.

Every morning I switch on my computer. The desktop shows a random photograph of last years adventures. It lifts my spirits as I recall sunsets in the Galapagos, the Masaii Mara, glaciers in the Himalayas, the Amazon jungle.

I start to think of myself living two lives. The first is anchored to routine and is stagnating. My other life is one of travel. Dynamic, endless change, full of vibrancy and adventure.

A new year begins and I start recounting the old.
This time last year I was in Japan.
This time last year I was in Hong Kong.
This time last year I saw my first wild lion.

Easter is approaching so I look at the calendar. By combining public holidays with annual leave I calculate I can take a 25 day break from Good Friday to Anzac day.

I look for a suitable tour that I can do in that time. I want to walk in mountains. The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal is the obvious choice. It starts on Easter Sunday and finishes 3 weeks later. I will have to arrive in Kathmandu on the Saturday and I can get home midday on the Anzac holiday and be back at work the next day.

Within three days it is all booked. I can save a couple of hundred dollars by leaving a day earlier and I figure I might as well spend the extra time in Kathmandu than Melbourne.

So now I am packing and you would think after five months abroad I would know exactly what to take. But I have forgotten which trousers I should take and how many shirts I will need.

Still, I am all packed two days before I have to leave. And after work on Holy Thursday all I have left to do is go out to dinner with friends.

There is a bit of excitement for about an hour when I can't find my passport. Friends help me unpack and repack and recheck and it is found in a bag I was sure I rechecked three times.

I am only 15 minutes late for dinner and it is all very yummy. But I'm getting edgier. Then it is straight to the airport and I am away.

Flying from Bangkok to Nepal I make sure I get a seat where I can get a good view of the Himalayas.