Blogs from Eltham, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

It's been quite a contrasting experience, this planning for the second camino. Firstly, it's been coming from such a long way away. In my, undoubtedly questionable, remembrance of 16 months ago, it feels like I made the decision to do the camino and left within a couple of days. That's wrong, but I don't remember counting down the days the way I have been this time - I just remember being busy and leaving. Maybe I remember it like this because of the difficulties I had with the actual trip over - no Vietnamese Visa, transferring luggage, buses that wouldn't move, broken trains, and now in memory, it all feels like it was rushed and improvised and everything happened at once. This time round, we've been counting steadily for weeks and weeks and weeks. Plane tickets ... read more

Where is my mind? (The Pixies) So, here's the thing. It's now less that a week before I leave, and mixed up in all the excitement and anticipation (and let's face it - I've packed already) is a sense of ... what? Not fear, not worry... maybe the word is doubt. About myself. And I should clarify: I don't mean anything particularly about the walking,or carrying a pack or that - I mean more on my ability to KEEP MY STUFF!!!!! I'm talking about walking off and leaving my phone, toiletries, hat, sunglasses, money, pack, sense of self-worth... EVERYTHING I OWN... behind somewhere. I have form. This morning I left for work with only my phone and keys. No wallet, glasses, NOTHING. If I was a smart pilgrim missing a few things, just follow me... I'm ... read more

Hello and welcome to the final installment of Matt & Sharon's travel blog, coming to you from sunny ol' Melbourne town. Indulge us as we describe the last days of our trip and look back on some of the unforgettable experiences. The last time that we spoke Sharon and I were killing time before our flight back home. After finishing up at the internet cafe we wandered across the road for a bite to eat before playing pool for an hour or so. Given the Tube's propensity to be chock-a-block full at all hours of day and night, we decided to head over to Heathrow at around 3:30pm, giving us around six hours before our flight was scheduled to depart. We read newspapers, checked our emails and generally just wasted time before grabbing some dinner at ... read more

Its been the last times that have been getting me. It has been 150 days, well a lot longer than that but, 150 days since I started counting down and now I find myself with no more days to count. I will be boarding my plane in 15 hours time. Although I wrote about most of what lead me up to taking the trip and how I went about it in my last blog post I felt like I should write another before I left. The reason I felt so compelled to do so is that what I have felt since writing my last post leading up to now has been so profoundly different that I didn't think my last posted adequately described what I have been experiencing as the preparation for my trip came down ... read more