September 2nd, 1999
Your nerves are wrecked from working too hard and your company decides to retire you early. You have your 50th birthday staring you in the face and you don’t know what to do with yourself. This is the dilemma that I am facing at the moment.
So, what do I do? Do I sit at home, feel sorry for myself and slide slowly down the slippery slope. Do I hell as like. I get myself off to the travel agents and book myself a holiday. Not just any holiday mind you. I book myself a trip to Australia and I will be away for just under 3 months.
My friends thought I was mad. “It will cost you a fortune in hotel bills,” they said, little realising that I had joined the YHA. Now some people may think that this is a contradiction in terms me joining the YHA and being 50 (September 3rd), but there is no age limit. I went on the Internet and had a great time looking at the different Youth Hostels in the areas that I am going to visit. The site that I found the most helpful was http://www.iyhf.org. This takes you to all the YHA in the world.
On surfing the net I was amazed how well appointed the hostels were and also the reasonable cost. I found that in Australia the average cost was about A$20 per night. This is about £8.33 but you will have to work it out into your own money due to currency rates going up and down like a bride’s nightdress.
I am now planning my itinerary carefully and trying to work out how many days to have at each stop. Thankfully my internal flights have full flexibility so if I decide to stay in one place a little longer then I can change my flights with no surcharge.
I land in Melbourne on September 27th where I will stay for a few days. I am staying at the Queensberry Hill YH having booked my accommodation by internet (how did we ever manage without it?). I am then moving on to Adelaide to see a friend from my home town who now lives there and then it’s off to Alice Springs. I think I will then be going to Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney with a lot of stops in between.
My next stop is to the hiking shop to buy myself a good rucksack and a decent pair of boots. After that, the world.
It is amazing how people have reacted when I’ve told them what I’m doing. Everybody has said I’m doing the right thing. One person said to me only today “there are no pockets in shrouds”. How right he is. So, if you are thinking of doing something similar then think no longer and go and book it – LIVE FOR THE MOMENT.
I will send you further reports when I start my travels but if anybody wants to reach me then they can contact me at david_barker50@hotmail.com. I would love to meet up with people on my travels, so if I’m heading to your neck of the woods then please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you.
