1992 Australia

I was 18 and out in the world! What a fantastic feeling it was, I had only been on a plane once before and that was only to fly to Germany to visit my Godmother when I was about 12. The plane stopped in Bangkok, but unfortunately we were only there for refueling. I just remember that it was about 8 in the morning when we got there, but the heat that hit me when I got of the plane was like the wave of heat when you open the oven door.

We flew in over the top, left corner of Australia, somewhere over Darwin. You could feel the excitement building on the plane. Little did we realise though just how much more flying time we had to actually get to Sydney! The pilot flew a circuit of Ayres Rock so we could see it, and I have to admit it was a stunning sight. And finally, several hours after we first flew over Australia, we reached Sydney.

Ozzy met me at the airport, his Weimeraner waiting for us in the back of his 'Ute'. It was wonderful to be there and wonderful to see him. We went back to his house, where he was still living with his parents, and I met the family. Ozzy was working most of the three months I was there, but that was ok, it gave me chance to see what it would be like to live there. We had talked about me applying to live there, and this was going to be a kind of trial run. While he was at work I explored. I would jump on a train and head out from the suburbs to Sydney. I don't know what it's like now, but at the time Sydney was the cleanest city I had ever seen.

At the weekends we would head off in the 'Ute', quite often with the dog. He took me to the Blue Mountains, which have got to be one of the most stunning places I have ever been. One of the times he did get a week off he took me to his brother's farm out in the bush. Somewhere on a hill in the outback was a little cabin. It had no running water, no electricity and an outdoor 'dunny'. When we first arrived I stood and starred at the view for ages. I had never seen anything like it, and the best thing about was that was the view you saw from the dunny. My morning constitutional has never taken so much time as it did up there.

We stayed at the cabin for a week. During the day we explored the bush, went snake spotting and riding. I picked up a leech one day, but was lucky enough that it only bit through my sock and couldn't get a proper grip! At night we cooked on a campfire and slept with rats scuttling around us and strange noises outside. We washed in a bowl and pooed to an amazing view. I developed a strong desire to check all possible nooks and crannies around the toilet. It was a real back to basics week and I loved it! I was really glad of a shower when we got home though.

When I booked my flight I got a free internal flight, so we headed off to Queensland for two weeks. We stayed in Cairns, and although it was technically their Winter in was still scorching. The beaches were quiet and we had amazing stretches of stunning sand to ourselves. We took a boat out to the Barrier Reef and swam with tiny sharks and stingray. The time went so quickly at the reef. It was like swimming with fish in a lovely warm bath, and I could have stayed there for days. At night we would often go swimming in the hotel pool because even with the airconditioning the apartment was too hot. It was nice to go out with nice clothes on and not get cold or have to hide them under a big coat like we do in this country!

We went white water rafting, which has got to be one of the most amazing things I have done. They showed us the signs warning of crocodiles, before they took us down to the water! It was hard work, some of it quite risky. One of the rafts lost one of their occupants who promptly got run over by another raft! It was scary and exhilerating but definately something I would love to do again!

I had a fantastic time in Australia and I had a fantastic time with Ozzy, but I think we both knew that I wasn't really old enough to be making descisions about moving to the other side of the world and that it wasn't going to work long distance. I flew home at the end of August and that was the last time I saw Ozzy. We stayed in touch for a while but eventually lost contact. I still think about him today and often wonder what he's up to and whether he has a family now.