1994 Return to Oz Part I

I started to get itchy feet again. I was intending to head to South America. I have always fancied Peru and Chile. But it was a year that Australia had some devastating bush fires and it was all over the news. I had fallen in love with Australia last time and was drawn to go back. I convinced work to let me take two weeks paid holiday and two weeks unpaid. None of my friends could afford to go so in the end I convinced my father to come. He had always wanted to go to Australia and was coming up 63 so it was now or never. He had never flown before and had only been as far as Germany.

So in December '94 I said goodbye to my long haired bassist at the coach station and off we went. Many people asked if my mother minded us going away at Christmas but as far as she was concerned it was two less people to worry about! We flew via American airlines to Boston. It was cheaper to fly that way round even though it took longer. I was just a two days away from my 21st birthday and because it was an American airline they wouldn't allow me to drink on the plane. We stayed the night in Boston and had a bit of a look round. It was very cold but also beautiful with all the Christmas lights.

We had to make two connecting flights the next day and finally the night before my 21st birthday we set out for Oz from LA. My father had a quiet word with one of the airhostesses and as we passed midnight she brought out two glasses of champagne and an unopened bottle. The flight across the ocean from America to Australia is aparantly renowned for it's turbulence. Indeed, I have never experienced anything like it since. My father and I were sat strapped in, exchanging looks as we grabbed at our glasses of champagne as they flew passed our face! Several times the plane seemed to drop huge distances and I just told myself that if the air hostesses weren't screaning yet then neither should I. Unfortunately just a few short hours after we rolled into the 10th of December we crossed the international date line and it was suddenly the 11th! It was my birthday no more. So I had a very short 21st but at least I remember it!

We finally made it to Sydney and set about finding somewhere to stay. We were totally winging it and had decided on Youth Hostels for at least some of our stay. We booked into a YH in a suburb of Sydney called Glebe. We spent a few days there while we got over our jet lag. I hooked up with one of the guys that worked there, so when my poor old father went to bed early I went out to play! I actually bumped into someone I knew in a bar in Glebe. I knew he was in Australia at the time but I had no idea where, and it really is a big place isn't it.

When we had recovered from our flights and had a look round Sydney we hired a camper van. Well my father did, I couldn't afford it!! And we set off on our 'wherever the road leads us' adventure.