All my life I have felt the joy of, and need for, travel. It didn't really kick in, in a big way until I went to the Philippines in 1991. It was the first time I felt like I did belong somewhere on this planet, I'd been like a fish out of water up til that time. 6 years later I got into travel seriously as I stated traveling around Australia in dribs and drabs. My first port of call was Alice Springs, which was a spiritual awakening for me.

I've been here with my partner for 6 years, not going back to Alice once and I've decided it's finally time to get back their and re-acquaint myself with the land. I will be taking a trip March next year for a week to camp out and just be one with the spirits of the land. Definitely spend a few days in Alice, then a few days elsewhere but I haven't finalised where yet. I will be going again in August next year, dragging along some friends for a holiday trip.

Before then, I have a trip planned to Melbourne in September to help a friend out with her business for one day. I will be taking a trip to my ancestor's grave then. 4 people, my great grandmother, grandmother, her brother and my sister are buried in the same grave, so it's going to be a powerful reunion. I have been told I will be shocked because nobody has been there to tend it in a very long time, but I already know the state it's in. I planned to collect some grave dust while I'm there, not for magical workings but to make an amulet out of so I will always have their energies with me in a very tangible way. While there, I plan to leave an offering of food and drink for them. Not wine, because none of them drank (even though my great grandmother was a staunch Irish woman). I think water collected from a running stream will be fine.

Then, just before I head out to Alice next year I will be going to Sydney to the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras with my mother. I've been once but she never has and really wants to go, so I'll take her. Lots of travel ahead, which is such a wonderful feeling. Not to mention the weekend stop overs and day trips my partner and I do monthly to other places.

I can't eplain the feeling travel gives me, it's like it's part of my very soul. I have always said it's my gypsy blood and I have no idea if we actually do have Romany blood in our history, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we did. Travelling for me feels like I can breathe again. I never feel so passioante about working until I'm doing it while travelling as a way to sustain myself. I can't stand the idea of being stuck down to one place for ever, that is my purgatory. Which is really funny because I also want to have my own place so we can do away with rental inspections every 3 months *sigh*