Experience A Modern Day Walkabout!!



I had become a member of the National Institute of Exploration based in Champagne ,Illinois a couple of years earlier. At the time they were escorting photography groups into exotic areas of the world and publishing photography books of photos and stories that were taken on the expeditions! 

 They were planning a trip to Peru and Machu Picchu, somewhere that I really had an interest in visiting. For various reasons, I was unable to take advantage of that trip and had almost forgotten about them.

One evening , while working in my darkroom, I received a call from them saying that they were planning a expedition of 200 photographers to Australia in June and was inquiring as to the feasibility of me going and leading a group. We would spend a month in Australia, break into groups of 8-10, each group spending approximately a week in an area , then go to a different area and spend a week there.

It was something that I had never given a second taught to , but I almost said yes immediately, but hesitated and said I would get back to them.

If I recruited 10 people  and became a team leader, I could get my trip for free. This sounded like an interesting opportunity, so I went for it.

I immediately began issuing press releases and recruiting people who might be interested in spending a month photographing Australia. I finally wound up recruiting 2 people , which was short of my goal, but I decided that for the money, it was still a good opportunity.


As the week of the trip approached, things became really chaotic, We had inadvertently decided to go on an Australian school holiday and it was extremely hard to get airline reservations. My flights were being changed daily or hourly, finally on Saturday about midnight, Barry Barker, the President  called me and said that  I would be leaving about 1:00 PM from Indianapolis on Sunday and that I should pick my ticket up at the ticket counter . At that point in time I had nothing to go on but blind faith, so my dad took me to the airport and lo and behold , my ticket was there!!

Bidding a quick good-bye to my dad , I scurried thru customs with my 80 rolls of film and boarded the aircraft bound for Chicago on what was the first leg of my 40 hour plane ride. Looking at my ticket I realized I only had a 45 minute layover in Chicago, being that the plane was 20 minutes late leaving Indianapolis, that only left 25 minutes to change planes, not much time. Little did I know that this was only a hint of things to come, the whole trip was going to be about synchronicity.

As the plane nuzzled to the gate I immediately left the plane and began running to my next plane bound for San Francisco. Luckily it wasn't too far away and my self and my luggage boarded with plenty of time to spare!

A bright, sunny, cloudless sky awaited us in San Francisco, with the mountains and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background , the approach over the bay  was breathtaking ! 

Luckily I had a 5 hour layover , so there was more than plenty of time to eat and relax. We began boarding about 10 PM for our 5 hour flight to Hawaii. taking over an hour to completely load the 747, I began to feel as if I was participating in one of those "Airplane"  movies.

After taking off and enjoying a fine airplane meal, the rest of the 5 hours was spent sleeping, as it was already late at night back in Indiana.

 Having  a short stop in Honolulu I did step outside the airport to enjoy the tropical air and to be able to say that I had been to Hawaii , then we were on our way to our next stop Auckland, New Zealand.

The plane was only about 1/3 full, so there was plenty of room to stretch out for an occasional nap, or so I thought! My original plan was to catch some shut eye after take off, as there were four empty seats between myself and the next passenger. However, that thought disappeared , as during take off I had fallen asleep, when I awoke after being in the air for some time, the clown four seats over from me had taken every seat for himself.

That turned out to be a blessing, as when I made my way to the back of the plane, I began meeting people who would be joining me on my Australian adventure. We all congregated in the back of the plane and started sharing stories and getting to know each other. 

A few hours into the flight we crossed the equator, my first time in the southern hemisphere!

The clown next to me had finally moved, so I claimed the seats for myself and settled in for a much needed nap.
I awoke to a beautiful South Pacific sunrise, a couple more hours and we would be in Auckland!

Upon landing in Auckland, they held the plane on the tarmac while the outside of the plane was defumed, our own self service plane wash!! They also walked through the cabin and sprayed , no bugs in New Zealand. We would only be in Auckland a couple of hours , then it was off to Sydney!

Landing in Sydney is worth the cost of the trip, the flight path takes the plane over the cliffs in Sydney Harbour,  observing the Opera House and Sydney Bridge from my window seat, I realized that I had come a long way from the corn fields of Indiana.

 Five of us adventurers hailed a cab for the short ride to the domestic terminal, it was than that we became acquainted with the friendliness and hospitality of the Aussies. I think the cabbie gave us a complete history of Australia and the Aborigine people in that short five minute ride!

Another 3 hour layover and we are off to Cairns, my sense of direction is normally pretty good, however after taking off I had the distinct feeling that we were going South instead of North, I even asked my seat mate if we were going to Cairns.

He replied that we were, I later discovered that I had the same directional problem all the while I was in the Southern Hemisphere, must have been something about being orientated to the south pole rather than the north .
 The plane then made a stop in Brisbane, this was rather confusing as this was an unscheduled stop. I was later told that the flight was over booked, so they added another flight, as some of the passengers were only going to Brisbane,they landed in Brisbane, put us  on the original plane, in the same seats as we had on the first plane and off we went to Cairns! Just what I need after spending 38 hours on a plane!
 
Finally after 40 hours flying time, I landed in Cairns at about 10:30 PM on Tuesday,  I had returned to The Land of OZ!