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Arrived in Australia!

Time went by so quickly! I just arrived in Australia and am already starting my journey. It’s a strange feeling to have what always seemed to be like a distant dream finally become reality!
Leaving wasn’t easy though. I spent the past three years of my life in Dublin and have left several very good friends behind there and of course in Belgium. I will miss them all!
But of course I’m also very excited about my trip. During the journey, my goal will be to focus on environmental problems through my photography. I’ll try to photograph changes to the environment caused by human activity in the countries I’ll visit. However I will also do my best to meet people involved in positive initiatives, and will hopefully come back full of optimism and ideas on how to change things for the better. If you have any contacts of such people who are on my way, please let me know!
As a first illustration here is my first picture that I took in Wollongong, where I’m starting the trip. It’s the most southern point that I’ll see but luckily going north also means that the climate will get warmer because it’s pretty chilly here (15 degrees Celsius)!
Wollongong City Beach view

A beach in Wollongong with factories in the background

Finally I plan to stick to my initial rule of not flying. Things turned out not to be as simple as they looked on the map. Indonesia and East Timor indeed look so close to Australia, but in reality crossing by boat is much harder than I expected! As I wrote in my previous post, there are only two options to do so. In the meantime I found out that November and December are right in the hurricane season and that no sailboats cross at that moment. This left me with one single option: the cargo ship. I managed to find a cabin on a German freighter and will board on the 15th of November in Brisbane for a 13 day trip to Singapore. It promises to be a very interesting experience!

Time went by so quickly! I just arrived in Australia and am already starting my journey. It’s a strange feeling to have what always seemed to be like a distant dream finally become reality!

Leaving wasn’t easy though. I spent the past three years of my life in Dublin and have left several very good friends behind there and of course in Belgium. I will miss you all!

But of course I’m also very excited about my trip. During the journey, my goal will be to focus on environmental problems through my photography. I’ll try to photograph changes to the environment caused by human activity in the countries I’ll visit. However I will also do my best to meet people involved in positive initiatives, and will hopefully come back full of optimism and ideas on how to change things for the better. If you have any contacts of such people who are on my way, please let me know!

As a first illustration here is my first picture that I took in Wollongong, where I’m starting the trip. It’s the most southern point that I’ll see but luckily going north also means that the climate will get warmer because it’s pretty chilly here (15 degrees Celsius)!

Finally I plan to stick to my initial rule of not flying. Things turned out not to be as simple as they looked on the map. Indonesia and East Timor indeed look so close to Australia, but in reality crossing by boat is much harder than I expected! As I wrote in my previous post, there are only two options to do so. In the meantime I found out that November and December are right in the hurricane season and that no sailboats cross at that moment. This left me with one single option: the cargo ship. I managed to find a cabin on a German freighter and will board on the 15th of November in Brisbane for a 13 day trip to Singapore. It promises to be a very interesting experience!

This entry was written by Francois , posted on Sunday October 11 2009 , filed under Australia

12 Responses to “Arrived in Australia!”

  1. Thaths, on October 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm Said:

    Bon Voyage! I look forward to living my dream vicariously through your travels.

  2. andima, on October 11th, 2009 at 1:52 pm Said:

    Great!

  3. gyula, on October 11th, 2009 at 8:04 pm Said:

    Have a great journey Fanz!

    One thing that comes to my mind, which is an interesting new development in geopolitics and has a strong environmental connection is the recent tsunami of massive land buy/rent deals between countries for food production purposes.

    Lester Brown sums up this area very well in this article for example:
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,606937,00.html

    You could check some of these places out, in Philippines, Indonesia.

    :) gyula

  4. Nelson, on October 12th, 2009 at 5:58 pm Said:

    Best of luck!

  5. Simon, on October 12th, 2009 at 7:37 pm Said:

    We’ll all miss you too back in Dublin Franz :)

    Looking forward to read more from you Journey!

  6. Tomas, on October 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am Said:

    Let me know when you get to Singapore – Helen-Alice and I will be here when you arrive and can offer you a bed for the duration of your stay. Good luck with everything and hope to see you soon!

  7. Marcel, on October 16th, 2009 at 9:19 am Said:

    Hey Man

    Take care !

    m.

  8. Ollie, on October 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am Said:

    Hey hey Frans!

    Man lisa and I truly miss you already in the fair city and cannot wait to follow your eco adventures across the globe . The world needs more people like you questionning fundamentals and caring about the faith o f humanity .

    We found that the awareness and acceptance for Climate Change is there but the public is worried of having to compromise their lifestyle , the holy grail is to improve the desirability of going green by providing solutions which are practical economical and cool.

    Let us know when you plan to hit the Indian subcontinent , we would not rule out a trip and catching up around a cold Kingfisher.

  9. Laura, on October 19th, 2009 at 3:18 pm Said:

    Frans, wish you all the best for your amazing trip !!! You’re so lucky, I’m jealous :-)
    Take care and I’m waiting for the next news !!
    Kisses

  10. Aldo, on October 30th, 2009 at 11:14 am Said:

    “It promises to be a very interesting experience!” == > Sans blague, tu vas triper sur ton boat avec des vieux marins.

    Quel trip de mitard. Profite bien, petit veinard… Et surtout continue a publié sur ce blog!

  11. Litch, on November 2nd, 2009 at 8:16 am Said:

    Benz Benz Benz …

    Enfin tombé sur ton blog ! ça faisait quelques temps que je me demandais comment se portait notre aventurier …
    Content de voir que tout se passe pour le mieux et que tes objectifs prennent doucement forme !
    Continue de nourir ce blog et surtout balances une grosse tartine après ta croisière sur ton cargo !!!

    Keep going my friend & take care
    A plus
    Litch

  12. Antione Oeltjen, on March 20th, 2010 at 12:22 pm Said:

    What a great point you make. Yes, some people just don’t need to comment to feel they have participated to the fullest. That’s not their style.

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