Goodbyes

The eve of my trip is beginning as I only have two more months in Australia. After three weeks of work, I had to leave Cardwell, the prawns, and my friends behind. Hanani needed at least a month more of work and Eline and Mirte planned to stick it out another week. With my May 12th flight from Sydney still approaching, I had but two and a half weeks to fly down the coast. My packed itinerary already included three days in Mackay with Nell, three days of sailing around the Whitsundays, a camping trip on Fraser Island, and a quick stop in Brisbane to say goodbye to Jon and Em. This little breathing room is a bit stifling!

Sandy died a few days ago. Hanani drove her to Cairns over the weekend, but she never made it back. He grabbed all he could carry, but he still could not get everything; I will now have to buy my third set of dishes since embarking on my travels. I never even got to say goodbye.

I had a fun party my last night, which was quite bittersweet. After spending three weeks with the same people, friendships easily develop. I made tentative plans to meet with some of them on the trip, but it is often hard to converge schedules on the road.

For the first time in a month, I am on my own again, which I find quite annoying. I love making new friends, but I found it too easy to acclimate myself to security of having a stable friendship network. I absolutely hate goodbyes. I let my guard down quite a bit lately, which has been both good and bad. I will be sad to leave North Queensland, which has proven to be my favorite part of the Australia so far (well at least during the dry season anyway). I may even have to come back someday. Goodbye friends. Goodbye North Queensland. Hello the end of the road.