She’s Got a Ticket to Ride

If someone gave me a free ticket to anywhere in the world, where would I go?

Wow, that’a a huge question, because there are a lot of places I would like to go if money weren’t an impediment. So maybe I don’t even know. Go check out my fellow authors … see where they would go … and then come back and see if I’ve made a decision.

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Australia won the dice toss. Why? Because it’s about as far from where I am as you can get and it’s a free ticket, so get the most bang for the giver’s buck.

I have a friend who lives in Australia, so I would be able to visit real people, which is preferable to the tourist travel the other places might involve.

Australia is one of the most remote countries in the world and it is a destination for backpackers and budget travelers, which is right up the bailiwick of this Alaskan hiker who lives on a budget. Because of its distance from the US, the flights are long and expensive, and when you only have a few weeks of travel, wasting a few days flying probably doesn’t make sense to a lot of travelers. I’d definitely have to use up a lot of leave time for this venture across the Pacific.

Of course, I’d want to spend time with Sylvia, who lives in Tasmania.

After Tasmania, I’d definitely need to head westward to see the Great Barrier Reef, famous for its abundance of marine life and world-class diving opportunities. I’m not exactly a world-class diver, but my goodness, who could resist? Just snorkeling this baby would be worth it.

I would definitely spend a day or two in Sydney, but I’m really not that excited about seeing a big city — I will have flown through at least a couple of them before I got there — so I would head westward, probably check out Melbourne. Sylvia went to school there, so hopefully she could come with and give me an insider’s tour. She grew up in the Murray River valley, so I would definitely want to check out that area.

The mighty Murray River, one of the world’s longest navigable rivers, stretches 2,700 kilometres from the mountains of the Great Dividing Range in north-eastern Victoria to near Adelaide in South Australia. A mountain stream in its upper reaches, the river turns into a meandering river lined with magnificent forests of red gum and sandy beaches in its lower reaches. The region is home to plentiful wildlife, supporting over 350 varieties of birds, as well as many species of mammals, reptiles and fish. I would traverse the region end to end by historical paddle steamer, delve into indigenous and settler history, and maybe do some fishing.

Going farther west (and north if I’m in Adelaide), I’m told Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) is a spiritual experience. It reminds me a lot of southern Utah and I love geology, so that would be a stop too. I hear it’s breathtaking, like a wave of sand climbing over the desert. I don’t think I would climb it since the aborigines think it’s sacred. Might have to leave my 17-year-old at home because stone monkeys can’t resist climbing even sacred objects.

While I’m in the area, I would visit Alice Springs. For a different reason, Alaskans and Central Australians have a lot in common. It’s a rugged lifestyle that drives you underground. We do it to keep warm. They do it to keep cool. No, literally, they live underground, which makes them smarter than Alaskans. I can’t resist checking that out and, opals are my favorite stone, so … you know, I got to check out the mines. And, yes, I am a claustrophobic, but I never let little things like irrational fears of suffocation keep me from learning things.

The photojournalist in me itches to cover Western Australia. It’s an incredibly austere beauty that is so overlooked by visitors and I’d probably love the solitude. Again, though different, it has a quality that reminds me of ANWR here in Alaska, which was an incredibly place to photograph.

There are a lot of other cool places to visit in Australia, but there’s only so much anyone can see in a 2- or 3-week vacation, so those are my top list.