World Traveller: 7 Continents, 90 Countries, 871 Days Overseas
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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Since the one year anniversary of my 2012-2013 World Trip I’ve been actively planning the next places to visit in the amazing world. Fellow travellers gave me some great ideas, India, North Korea, Vietnam, Turkey and Croatia among them. In the end I thought it was time to go back to Africa having previously only seen the bottom end (South Africa) and the top end (Egypt) this time I wanted to visit the core of the continent.
So what are the musts for this trip? Well hiking and finding Gorillas sounds like at great idea. I’ve heard some much about Victoria Falls that I’d like to compare to Ignasu Falls and Niagara. Seeing vast deserts and sand dunes (got to do sand boarding again!) to experience the harsh environment especially after experiencing Antarctica’s environment last year appealed as well. Obviously a chance to see lions, giraffes, rhinos, elephants and the vast array of animals in their natural setting will never get old.
The infrastructure in a lot of Africa is limited at best in places. This is another reason to go now before I get too old. Any extended trip in Africa means camping and sometimes very basic camping at that!
In the end I’ve selected two G Adventure tours. The massive 54 day Ultimate Africa tour which visits Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The trip starts in Cape Town South Africa and goes up the west coast (my previous South Africa visit went from Johannesburg to Cape Town down east coast).
The tour finishes in Kenya without really seeing Kenya so I’ll add on a short 3 day tour to a Kenyan national park for the Masai Mara Safari Experience.
The question was then how to get home. Thanks to the new QANTAS – Emirates alliance I can easily get a flight from Nairobi to Dubai. I expect I spend a couple of days here, I hear the shopping is great and since I’ll probably be flying home landing on Christmas Day it is probably a good idea to get the family presents!
So the plan is to leave late October 2014 and return Christmas day. Surprisingly my current boss said yes the the planned leave. So that leaves saving money, booking flights and getting fit for this trip. Looks like I have goals for 2014 🙂
I guess I’ve always known that goals help focus me. It’s not like I achieve them all, running a half marathon is looking unlikely, but as they say its the journey that really matters.
Well a colleague got me thinking the 100 country club, basically visiting 100 countries. I travel because I want to see this vast world and our different cultures so this seems like a good objective.
So far I’ve visited 50 countries. So how many countries are there, well it depends on how you classify, there are 193 member states of the United Nations with no disputes but the number can go as high as 231.
So who are the next fifty worth visiting? India seems like a major missing destination and I see this as somewhere to visit very soon. Vietnam is a must, Turkey and Japan as well.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to start pulling together my bucket list. Any suggestions?
Is there an ethical line in supporting a club accused of drug cheating?
I’m a supporter of the Essendon Football Club, one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the biggest sporting competition in Australia, the Australian Football League (AFL). I’ve been a member of the club for 31 of the last 32 years since I was seven.
The club has been accused of injecting banned substances into players. In a best case scenario they had bad governance of their sports medicine program with individuals more focused on winning then ethics.
The AFL Commission wants to take away all points, take away recruiting options for the next 2 years (the draft), impose a fine and suspend key officials. And that’s just for bad governance. The drug issue will be determined by Australian body overseen by the world body.
It is a terrible situation that has dominated talk in Melbourne since February when the club self reported.
As a supporter I’m starting to wonder if I can ethically support my club. As an individual I value ethics and fair play above all. I’m not the smartest or most talented guy, my ethics are my centre and important to me.
I hate cheating. I dislike people who take advantage of others. I’ve never liked the sports medicine approach of injecting even painkillers to get players back on the field. So how can I support this club? A lot of members have Already walked. I know it’s a personal decision for each of us.
I followed the team my dad supported. Supporting Essendon Football Club was a bond we shared and one of the last good things in my childhood before he died. Supporting the Essendon Football Club has given me great joy.
Right now there is no joy whatsoever. I have to put up with the apparent glee and happiness of some rival supporters who love the misery of others. I’ve watched biased and emotionally charged media coverage from both sides. Players parents in tears over health concerns and I know kids who support Essendon aren’t having an easy experience at school.
The ethics of my childhood team seem to be opposed to the way I want to live my life, I know I’m not perfect and I make many mistakes but I try to be a good person. I try to add to others around me than take away. Have I supported this culture.
So what is the line? Obviously knowingly injecting banned substances means I must walk away but that is too easy a line. What about unintentional use of banned substances? What about the win at all costs attitude that lead to this situation?
I’m sitting here before a match listening to the joy of the opposition supporters (Carlton tonight) and I wonder if its worth it any longer. Am I letting my last happy childhood memories cloud my support of this club and our community.
I’m starting to think the line has been crossed already. I can’t understand those who get joy for this situation. I’m gutted.
I’m fairly certain that today I gave my 200 ‘professional’ presentation in the Gold Coast which also means I’ve now presented in all States and Territories in Australia.
I originally decided to do work presentations to clients (trustees, lawyers, accountants) to challenge myself. I remember the early days, my heart racing, sweating, the struggle to look at the audience.
These days I rarely think about it unless something unusual is happening like a media / industry controversy or speaking to a room of only lawyers with long memories 🙂
Highlights included:
1) Speaking at Adelaide Oval;
2) Speaking at MCG;
3) Speaking to accountants in Darwin as I was overdress as I was wearing pants and not shorts!
So what have I learned?
Don’t apologise, don’t state how nervous you are and don’t include irrelevant material in your presentation (plus know the subject matter).
So what did I do today? I dropped the microphone when former ironman Trevor Hendy handed over to me and I apologised – DOH!
I suppose I still have a lot to learn.
Nathan's Insights 