It’s been a while since I first penned my travels – and even longer since I first journalled my thoughts and experiences (many of which will remain behind the padlock of my teenage diary)!

As for what’s ahead, well, I hope to retrospectively share my travel experiences, as well as new adventures in travel, career, business, growth and… well, Life!

I left Australia in 1992 for the young Aussie’s rite of passage – the European back-pack tour. For our younger readers, keeping in touch with home in ‘those days’ was via reverse charge phone calls from a public phone, a handwritten ‘aerogramme’, postcard or of course letter. I wrote my adventures and sent them off to dad back in Melbourne, and I asked him to keep them as my travel journal.

In 2000, I journaled my way through two months in Africa. I wrote every day in a hardback journal detailing the days adventures and then intermittently came across an internet cafe (remember those?) where I could send a summary email of the intervening travel and send it off to a long distribution list of family and friends. I remember receiving messages back saying that readers felt they were on the journey with us, and the most memorable was a family friend who told me that when she saw the email come in, would print it off, boil the kettle, relax back and read about places and sights she dreamed of.

In 2014 I visited the US for the first time; a couple of weeks of late Autumn in New England, Washington DC and New York and also ‘blogged’ for the first time. The platform I used later closed down, and I’m sure I have those pages saved somewhere. In 2018 a very special trip – our honeymoon – took me to Scandinavia and the Arctic Circle. I think I was at the airport when I set up ‘Where the Sun Rises’ blog and linked it to my Facebook profile so that family and friends could follow our adventures.

Since then, I’ve been a little lax. I’ve relied on my smartphone and social media to track my adventures, share and record my holidays. This modern way of recording our lives glosses over the small things that make for real adventure and filters out the less photogenic moments that make you pause, solve a problem, learn and grow.

The box holding letters, journals, and old diaries is tucked away somewhere, awaiting discovery. The US blog is elusively stored in digital format, while the account of the Scandinavian trip is here for your enjoyment. What comes next promises more of the same and then some—offering chances for growth, reflection, and insights. Expect to find thoughts on business, travel, career, and personal journeys. I hope you’ll join me as we explore where this open road leads!