Monday 10th March 2003

I was really going to mention something along these lines, but Chris beat me to it in an e-mail


"...If you are like me you often pray that there is no justice in the universe,
and therefore your children will turn out to be less reckless than we were!
:) But I do think it is no coincidence that the three of us - for which
life has always been a glorious adventure - have gone out and gotten on
with the prodigious adventure of getting married and having children while
our more boring friends have dithered around wasting their lives. Making
rash decisions and living with their consequences forever is what life is
all about!....."

That pretty much summarises what I was going to say on the subject. Which brings me to the leadup to the overseas trip. I have come to the conclusion that past experiences will lead us a certain direction in life, and childhood experiences especially will guide your emotional responses such as anger, happiness etc. The overseas trip was the logical extension to the Burdekin Falls riding/camping adventure. But, the beginning went further back. In grade seven at Aitkenvale S.S., I went on the school outward bound camp to somewhere along the Herbert River. The combination of hiking, camping, roughing it, rafting, abseiling was amazing. I just don't think schools could afford the liability insurance of something like that these days. I remember it rained and the whole thing became even more challenging than at first envisaged. The more adventurous/fit people went on to hike to Garawolt falls and back on one of the days. Going back further, When we lived in Lusaka, Zambia, my father had taken us on a couple of hunting trips. I was too young to catch the hunting instinct, but the adventure and the outdoor camping, I still reflect on emotively to this day, even though I was barely in school at the time. Based on the experiences of my children so far, I would expect that there would be very little emotive instinct for 'outward bound' kind of adventures. However, since both my brother and father go on a lot of adventurous hunting trips even now, I expect that it could definitely change - if the kids get invited.