So here is a list of my travels since about 93 - don't fall asleep==
Actually in 90 I went to see my sister get married in Canada and also went
thru California and Hawaii for about a month.
Being a surfer I went to Bali a couple of times and Sumbawa as well as doing
a yacht tour around Timor.
I was a roady for my mates band - they were number one in the day - They
sang that song 'My Favorite" - jazzy stuff - cant remember their names
but I know he plays drums for the whitlams now. We traveled from Sydney
all the way around to Adelaide etc.
Xmas of 93 spent 4 months in Hawaii surfing big waves - almost drowned surfing
an outer reef that was breaking 20+ft also got held in an under water cave
at Pipe line.
After this I met a friend in England where we bought a van a drove over
to France thru Spain and Portugal and then back - took 3 months - sick waves
and culture.
Flew to San Diego, California to meet up with a mate from home, who wanted
to go to Mex. Stayed in SD for a few months waiting for Brad to turn up.
Here is where I met a lot of the friends I still have.
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Brad and I drove from San Diego to Costa Rica, so that meant
passing thru Baja to main land then crossing into Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras and then Nicaragua before we got to Costa Rica. This trip took
3 to 4 months, bribed allot of cops and learnt Spanish from a book while
trying to talk to the village folk - this was an insane trip. |
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We then had to fly out as I had a staff infection that they thought was
from a spider bite. Flew into San Francisco where I was in hospital for
a week, but had a room with a killer view of the bridge - I also used to
escape to go and play pool at the bar with my friends- still having the
drip in my arm.
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On release from here we went to Canada to work - planting
trees - worst job in the world but the best experience and if you could
do it you could make good cash. I had a lot of experience with having to
jump to cliffs from helicopters and hanging of mountainsides just to plant
trees that where worth 10cents a piece. Saw allot, got to run into allot
of bears, saw the northern lights a few times and also got into Alaska -
plus more adventures (too much to write). My first year I made $16000 before
tax in 6 months while living out of tent. From here I took a girl I met
to my sisters in Ontario where we ended up getting married (another story) from here we went thru New York to see a friend I met
in London, then flew back to San Diego. My girlfriend and I then decided
to go to South America, so we bought tickets to Peru. Here was a trip, from
burning streets to machineguns at night - Lima was a trip. Got to surf the
longest wave in the world, climb the Inca trail to see Machu Pitchu and
also got chased out of a town by about 15 crazy fuckers after try to kick
the shit out of there friends for trying to steal my stuff. We also went
into Ecuador and also Chili - more adventure than I can write about now.
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Spent a few months in South America then flew back to Cal.
where I stayed and my girl went back to Canada. In San Diego I got a job
doing the Pedi cabs that you probable saw down town, here I met the Italian
girl you saw in the photo at Disney- Sabrina (the picture called Ragazza
on my site is off Sabrina). She couldn't even speak English. I then left
after a few months and went back to do the tree planting in Canada, same
story - planted, went to sisters and then thru NY and back to Cal. Spent
the full 6 months up there working same story but got to surf of one of
the islands of Vancouver. This year I made about $20000+ plus before tax.
This time I stayed in San Diego where I did the Pedi Cabs and made trade
show booths as well as when I started to paint and do murals until the following
year where I went back and did the tree planting for the last year - this
year I made about $40,000 before tax in 6 months - which was only equalling about 100 days work - best day I had I planted over 5100 trees in one day!! |
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After this I went back to San Diego and decided to go to South
Africa by myself, thinking I would only go for about a month, I loved it
so much I stayed for about 3. I bought a red Jaguar for $800 dollars and
drove down the whole coast chasing giraffes, rhinos and elephants as well
as some sick waves. I met a local guy in Durban who I got on with so well
that we did the trip together and then I lived with him till I decided to
fly over to Reunion Island, 6hrs off South Africa, near Mauritius. This
is a French colony that is built on a volcano made island - lots of reefs
just like Hawaii. Had a great couple of week here, very tropical, got chased
out the water by a Zambezi shark and also climb to the top of a volcano.
I then went back to South Africa, where I proceeded to live with Riaan (my
South African friend, who I ended up bring him back with me to live here).
At this point I got into a bit of trouble after a guy tried to rape a local
girl that I was dating. I found him and gave him some street justice only
to find that he was involved in the South African drug Mafia and apparently
they had put a hit on me and the cops were also after me so I snuck out
and went to Johannesburg where I got a plane the hell out of there.
Back to San Diego. |
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Here I went back to building trade show booths and painting
until it got slow then I started build snowboards. I met back up with the
Italian girl, Sabrina who had gotten married. She promptly left her husband
- they were having problems any way, and we both went to Canada to see my
sister. When we came back to San Diego we lived together and the following
Xmas we went to meet her family in Rome, where she is from. I got to see
all the sites - Coliseum, sis teen chapel etc and also got to surf the seas
south of Rome. A year after this trip we went to Aus to see my Fam. there
for only 2 weeks, as that was all I could spare.
Came back to California, got into computers after reading all the books
- before I did not even know how to turn one on. Here I built a site for
the company I painted murals with, and then left to work with a friend who
wanted to start a web design firm. I got into teaching and so forth. At
about this time, after a couple of years, Sabrina and I decided to go our
own way and I moved out and then in the beginning of this year I went to
see my friends in NY and also my sister in Ontario. On return there was
little work so that is how I became a full time artist - I still do some
teaching and web design. writen in about 2002. |
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Wake up - did that kill you!!
But that was about the last 10 years in a nutshell, minus allot of other
short stories - wait for the book! |
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another 5 or so years of travels not documented |
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