Australia

Greetings from the Land of Oz — Australia that is! Always wanted to be able to say, “G’day from Down Unda!”
I was able to arrange a free stop-over in Australia as part of my airline ticket, so took the opportunity to stay with old friends I hadn’t seen in far too long. It’s been a welcome rest being in one place for an extended period.

All told, in the past 4 months my feet have set down on 6 Continents, a lot of miles for basically just a fraction of the year!

This 8-week trip alone has me zigging and zagging well over 40,000 miles [64,000 kilometers] around the 32,000-mile circumference of the globe.

So having more than fulfilled my travel lust for the present, I look forward to my soon return to California (where more sunny skies and sandy beaches await me).—As does, unfortunately, a backlog of office work built up in my absence! Ah, such is the price of travel.

Speaking of the price of travel: In keeping with our company policy of austerity — in order to have more to give to needy overseas programs — my around-the-world flight was purchased with frequent-flier miles. So my 6 main stops around the world only cost $235 (i.e. paying the travel taxes)! And as for travel within Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand and the Philippines, I was able to partake of great fares via the budget airlines which have sprung up almost everywhere.

And in most cases mixing that with accepting invitations to stay at the homes of Project Managers who I visited might even qualify me to contribute to a chapter in the book, “The World on $6 a Day”! Ha! So in more ways than one, it’s been an amazing journey.

And now with having made some good headway completing my Site Visit reports and organizing my photos, I look forward to taking a few days seeing more of this great country.

Read next installment