The Stephening Standard 2021

 

Yeah, yeah, it's been two years since I have posted an update

 

And lots has happened.

So, for the takeaway version, just read/look at the following. 

If you're interested in more detail, just click on the links in the following.

 

Zach graduates high school - sort of (Nov 2020)

Zach finished high school in late 2019, but the Headmaster stopped him from "walking" at graduation because he was skateboarding.

Zach however, was not too phased.

A couple of days after his non-graduation, he delighted those who were watching the limousines delivering everyone to the School Formal.

Zach showed up on his skateboard.

 

Homeless by Design (Dec 2020)

When Zach was eight, I told him that in 10 years time, we would leave our happy yellow home in Coolangatta. 

Eleven days after Zach's 18th birthday, he and I moved out of our home of the last 17.5 years.

I am now a homeless wanderer.

Zach is off setting up his own life with lots of adventures: he was working in a fast-food restaurant, then as a driver for a pizza restaurant, then an attendant on a ski-train down in the snow. Then a lock-down shut down the ski-fields and left him unemployed although he enjoyed receiving a welfare payment for some months. He's now working as a baggage-handler at the Gold Coast airport.

Hiking the Bibbulmun Track (April-June 2021)

With all my plans to sail to islands in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean crushed by The Pandemic, I decided to hike the 1000kms (600 miles) of the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. 

Click on the following link to see my summary of the Bibbulmun Track in 50 images.

 

 

 

 

Adventures along the coast of Queensland (July-September 2021) 

I spent the winter months (July to September) back on the coast of Queensland. 

I hiked the Cooloola Great Walk from Noosa to Rainbow Beach and back.

I sailed as a volunteer on the South Passage, a sail-training ship based in Manly, Brisbane.

And I helped on a delivery of 49' racing yacht from Townsville to Brisbane.

No link yet as I'm still processing the photos. Check back at the end of January 2021!

Coast to coast road trip (October-November 2021)

In October, I set off to weave my way across Australia from the Gold Coast, Queensland to Albany, Western Australia.  

This trip would normally be about 4000kms, but due to various state and territory restrictions on travel due to COVID, I had to go through the west of Queensland into the Northern Territory, then south to Port Augusta in South Australia, and then west into Western Australia.

The journey was 8000kms long!

No link yet as I'm still processing the photos. Check back end of January 2021!

 

 

The Bibbulmun Track - in 50 images

In the early part of 2021, I was living at my Dad's place in Albany, WA. I told him that I thought I'd like to go and see Mum who lives in Perth. He said he thought that was a great idea. However, when I asked if I could borrow the car, he said "No, you can walk." And so I did.

I walked the Bibbulmun Track, a 1000km (600 mile) bushwalk that winds its way from Albany to Perth. (The route is about 400km as the crow flies, but no crows were willing to give me a ride - they were about as helpful as my dad.)

The journey took me just over 50 days to complete. 

Here are 50 images (or videos or sound files) to give you a sense of the trek: that is, one per 20kms or one per day. 

Enjoy the spectacular beauty of the south-west of Western Australia - without the heat, the flies, the camping, or the walking!