Desert inspiration

Central Australia – A Journey of Learning

Australia is an old country. Far more pregnant with culture and variety in landscapes than many of us realise. Recently we completed a trip through NSW, QLD, NT and SA, passing through Munga Thirri (5 days of 1000 sand dunes), visiting Uluru and many other Aboriginal lands. As you travel weeks on end on straight roads of vast flatness chasing a sunset into the cosmos. Your first thought is “look at the nothingness before us”. But to a curious eye it is revealed what lays before you, a land carefully sculpted over millennia, changing seas to mountains and mountains to seas. A land more equipped at art than the worlds most prestigious artist and a land so fragile in its beauty that we forget what each plant, animal and stone has to endure each day to survive.

Each town more remote than the next, yet the elements of life, love, happiness, kindness… They seem to almost increase the further you travel into the nothingness. It’s too hard to explain outback living and I’m sure our quick trip didn’t allow us to grasp the full extent of what it really meant to live out there. Our more populated society could really learn a lot from the extensive outback.

The Desert is patient, it waits for the right moment to use energy, not wasting a drop. We were lucky enough to catch the end of a 3 year drought, to us the desert looked less like a desert compared to many parts of NSW we traveled through. A vast sea of dull green rippled its way to the horizon with dots of desert flowers splattering the sides of stand dunes. How lucky we were.

Munga Thirri, the worlds longest parallel sand dunes. A land that was home to many hundreds of local aboriginal people from the Wangkangurru (or Nharla) lands. This for me trumped the rest of our trip, here I am writing a blog about our trip around QLD and NT but I feel most of what is flowing is from my experience of the desert crossing. The trip really inspired me to achieve my goals for coming years but also to make sure I travel more parts of our vast continent.

The quote that inspired this post “The more you know, the less you need”, really complimented my experiences on the trip. I know I want to run events, but do I need them? I know large events create chaos and many more struggles so why not only focus my energy on small micro events. I’m finding more and more that what Sapwood is will change, but for now I would like to achieve my dream of running at least one event in the space. Of course there are many more obvious interpretations of this quote, we know we don’t need a huge house, vast varieties of foods grown or manufactured over seas, or even a car with air-conditioning, or many other of the modern luxuries we are sold. Try and experience every aspect of life even the hard ones with love and joy, as from these you will gain further understanding in what you really need.

Driving a 1990 ex military land rover for 7500kms in 4 weeks gives you a perspective not gained from many vehicles. Besides the anxiety of not knowing if a mechanical issue will arise at any moment, sitting on 80km per hour with no aircon and blue tooth earmuffs to dull the truck motor that has only 1mm of aluminum separating the cab and motor. You start to find you slow down, from the anxiety comes much needed car check overs before leaving for the day, the lack of aircon means you can enter and exit the car without your body going into shock, ready for a hike or an explore. The 6 hours of driving at 80kms per hour allows you to take in the beauty around you, to stop in time for crossing animals and free yourself from a time schedule needing to be met. We started to realize we needed less, Less gadgets, toys or food, less books, paints or clothes. As there was everything we needed right around us. We don’t need plans every night for entertainment, we don’t need to fit 5 different hobbies into each day with work and downtime being the last thing on our minds.

We don’t need events, gatherings or festival jammed packed with the bright new 3d mapped stage and speaker stacks that blow your pants off. We need connection, listening and sharing. It does not matter where you are, what you are doing. Every spot is special, every location or activity deserves gratitude and presence. Don’t go chasing, everything you need is right in front of you.

With Gratitude,

Vahid.