January 2009

Traveling Man was tired. He was really tired. It was around 11.00 am on a Friday morning, towards the end of January this year. All he had to do was get home, but that wasn’t going to be easy. Especially seeing he had another three hours driving ahead of him. It was hot and even though the aircon was working fine, the laziness of the day had seeped through the thin metallic skin of TM’s mobile office and the mood had enveloped him, in a form of osmosis. Yes, it had been a long hard week “working for the man”, out in the eastern wheat belt of Western Australia.

Just as his eyelids started to droop again, TM’s mobile phone (cell phone) chirped away. Bugger he thought, the last thing I want to do is pull over – I’ll never get home! TM and technology – what a great example of an oxymoron – they just don’t work together at all. Although the car (mobile office) was only a little over twelve months old, the car kit to enable hands free operation of the mobile phone had never worked. As he was driving on the Great Eastern Highway, which is well patrolled by the “blue heelers - cops” he reluctantly pulled over and took the call.

Well, everyone has a red-letter day eventually and TM’s had just caught up with him, in the form of a luxury 14 day all expenses paid trip to South Africa for two people. Wow! That woke him up – there was no chance of falling asleep after that call. Five days in Kruger National Park (two staying at Tinga Private Game Lodge), two days on the Rovos Pride of Africa train and five days in Cape Town …. Yahoo! Tony Parks really rocks!

Back in July of 2008 TM had entered a competition, organised by the publishers of one of Australia’s leading authors (well, you’ve got to be in it to win it) and then promptly forgotten all about it. Wow! TM’s first coherent thought was “people DO actually win these things”.

Since the age of thirteen when he fell in love with Africa, after reading Wilbur Smith’s “When the Lion Feeds”, TM had harboured a burning desire to see the “Dark Continent” first hand. Bugger me dead, he thought – it’s actually going to happen. The train scene from the beginning of one of his favourite films, “Out of Africa”, kept flitting into his mind and the soaring music that accompanied it played in his ears all the way home.

So, whilst Traveling Man is going to be all about Western Australia, there will be a small detour and the series will start in South Africa ….