One of the attractive prospects of joining the military, especially Navy, is travelling to different parts of the world. I have been fortunate enough to sail, and on occasion fly, to several different countries. I am very grateful for the opportunities I have had, to visit places like New Zealand, Guam, Philippines, China, Vietnam, Russia, Japan, New Caledonia, Singapore, Brunei and England. You don’t always get to spend a great deal of time in some places but other times you might be there for a week or more.
I’m a bit of a home body and have been most of my life, I prefer to travel around Australia, much to the disgust of my wife. She has all these grand ideas to travel to far off places and I, not so enthusiastically, respond with “Yes dear”.
Some sailors can spend most or all of their careers not going anywhere outside of Australia, depending on what ship they are on and their chosen career path.
In 2004 I joined HMAS Manoora and during my time on there I met some people who I am happy to say I am still friends with today. One of the girls in our department was Naomi, and over the years we have remained in contact and catch up whenever we can, or when ever she is back in Australia from one of her many adventures.
Naomi served several years as a Boatswains Mate and then changed over to be a Medic. After a couple of years of that, the urge to travel got too much for her so she left Navy to travel, and she hasn’t looked back since. The defence force can be a great way to travel to other countries for free but you are very limited in the things you can see and do.
Naomi is a very free spirited person, I admire the fact she is quite content to travel on a small budget with minimal possessions. She has a great time doing it and mostly travels on her own. She is always happy to meet new people and learn about their life. On a couple of occasions she has met someone and they just click and their travel plans align, then off they go to explore new places and meet new people together.
Naomi has a lovely and quirky sense of humour, which has made for great reading and viewing whenever she has made posts about her travels. Most of the time she writes a Facebook post about a recent adventure but other times she has created videos. One really clever idea has been One Second A Day, where she videos one second of something every day, then at the end of the year she compiles all the clips together to make a video of that year. It is a fantastic way to capture what you have done in a year. I think I also make an appearance in them somewhere.
2020 has definitely been a write-off for travel and I am sure Naomi is itching like crazy to get back out there, but for the moment she is in Australia. It has given her some time to go through her photos and videos and she recently finished a video from a trip last year to Lake Baikal in Russia. I wanted to share it so others can see some of the amazing places she has seen. It is also my subtle way of trying to get her to share more of what she has done. Several months ago I talked to her to try and persuade her into creating her own blog because people would really love to hear about her experiences. I know I have.
People hold themselves back, for various reasons, from getting out there and taking in new experiences. I make excuses sometimes and don’t end up planning or doing as much as I could, but I have also had the best of both worlds so far; I have a job that pays me to travel both oversees and around Australia.
There are a couple of different ways of looking at the future. Firstly, now is the perfect opportunity to save like crazy and as soon as we can travel outside Australia then go for it. Secondly, whatever state or territory you are in, not Victoria, get out there and explore. I’m sure you will find and experience some amazing sites, and meet some fantastic people.
Sailing The Unknown 