Dear all,

Well, loved and loathed as I am, I am shortly to undergo another Odyssey to unchartered lands.

Yes, that hotbed of ingrown slack-jawed and recidivist peoples otherwise known as Orstralians.

Or Oz.

I'm going hiking in the Tasmanian interior for a few weeks, a holiday in Sydney watching the World Cup, have a few weeks to kill thereafter until I leave for Thailand early in December.

Then I plan on an intial foray into the sub-continent.

I haven't yet worked out the Indian leg of the trip, I'll take it as it comes, often the best way to travel like this.

I do not have time constraints, so I might well try and see the temples of Angkor Watt in Cambodia, a personal 'quest' of mine, before leaving for India. Vietnam is a possibility too, but as I said earlier, we'll see.

Northern India, such as Kashmir, is a little dificult these days, but I would like to do a bit of a recce for later expeditions.

My real ambition is to see the origins of the Harrapan civilisation in the Indus valley.

As I indicated, I'll probably make it up as I go along and see where the wind takes me.

So by way of an adieu, if anybody is interested, I will post from time to time a legend of my travels and travails, circumstance permitting.

Wish me luck, these expeditions usually need their fair share of it!

The blood is thumping and roaring in my veins, the adrenalin already flowing, the broody pen quivering.

The unknown.

The illogic of other creatures and cultures, and their inherent diamond beauty.

Souls from time to time thirst and such thirsts can only be quenched with great gulping draughts of new experiences.

It's time for these rusty old wings to shuffle and spread and spy the world anew from lofty heights and consider new aspects.

How odd.

I feel a strange tear well; why?

Still, onward ever onward.

But forget the melodrama, heartfelt as it is.

As I wipe that self-same tear from my eye and look beyond the bow and the swell of roaring waves beneath me, please understand that I have learnt so much from those that have been kind enough to correspond with me on many varying and different subjects.

I am not always the kindest of people when I get angry, then again who is?

No excuse.

So to those that I have dealt short shrift, I apologise.

To those that believe that I have unreasonably criticised their religeon, culture or politics, I apologise.

To those that I have unwittingly and without due regard have upset, I apologise.

Mea Culpa.

Again I'm being overly dramatic; but there is not one ounce of malice within me.

Yet, like Loki, much mischief.

And now, the journey begins.


yechydda,