Beginnings (I will one day be a farmer)

My father loved the country. It was in his genes. It is in mine. I am driven to be outside and to be with nature. I am consumed with it. It is life to me.

Most of my life I lived in big cities in Australia - Melbourne and Sydney. In Sydney, as a child, I was lucky enough to live at Bondi, by the beach. Hours spent in the sea. We paddled around rock pools and rode our bogie boards in the waves. Dreadfully sunburnt every weekend. Covered in sand. Hair blonded by the salt and the sun. It was freedom.

Later, as a teenager, I was part of a little surfie tribe. We spent as much time as possible in the water. Beach, boards, wetsuits, bikinis, strawberry thick shakes and always the waves.

In the city there had to be an escape from people and buildings and cars and noise. The beach was it in Sydney. The leader of our pack would organise the gang and off we would go. A few carloads with boards on top. He would decide where the best waves were. Check the wind direction. Make sure it wasn’t too packed with other surfers. Everyone out. Wax on. Wettie on. Surf.

This was in the days before girls and women surfed. I would be the only girl out there. Hanging out the back with the boys. I rarely did anything of note - couldn’t actually stand on the board - but I had a board and I could paddle out the back and I could balance sitting on the board and that was something. Never got monstered by the surfies. I was no threat. A novelty perhaps. Something to look at. I didnt care I just wanted to be in the water.

Summer holidays meant a migration, usually north. Camping on the beach. Surfing all day. Campfires at night. Cheap tents and crappy air mattresses. God-awful sleeping conditions. One morning I awoke and my air mattress was floating. It had rained during the night and the tent flooded. Always fitful sleeps with morning back ache. None of us drank much or used drugs. It was good, clean and healthy. And we were fit. Beautiful young people enjoying ourselves. For me it was the first real indicator of my need for space and immersion in nature.