Mike

Meet

Welcome aboard!

Here's a bit about me, the origins of my trip and why I'm doing it!

I spent my formative years on Sydney's northern beaches and have always had a strong affinity with the ocean through years spent sailing and surfing.

One of my earliest memories is of Barrenjoey winking at me each night when I went to bed which probably sparked my lifelong attraction to lighthouses, a fascination I seem to share with many others, (p.s I just discovered we're called Pharologist's)!

One such person was Professor Geoff Benness who I use to sail with and who first suggested the idea of circumnavigating Australia and visiting all our lighthouses back in 1995. Unfortunately, Geoff, who was something of a lighthouse to me when I needed some wise words, never got to finish what he started, and ever since this has been on my "must do" list, however until now there always seemed to be other priorities.

But now, thirty years later, partly in memory of Geoff, but mainly due to where I find myself in my own life, I have the opportunity to make it happen!

Mike at the Cape of Good Hope, March 2001

In the meantime I've been lucky enough to help raise a family and enjoy an interesting and diverse career that involved a lot of international travel, including fifteen years spent living and working overseas, primarily in the US, Hong Kong and the UK.

While it was an exciting and rewarding experience to live and work overseas the more I travelled the more I realised I was losing touch with my friends and family in Australia and that I didn't really know where to call home anymore! Thankfully the new millenium came to my rescue and a combination of meeting my future wife and the Sydney Olympics made the decision to return "home" easy, arriving back in Australia in August, 2000.

Since then I've been based in Sydney and happily absorbed in family and career and while travel has always been an important part of my life up until now it's either been for work or family holidays, but now I'm looking for something different.

Now that my career has wound down and my family are getting on with theirs I find I have time on my hands and deeper thoughts on my mind. I suspect I'm not alone in reaching a point in life where you start to look back as much as you look forward, and when I do my life seems quite surreal. For someone who never had a game plan, opportunity and luck have served me well and I hope they hold out as I embark on the next chapter!

This is my time, I've run out of excuses and realise it's Now or Never!

"One is always nearer, by not keeping still."

Thom Gunn

Point2Pointless is nod to the fact that whilst this trip has a defined route and purpose it is also open-ended and an opportunity to explore some the more offbeat and quirky encounters that I'm sure will cross my path. How many times have you wondered what's at the end of that road or what that person's story is? This will be my chance to find out!

The freedom of having no fixed plans will also be a test, and an opportunity to learn and grow, and while I look forward to being joined by family and friends at points along the way, I will also relish the time I will spend alone.

In addition to the personal journey the physical trip will no doubt prove to be a challenge, many of the lighthouses I will visit are inaccessible by road and difficult to get to by any means.

By traveling to the extremities of our continent I will visit some of the wildest, most unspoiled and inhospitable places in Australia and no doubt meet all sorts of people, those whose culture stretches back tens of thousands of years and more recent arrivals who choose to live on the edges of our continent and closer to nature in these far-flung places.

I'll be documenting my thoughts and revelations here and welcome your contributions, and hope by sharing our experiences we can enrich our journeys and add colour and music to each others lives.

That's the point!