Saying Bye to the Board

Final Km Count: 7964.5km

That is a fantastic amount of driving, if I don't say so myself. I know what you're all thinking, I should have driven in circles on my last day to break 8g's. True, I should have. But I was so worried about messing up the van on the last day. Why? Because last day's seem to be the days when things go wrong! Here's an example.

Paul and I had spent many days in the van making sure that we didn't lock our one set of keys inside. I won't bore you with the logistics of the locks, such as teh fact that the driver's side lock had to be opened from the inside and that the side door was locked manually. Needless to say, it was always a bit of a worry in the back of my mind that the keys would be left in the locked van after the hassles of locking all the doors. So what happens when I spend my last night in the van across from Bondi beach? Door slams and Dzido is caught outside of the at midnight with nothing on but shorts and a toothbrush in hand. I'd locked myself out on my way to the public bathroom. Only on the last day does this stuff happen! After lots of time spent debating about paying for someone to come open the door I decided to try to go ninja on the car. I shimmied open the tiny top window with my palm and was one mesh screen from getting back into my house. After a little bit of punching and ripping and to the astonishment of onlookers, I hoisted myself up into the tiny porthole as cars whizzed by and slipped in. Brilliant

Van: Returned

Surfboard: Sold

Tan: Crisp but fading

Left the van at the car depot yesterday and spent this morning selling my board. It's been emotional and as much as I can't wait to find some powder (or rain?) in Austria, it's sad to think of not living Down Under. Who knows when the next time I get to surf will be! Time for the next adventure though. Let me just say, everyone of you has got to live in a van even for jsut a little. It's quite something else, and as my friend Nate put at the start of my Aussie trip here: "..those guys sleeping in vans are the happiest people in the street." It makes sense to me now.