In the months ahead, our collective vehicle to the broader world will be the Bowen Queen. Smaller and somewhat shabbier than the Queen of Cap, commutes and lives will be re-jigged in order to avoid potential delays. For months now I’ve been thinking, sounds as though winter 2015 is going to be as good a time as any to see how long I can go without leaving this rock.
This idea goes back a few years, to when I was new(er) to Bowen and my husband came home one day from the IRLY with a story about some guy who hadn’t left the island in three years, or something to that effect (there was a dentist once every week on Bowen at that point.) I started creating a mental checklist of all the things a person really needed to leave the island for: giving birth? Absolutely, but only a select part of the population can use this excuse, on occasion. Passport office? Well I guess if you’re not planning on leaving Bowen, who needs a passport?
I thought it would be fun to learn about any potential perspective shift that might take place following a truly extended period on Bowen. Maybe I could even experience that shift myself, by staying on Bowen as long as I possibly could.
But alas, not this winter. Christmas 2014 brought me a bad case of itchy feet, a desire to be surrounded by a new pallet of colours, to breath in different air, even if it’s not quite as fresh as our cedar and woodstove smelling stuff. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it too far off the rock, but for those of you who do – this Undercurrent editor wants to live vicariously through you.
Fortunately, we’ve still got a ferry, albeit a smaller shabbier one. And the fabulous small ferry survival guide, just in case anyone needs a little extra help getting to the other side.
And it seems the midlife upgrade is no match for those of us born to wander.
I received a note from John Lawrence, of Garden Club fame, who mentioned that he’s living on the cheap in South America. Becky Dawson mentioned to me she was heading off somewhere delicious in Uclulet. I look forward to hearing from them, and all other Bowen adventurers, about the best of their trips off the rock in 2015.
All the best to all of you in the New Year.
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