Tuesday 21 July 2015

I met him on the river

I met him on the river, the Nymboida River February 1997.  He was a rafting guide and I a punter (customer).  I was there with a group of friends who were out for a fun adventurous weekend of white water rafting.  I'd never been rafting before and I was very nervous.  I had recently ended a long term relationship and was certainly not looking for love.  I didn't take too much notice of Adam until the end of the first days rafting while we were setting up camp.  He told me months later that he noticed me the minute I stepped out of the car when we first arrived.

In the beginning, as neither of us was looking for a relationship we used to say to each other "3 days, 3 months or 3 years,  lets just have fun and make the most of it".  A year later Adam proposed and we were married in October 1998. 18 years later we were still having fun.  I am grateful for those 18 years and I always will be.  I found my true love, my soul mate and best friend on the river that day and I am blessed to have had that in my life. A true blessing.

In the 18 years that we were together we managed to cram in a lot.  New adventures all the time and all the while planning the next, we were always dreaming.  We were very good at it.

A year after we were married we travelled to Florida in the U.S and started working on MV Airwaves a multi-million dollar privately owned Super Yacht.  In the year that we worked for the family who owned Airwaves we were privileged enough to travel to the Bahamas, and through the Caribbean; The British & American Virgin Islands, Guadalupe, St John, St Bart's and then back to the States where we took the boat to Marthas Vineyard, New England, New York and South Carolina.  You can imagine the shenanigans we got up too.  Way too much fun and too many adventures that I don't even know where to start.  I will say that the only reason we came home was because of September 11.  We were berthed at the NY City Marina the day before the September 11 attack and were on our way to Charleston when the planes ploughed into the World Trade Centre.  It was a very scary time to be in America the energy was disturbing and Adam and I couldn't wait to get to our safe haven in Australia and so we came home.

Not long after we returned from America, Adam was offered a job in Norway working on the Numedalslagen River in Dagali.  So of course we went.  Our next adventure.  We lived and worked in Dagali for 5 months and at the end of the season we bought a Combi and drove to the most Northern point of Europe NordKapp.  What an incredible country Norway is, I have never experienced anything so beautiful.  We drove from Dagali across to Bergen and then followed the coast as best we could. It was the end of  Summer  moving into Autumn and the colours were incredible.  The further North we got the colder it got and we watched the waterfalls and rivers slowly freeze.  Have you ever seen a waterfall that has frozen mid drop?  Unbelievable!  I have no words to describe the beauty of Norway in this blog, I would need to write a book to even begin to try and put into words the deliciousness of Scandinavia.  We travelled to the top of Norway fjord by fjord across Sweden and then down through Finland and back into Norway - What a trip, a cold trip in the end.  I would not recommend sleeping in a Combi in October in -24 degrees.  It was cosy I can tell you, thank
goodness for red wine, reindeer skins and sleeping bags, hot coffee in the morning and of course each other.   It was so cold our drinking water would freeze overnight  and so did our bananas.  We could scrape the ice off the windows with our finger nails when we woke up in the morning.    Brrrr, but it was an adventure.

It was on this road trip (we were in Sweden) that Adam and I decided we wanted to come home and start a family.

Who would have though that babies were to be the biggest adventure yet.  Joel was born in December 2003 and Adam being Adam  refused to let  a small child stop him in his travels and so decided it would be a good idea to take our 3 month old to France to live and work with a very good friend of ours renovating a 300 year old apartment block in Marseilles.  And we did!  The next travel adventure was to begin and as much as we didn't think that travelling with child would be any different - boy oh boy were we wrong!  Travel was much simpler when it was only the two of us. I'm pleased to say though that the three of us survived close to 12 months in France working and exploring and we managed to create some wonderful memories and to prove to ourselves that it is possible to travel with kids (just different).

It wasn't long after we returned from France that our beautiful son Reef was born.  September 2005 - now that was a surprise, a very pleasant surprise.  I will never forget the smile on Adams face when we found out I was pregnant again.  He was so proud.  He was such an incredible Dad to Joel and Reef from the very beginning till the very end.   Adam believed that life was too short.  Even if we lived to be 100 it would never be enough time to see all the beauty that this amazing Earth has to offer and so he was determined to never stop planning the next adventure.  Since Reef was born we have travelled back to Europe and also to England and Wales, we have seen much of Australia with our favourite place being Humpy Island National Park in the Kepple Bay Marine Park.


We were never wealthy but we saved and planned for adventure. It is our motto, "have fun and be adventurous".  We were however rich with love.  We always had a roof over our head, food in our bellies and clothing on our backs.  We provided support, encouragement and love to each other and to our children.  We protected each other, had each others backs and each others heart in safe keeping.

My goal now is to not loose that, to keep the adventures alive to continue to travel to continue to provide fun and adventure to my two beautiful boys.  To love them, to teach them love and to help them become adventurous and caring young men.

I know Adam is with us;  forever in our hearts and always in our dreams.


Dream big

Jodie xx