Recouping from the long flight in Melbourne, I stayed with my mate Fleech, who used to appear on the Australian soap opera "Neighbours". In passing he mentioned that the guy who had played his brother on the show was now a tour guide somewhere in the Northern Territory. I didn't pay much attention though.

I did decide my first stop would be the Outback, all the time wondering what this orange rock was on the front cover of my Lonely Planet. After learning about Australian hospitality from a cool couple from Adelaide, Denis and Tania, who showed me the town and let me clean up at their place, I boarded the Ghan to Alice Springs. As the Ghan got closer to Alice Springs, the more beautiful the scenery became and more Aborigine appeared, waving to the passing train. I didn't even know where I would be staying, thinking that I didn't want to do the hostel thing. The previous summer I stayed one night in a hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland and felt I was too old and mature for hostels. When I backpacked Europe after university I stayed in hostels, but since then I have stayed on business trips in luxury suites with two bathrooms in them on Park Avenue. You know, I am an international businessman now. But I decided to give a hostel a shot anyway to save cash. As we pulled into station concluding the two-day trip, the greeter from Malankas asked me, "How much time you got?". I replied, "As much as I want." The lateral drift had begun.

Staying in hostel, or "backpackers" as the Australians call them, wasn't so bad after all. Alice Springs turned out to be a cool place too, although the song "Big Yellow Tax" from Counting Crows (and a Joni Mitchell classic) kept running through my head, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Anyway, I quickly began to de-stress and to notice the younger backpackers often had their entire trips planned out for months into the future. I began to ask myself have they already lost the spontaneity of life, and are we all planning our lives away?? What about letting things simply happen?? At first all I could plan was a day-tour to learn about the Aborigine people.

It was here I first discovered their concept of The Dreaming, a time when everything all around us was created. In several myths, the world, man, animals, plants, and nature were created and named by supernatural beings who later disappeared into the earth or into the heavens. Actually, according to the Aborigine, we are still in the Dreaming. The Dreaming is Life.

The Australian Aborigines felt a strong connection to nature which shaped their view of the universe and their place in it. They believed they were an element of a much greater entity called nature. The Aborigine believe we are all One Spirit . . . man, animals, plants, rocks . . everything. I began to notice the similarity of their spirituality to that in Buddhism and Taoism, and the distinction between these concepts and doctrine-based western religions, where there is a central authority figure, God, that is external to man. I also began to question the concept of God in relation to my native country, the United States. As the US inched towards war with Iraq, George W. kept using "God" in his speeches. Do the concepts of God and war fit together?? Even our currency has "In God we trust" printed on it. Putting an Aborigine spin on it, if we are one spirit, this means we are God, and "In God we trust" becomes "Trust Yourself."

With my interest sparked, I visited the tour desk to inquire about tours to the Outback. The choices came down to an Adventure Tours three-day and a five-day tour, with the slower-paced and more in-depth five-day intended for more adventurerous travelers instead of for those simply checking the sites off their lists. However due to me trying to avoid structure and any kind of a plan whatsoever, I opted for the three-day tour. As a bonus, they threw in a one-day tour to local swimming holes as well.

Our guide for the one-day swimming hole tour was Dan, a very peaceful bloke in his late 20's with a ponytail and a few days beard growth. He was very knowledgeable about the geology and especially the Aborigine culture, and I came to respect him quickly. In the course of the morning, I began to ask myself if I had made the right decision with the 3-day tour, so during lunch I asked Dan his personal recommendation, and his response was the five-day tours are better. As we all climbed into the van, a pome girl (pome is Australian for Prisoners Of Mother England by the way), spoke up and asked, "Hey Dan, did you ever star in 'Neighbours' ?"

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