Is this the Emerald City?

Our journey along the Yellow Brick Road was nearly done…the traditional end point being the Emerald City and unbelievably one of Sydney’s little known nicknames is …the Emerald City – we hadn’t known that when we set out (…in fact we only just found out when I googled ‘nicknames for Sydney’) …at some point we would spend some time together and reflect on whether we had found our ‘courage, brains and heart’…and in two months it would be time for Dorothy to think about heading home…

But right now in this moment it turned out the Greyhound buses had something in common with the trains in China and Kazakhstan.

The window seats on a bus are way better than the aisle seats and just like the bottom bunks on a train they sell out fast –  by the time we booked our seats there were only ‘aisles’ available (typical!) which meant none of us were sitting next to each other on that last bus.

Greyhound are very particular about people ‘sitting in their allocated seats’ (does that make it easier to identify the bodies?!) …whatever the reason we didn’t ask anyone to swap – Rosa and I were near each other and Rosa’s seat companion was a scouser in her early twenties…

The young woman in the seat next to me woke up when we stopped for our last half-hour break – we had talked a little the night before and now we shared more of our stories with each other.

Sophie was a nurse from the Netherlands who had travelled for six weeks in Australia by herself. It was her first time travelling alone and she had loved it.

We had a great conversation about her plans for when she got back – she had 18 months more studying to do and then she was going out into the world to make a difference. To take her skills and work somewhere where a nurse was needed – she hadn’t decided where exactly but all of the countries she was thinking of would be incredible life experiences for her…and a precious resource for the people of that country.

It was inspiring talking to her and then she asked me about our story. I told her that in two hours time I would be with my sister. I told her about our mum dying when we were young and how close we were…

I told her how Theo and I had given up flying 20 years ago because of climate change, and then four years later Ellie and her husband had decided to emigrate to Australia.

Sophie got my heart’s outpouring that morning – after four months of travel I was coming to Ellie’s home, to live with her and Thoma, to meet the dogs she loves so much. I told Sophie about the wedding and that I was about to meet the man Ellie was going to marry for the first time, and Lucy and Grace, his two girls, who in a few short days would be my nieces…

I started to cry and she sat quietly while I let the emotion of all we’d been through wash over me. She passed me a tissue and I blew my nose, she gently touched my arm and offered to film the moment we arrived.

I asked her if she was sure, didn’t she have things to do and she’d just spent twelve hours on a bus?…she said she had plenty of time and that she would love to film this moment for us…

The kindness of strangers.

I had shared our location with Ellie and Nana (…whose timely intervention is the ONLY reason we didn’t try and make it on the raft!) …and we were all texting each other furiously – it was exciting and funny…and full of love!

‘Where are you?!’

‘On the bus…’

‘Still?’

‘No, I’ve actually got myself a hotel in Melbourne, I’ve decided to stay down here for the Boxing Day test match.’

‘Phew – I’m not feeling so well and was wondering if you could come next year maybe?’

Two seconds pause…

‘Where are you…why aren’t you here yet?’

‘THERE’S TOO MUCH TRAFFIC!!’

Sophie had been to Sydney before and she told me when the bus was about to pull up.

I turned and looked at Rosa – this was it…Theo was further down the bus, sweetly oblivious to the moment but some instinct had him turn round and see us leap to our feet.

…we were right at the back so we had to be patient – no hurling ourselves at the doors to get out – and actually that first moment of seeing Ellie would be the first moment in two minutes time or ten – I could wait, I could let other people get their luggage off the racks…

Sod this…

Turns out I couldn’t wait, Rosa right behind me I started to squeeze through non existent gaps using my guitar as a battering ram (not for the first time).

And then I saw that oh so familiar face.

I was down the stairs in one step, and I think I flew the last few yards into her arms…

We sobbed and held onto each other and then she was hugging Rosa and Theo.

WE HAD MADE IT, ACTUALLY REAL

LIFE FLIPPIN’ WELL MADE IT!!

We grabbed all our bags and said a sweet goodbye to Sophie – such a lovely person.

Ellie led us into the train station where literally everything was wonderful – the toilets, the tea, the croissant I bought Theo and Rosa for breakfast – all shiny and perfect.

It turns out that travelling 15,000 miles over four long months is a bit like giving birth. You are going to fall completely in love with whatever stops the pain, or in this case – journey…!

We drove out of Sydney chattering away like four squawky parrots and in less time than it takes to fill in a Chinese visa application we were outside Ellie’s house.

Three teenagers four dogs and two men greeted us as we opened the garage door.

My sisters home…my sisters family, our family!

Thoma, Gracie and Lucy – surrounding Rosa and feeding us fairy bread they’d made (…so disgusting and absolutely delicious – white bread, margarine and hundreds and thousands for those of you who fancy trying it).

Theo and Thoma’s dad Louis talking like the brothers they had been, me with my arms round Mike, my nearly brother, and all of us being mobbed by crazy excited dogs…it was bonkers, and it was home.

…and so beloved readers of this blog I will leave you for now.

I will share the wedding with you because, well why wouldn’t I?!

…and one last incredible piece of news.

That little press release sent into our local radio station had arrived in Australia via our wonderful friend who shared it with ABC (Australia’s BBC) and a BBC journalist who posted it online in the UK.

We have done three radio interviews, two newspaper interviews and been on National TV – all putting climate change front and centre…and we have three more interviews to do after Christmas. Our arrival in Oz has coincided with the twenty year anniversary of ‘love actually’- it’s a sweet family story mixed with a bit of adventure and real news. It has been challenging, scary and empowering – we have always known we were making this journey for ourselves but any chance we might get of passing on info about climate change or inspiring anyone to look at travel in a slightly different way, well, we were up for that and this little media circus had surpassed our wildest dreams…it was like a frost covered sparkly Christmas morning – rare and fab-u-lous!