Nothing But a Broomstick

Everyone's leaving. Gone. Goodbye. It's one of the hardest parts of travelling. It's not like when someone goes away on vacation. It's not the same as when you have summer holidays and know that the start of next school year you'll see the people again. It's not even as though we're all Australian and will probably meet up again somewhere else down under. Goodbye generally means just that. Goodbye.

That being said, we still do say, "see ya later." Only later generally means months or even years down the road. And we also will generally won't meet up at the coffee house down the street. We won't even really talk of seeing each other in the neighboring city. We more or less will rephrase it such as "see you in Thailand/New Zealand/South America."

My friends I have made since travelling have come from all over the world. They may eventually go back to their home countries. They may end up somewhere completely different. Regardless, when we part ways, it is kind of left to destiny or fate or whatever you believe in as to whether or not you may share another moment in time with that person. The closest thing I may ever come to seeing these friends again may only be through Facebook. Then again, maybe we WILL find each other one random day in a random place. Who knows. What I do know is that it is hard to say goodbye. And the more people I meet, the less effort I put into making plans to see each other again. Because the reality of it is that that just may never happen.

Yesterday 5 of my friends left. Inge (Netherlands) took off in her 4WD with Larissa, Sam (UK) and Mona (Germany) to head up north through the Kimberleys along the Gibb River Road. And I miss them already. Later in the afternoon Yuri (Japan) informed me that she, too, was going and wouldn't be coming back to the caravan park. She packed up her things and left and now the only thing that remains is a broomstick she had made to clean up around her tent.

Come this Friday more people will leave. And in a week or two, another set of people are planning on going to. Alex is one of them. We have been frantically trying to prepare as much as possible before she sets off with Hannah to go to Darwin, on route to the UK (Hannah heads to Melbourne) -- we have 2 days left and it's not near the amount of time we need. At least with both Hannah and Alex I know I will see them again. Alex and I will meet up in New Zealand and Hannah plans to return to Broome in a month to finish off the season.

In all of this, the hardest part is being the one left behind. It's easier to be the one leaving. It's easier to be the one making the choices in how to leave, when to leave and where to head to next. To be the one left behind there is simply just a hole where that person used to fit into your life - a hole that you neither know how or want to fill. All you can do is say goodbye.