There is so much to each person, their past experiences, how they interpret those experiences and the demands that society tries to instil in each individual. Not one of us can be the same, as such this site is not the same as any other either.

This site is my experience of the world through the lens of the adventures I get to have. They may be small one or two day trips, week long or (I hope) much longer and arduous than I could ever expect.

So who am I? what experiences have shaped me? where do I hope to go?

Right now I am in my mid thirties, married to a supportive wife and I have two children who are likely to feature at times on this site.

I have been hiking in Tasmania for twenty years and I don’t feel I have seen enough of it yet. There are so many local adventures that I want to experience and some old favourites that I will continue to rehash over and over.

I spent five years volunteering for Remote Area Search and Rescue with the Tasmanian State Emergency Service. I learnt a lot during that time and was involved in quite a few successful searches.

I went overseas for the first time to New Zealand in 2012 to partake in a technical mountaineering course and then generally spend some time having fun around Wanaka. I have been back twice since then and I feel very much at home on the South Island.

Heading further into the past, my schooling days to be precise. In year 11 I ditched mainstream classes and instead filled my schedule with every Outdoor Education class on offer. I did a full course load (1200 hours) of type 2 fun in the classroom and outdoors. Nearly every weekend was full of Hiking trips. Every week consisted of climbing, kayaking, abseiling etc and the theory to back it all up.

Its funny, how, poised on the brink of the life you want and what happens is a defining moment. I had slowly begun to realise that how I was experiencing the world didn’t align with those around me. This begun a 20 year journey with mental illness, not a drastic journey. I didn’t go to hospital and get admitted, however it was a long frustrating period of antidepressants, good points, bad points and the constant struggle of why is my experience of the world so different.

I kept going on adventures, I kept hoping that one day the stars would align and I would be able to turn this into my profession. I also keep getting shattered by the realisation that even if i did manage to make some headway that I would always find a way to sabotage the effort. I would get so engrossed that all other areas of my life would crack and crumble around me. It was all or nothing… quite often it became nothing.

Well lot’s of medication, giving up, weight gain from the medication and lack of control led me to a point where adventures became difficult. I did manage to hold some success career wise and held a good reputation in a couple of jobs. However I felt divided, like I had sold my soul for a few measly coins. The real me was still in there, he wanted to go out and see the world. To quote John Muir “the world is big and I want to get a good look at it before it gets dark”. This quiet internal divide festered for a couple of years until I broke. Finally all the pieces were on the ground and I didn’t have the strength to put them back together .

20 years on from when I can remember that first feeling of not being right, the diagnosis came back that I have Bipolar. Medications were started and I remember the feelings of despair at repeating this medication process. I started to feel better, then, I didn’t. We changed tablets, great for a few days, then not so much. Finally we switched tablets again. . . I can remember the first day, I wanted to feel the cycle of a manic mood, a depressive mood. It didn’t come, I felt calm and level headed, I felt happy. Happy in a different way than I had experienced it, this happiness wasn’t contingent on some future event, it didn’t rely on what had just happened, it was simple in the moment happiness.

That is what I hope to share through this site “simple in the moment happiness” of a life of big and small adventures.

With a happy heart,

Mark

Categories: Uncategorized