Uyetsga and I are currently at opposites. I don’t mean we have a different style of how we want to get ready for this walk. I mean we are literally on opposite sides of the world. She is in Colorado and I am in Australia, she is in snow and I am in 80F heat. She is at 9000ft and I am at sea level. However, we both get out to do some hiking each day. It does seems strange not to be doing it together but we still talk for hours.

The current timezone difference has the sun rising in Australia 7 hours behind Colorado. So when I am getting up to start walking Uyetsga is already half way through her day. If everything lines up we talk while I walk and if everything lines up really well Uyetsga is also out walking in the warmest part of her day. We can easily pass several hours in this fashion, chatting away as if we were together and still getting our training in. Lucky we now have cheap internet phone calls otherwise our phone bill would be huge.

Doing this is not like being together. We see things and we don’t have the other person seeing them with us, allowing us to talk about and share the excitement of what we see together. We sometimes send each other photos or switch to FaceTime but it is just not the same as being together.

It is a beautiful time of the year in Australia, Autumn, and I am in a beautiful spot on the East coast. My morning walks for the first few days have been along the ocean. Port Macquarie is the town I grew up in and even though I might be bias for my old home, I think it has some of the most beautiful ocean scenery you could hope to find.

When I was walking along Lighthouse Beach one of the other people stopped me and pointed out the pod of Dolphins that were playing in the waves near the shore. Growing up I spent a lot of time in the ocean and there is nothing more uplifting than surfing with a pod of Dolphins. These creatures just love to play.  You see them sliding through the water and then breaking the surface just at the top of the waves. They surf down the front of the wave picking up speed and then launch themselves into the air. This is what they were doing this morning and it was wonderful to stop and watch them.

Uyetsga and I are very lucky to visit some beautiful places and even more so when we get to do them together. I miss my best friend tonight but I know we will be back together again soon.