John Leaves for Mauritius, Madagascar

Waving goodbye from the Big Sliding Doors of the departure lounge, Melbourne International Airport.

John Cameron left on tuesday April 1 for a three month trip to Madagascar, where he will spend ten weeks as a volunteer research assistant on a Wilderness Expedition run by the British organisation Frontier.

Yukima is documenting John's travels for Virgil's Diary, as he sends each of his reports back home.

Midday, Tuesday April 1, 2003
Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, Australia…

John Cameron* checks in at the Air Mauritius desk, weeks of careful preparation enabling him to squeeze 3 months worth of gear, including extensive medical kit, into his hiking pack and a small day pack. A last minute decision and a rickety old guitar, in a borrowed black linoleum case, is added to the collection of “essential items” for his epic adventure. The guitar, lovingly repaired by grandpa Don, will be securely strapped to the back of the pack and will go with John as far as it is practical, hopefully making it home again to Australia, or to be given away if necessary.

John and the gang who have come to see him off -Yuki, Virgil, Maria, Felix, David and Lee- make their way to the café. From the window the Air Mauritius Flight MK941 can be seen. Everyone says their goodbyes, hugs and kisses, then John excitedly disappears beyond the silver ‘International departures’ gates.

The farewell party make their way back to the café to wait until John’s flight takes off. The time is passed by listening to Lee read from a book John & Yuki have been reading called “Maverick in Madagascar”.

Eventually the plane backs out onto the runway. We can see the windows clearly and know that John has a seat towards the front of the wing. One of the windows starts to flash like a Morse-code signal as the passenger opens and closes the blind. We all agree that it must be John. We wave back at him enthusiastically from the café window, knowing from experience that he can’t see us through the café’s reflective windows. We watch the plane take off while pondering on the next three months of life without John. We wait as the Airbus makes a graceful arc through the pale blue afternoon sky to finally vanish with a sparkle into the West.

Sometime later…

John arrives in Perth, WA. It is a cloudy afternoon and with an hour to spare John finds internet access to send a quick report home about the journey so far…

Evening, Tuesday April 1, 2003
After a 13 hour flight - Mahébourg, Mauritius…

John arrives at the Aquarelle hostel, Mauritius. John’s fascination with this part of the world began a year ago, when he and Yukima applied for a volunteer position working for the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation on a project studying the effects of Aldabran tortoise grazing on weed populations on the tiny island of Ile aux Aigrettes, a few hundred metres off mainland Mauritius. Although John and Yukima didn’t get to travel to Mauritius on that particular occasion, John is lucky enough to find himself in this part of the world after all.

Upon settling in at the hostel, John spends a rainy night thinking of the exciting days ahead.

The Next Morning…

John finds an internet café to send his next report home…

* John is going to Madagascar for 3 months to volunteer as a research assistant on an expedition undertaking biodiversity surveys in the rapidly vanishing ‘spiny forests’ in the island’s South-west

Read Yukima's original compilation of John's correspondence in all its beautiful formatting (as a PDF document)