No worries

"No worries, mate" is a sentence that anyone who goes to Australia will most certainly hear more than once, in that slightly nasal accent so typical from the Land of Oz. And in my opinion, there is hardly a sentence that can define the relaxed spirit of australian people better than this one. In his book "Down Under", renowned travel author Bill Bryson states that "Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else", yet the people there are still cheerful and quick-witted. Looks like they really don't have any worries at all.

As I landed in Perth , I was in the airport looking for my friend Kathleen, whom I had not seen in a while, since she moved from London to her homeland. Kath is most definitely a good example of this optimistic spirit in most australian people. She has seen some suffering and has suffered enough herself, and yet she manages to keep a positive attitude and an inspiring optimism.

She is waiting for me at the airport, although I first don't recognize her, because she dyed her hair brown, and I was looking for a blond girl. We greet each other and as we're leaving the airport she tells me that we are having dinner at Andrew and Eudotia's. Eudotia is her sister, and I had already met her and Andrew a few years before in London.

We had a wonderful dinner, a good conversation, and in the end, Andrew hands me his car keys. "You can have my car for the next three days, I'm going to Malasia on a business trip". I was planning to rent a car when I got to Perth, because I wanted to drive to the Pinnacles Desert for some photos. Pinnacles Desert is a place with some bizarre rock formations some 250 km North of Perth, and the only way to get there is either by bus or by car. I just wasn't expecting to go there driving a convertible Mazda MX-5. I was somewhat embarrassed with the offer, because I did not feel comfortable driving Andrew's car to that place and as me and Kath left their place, I told her so, and she just goes "No worries ! He knows you want to go there, that's why he lent you the car".

So two days later I took off from Perth to the Pinnacles Desert, in Nambung National Park, near a little village called Cervantes, on the western coast of Australia. Even though I was driving a convertible, the gods showed no mercy because at the horizon I could see some pretty dark clouds. As I approached the place, those dark clouds brought rain (lots of it), and I was thinking that maybe I had just driven 250 Km to stay inside a canvas top convertible looking at the Pinnacles Desert in the rain. But then a certain thought came through my mind: "no worries, lets just get there and see what happens". And about 5 minutes after I started driving in the desert, the clouds started opening up and I could finally see some blue sky. Of course I took my camera and tripod and started snapping away, but about 15 minutes later the clouds closed, this time, not to open up again. I returned to Perth under a dark gray sky and a merciless rain, but at least I had my photographs.

Today, almost two years have passed since I've been in Australia. Still, I think about my australian friends and the time I spent there. I remember the relaxed, optimistic, cheerful atmosphere of most people I met there, and I can't help but feel good with myself and think "no worries, mate".