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Just when you start thinking “my life is pretty damn good right now” a natural disaster of an unimaginable scale takes over all that once had this hard working man on a path to content. 2019 was without a big doubt a fantastic year of travel for me with a summit of Langtang Ri in the high Himalaya, an area in 2015 vastly affected by a 8.1 magnitude earthquake. The village of Langtang had been destroyed by a landslide associated with the catastrophic earthquake and 4 years on, the people of the village continue to rebuild, opening their hearts and houses to those who venture to this part of the world. I soon left the rooftop of the world and ventured to the most harsh, unforgiving deserts in the world in Central Australia where rain was a rarity and dust storms a regular. I spent a week with the Anangu people in Mutijulu, a small community near Uluru. In recent years, temperatures have soared well above average pushing water resources to its very limits impacting traditional ways of life so crucial to the people of the Pitjantjatjara Lands. As the seasons continually shift, the Anangu adapt and find a way to sustain life. Months later, I set course for the state of Karnataka in India known for its rich history and ancient temples however most towns throughout the state are subject to devastating floods. Houses remain inundated with floodwater as water hyacinth floated at their doorstep some 2 months post-rain. Children would welcome the rains, dancing in puddles while swirling around rainbow coloured umbrellas knowing all too clearly that a continuation of the rain would lead to deadly flooding. Bangkok was next on my travels, a city that had been facing issues with terrifying thunderstorms which would lash the city on a daily basis in the monsoonal season. Climate change is known to cause more severe storms with frequent lightning strikes, baseball size hail and gale force winds. Citizens are more prepared than ever for these events, sitting and waiting for such events to dissipate. Leaving Bangkok, I followed the Chao Phraya on a bicycle all the way to Yangon in Myanmar leaving the lashing lightning strikes behind me to a country predicted to become a refuge haven for climate refugees from countries such as Bangladesh. Chittagong and Dhaka face the possibility of extreme sea level rises in the next 50 to 100 years forcing Bangladeshi’s to seek refuge in places like Myanmar, a country already dealing with environment issues. I witnessed the effects of these events and I had grown weary from my travels and the Australian summer had dawned. Drought had ravaged almost 100% of New South Wales drying the forests, creeks and rivers with no respite in sight. Smoke blew to the south-east as I watched with flared anxiousness; possessions were packed into a cardboard box while I prepared the family pets for imminent evacuation. Within an hour of seeing the drifting smoke, black smoke shot into the sky and we were completely surrounded by fire with no escape, flames 40 metres high tore through. The only way that we were going to survive was to work tirelessly dousing fires with buckets, garden hoses and watering cans. There’s no real way of explaining just what that dreadful afternoon on the 8th of November 2019 was like but there’s a word that pops to my mind was “apocalypse”. Mum, Dad and I defended and saved our house however others in our area weren’t so lucky. I look back on 2019 and all of the places I got to travel and I am starting to think that each moment lead to November the 8th. Landslides in Nepal, floods in India, heatwaves in Central Australia and severe thunderstorms in Thailand. I got to witness how people were dealing with climate fuelled disasters and now I find myself in the same position, living in a disaster zone, a now common existence in my life however my mindset has changed, when the rains come I celebrate, when the days are cool I smile, when the grass is green I lay back and embrace the good of nature with an uncertain future.