Oh, the Place I Go
The cave I return to, no matter where in the world I am
Since the day I left home I’ve been a nomad. I’ve always been on the move, living in twenty-two places in the last twenty-two years. It’s a life that has, for the most part, suited me well.
There are times where I yearn for a secure place I can crawl into. My own cave. A place I can return and restore.
I’m a minimalist by nature — able to survive and thrive on few possessions; half of which are books and journals. When I recently moved from the United States back to Australia after eight years, I returned with only two suitcases. My whole life in two bags. For some this may sound terrifying. For me it was liberating.
As the Buddhist proverb goes, “The less you carry, the easier the climb.”
When you have no place in the physical universe you can lay your head, there is only the place we turn to in our imaginations.
For me I return to a cave. A cave I spent many nights in throughout my early twenties. Not a limestone cave of dank air and pure darkness. Instead, an ancient formation nestled in the alpine mountains of Namadgi National Park, south of Canberra.
Sometime and somehow, millions of years ago, massive granite boulders were stacked on top of each other at the crest of Orroral Ridge. Boulders larger than ten elephants and heavier than history were arranged in a formation that defies logic. The kind of formation that would make an atheist question the powers of creation.
These boulders stand in total confidence because that’s how they have stood for all of time. They form a network of passages and caves. A playground of sorts. A place any child would delight in for hours; more exciting than any human-made adventure park. Perhaps this is how it has come to be known as Legoland.
This is my go-to place. No matter where I am in the world, this is the place I return when I close my eyes. It’s my home away from home.
Underneath the maze of boulders there’s a cave with a flat floor and high ceiling. Its natural chimney allows you to light a fire and have the smoke funnel up into the starry night.
On top is a view out to the west, looking over the valley. It is far enough away from the city to be outside of the light pollution. Laying on the rock at night you can see the Milky Way in its fullness.
On either side of the ridge lay the remains of two tracking stations set up by NASA in the 1960’s. It was these tracking stations that received the message from Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon in 1969. Of all the places on Earth, this vortex was the receiving point of that first message.
When Will Hull asked about my go-to place, I knew exactly where I go. It exists in the world and in my mind. No matter where I travel, I will always have the cave on top of the ridge. My own receiving place. My own Legoland.