It all started in LA, I met a friend by the name, Kai Brown upon moving to LA for modelling… Soon I was living with a new friend, Laura in Venice, Who I met through him. Who I stayed with for the next 8 months...7th and Rose right near WholeFoods and a few minutes walk to Venice Boardwalk. What a trip, feels like a lifetime ago...Rewind, and Fast forward a few weeks and after meeting Kai, he had invited me to come on a trip with his Motorcycle crew, Sons Of Gratitude II crew to document their adventure, as it would be their second trip together. I would be right there,Travelling on the back of a Harley, through the desert. Four states, Nine Days and camping along the way. Starting at home, in California, up through Nevada, to Utah and back home through Arizona. 

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I couldn't believe how mediative it was - once I got over the fear of going 100 miles an hour on the highway, to sit back and watch the world go by, take it all in... My thoughts had an endless eb and flow, something I've never experienced… At this time in my life I had not ever sat and meditated or really been particularly mindful other than my time on the yoga mat. So it felt so unusual to go so inward, unravel, detach from the mind. I felt quite alien to be honest, introverted and antisocial for the first few days as I got used to the intensity of introspection.

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We were lucky enough to be welcomed by Trek's friends in the Navajo Nation and pitch our tents on the reservations land where they lived for some nights rest. I made a wonderful friend, Alex Piechowski-Begay. I asked him how his people refer to themselves. "We call ourselves the Diné which means "the people"  & our traditional homeland is called Dinétah "The people's land". 

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I have fleeting memories from this long trip on the road… It seems like a lifetime ago and has all melted into one. I was absolutely taken away by the landscapes, I had never seen a desert so red and vast. Somewhere along our journey through Utah, I remember icy landscapes and sheep… We came across a natural hot spring in the middle of a field… and spent hours there. I remember shopping for jewellery with Alex, experiencing a Smoking Ceremony in a Hogon with his family, popping into vintage stores along Route 66, eating soggy lettuce leaves and burnt coffee at strange diners in the middle of nowhere. The most unbelievable landscapes I've ever seen,  Canyonlands in Utah. They go on forever. Picture this - The Grand Canyon... times 100 but more red… Breathtaking. We visited the grand canyon not long afterwards, down concrete paths and past other tourists. It was beautiful, pastel blue and purple, but there was something about the freedom to roam around Canyonlands. No railings or barricades or paths built into nature. Something about the rawness, the vastness and the wildness of that place really tugged at my heart strings, whenever i think of Canyonlands I feel instantly reconnected to the colours, textures, sounds and the smells.

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Visiting Trek’s Friends in Castle Valley, where I had my first ever full astrological chart done by a local radio reporter is another fond memory. Castle Valley is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Their home, reminiscent of Casa Blu in Byron bay (Formerly Colin Heaney’s home and the birth place of Liberated Heart) Drenched in light, Cushions, Curved walls, Iron Sculptures and Coloured glass. They had a panoramic view of the flat red desert planes, up to red dusty cliffs.. *pan right, to blue snow covered peaks *pan right, to green rolling mountains similar to what we see home in Australia.  I couldn't believe it, 4 different climates and landscapes in one panoramic view… Places like this do exist.

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Although I cannot recall every experience. My deepest love, gratitude to SOG for inviting me along to take pictures. To everyone who made this journey possible and to everyone and everything that contributed to the experience. 

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