Winning The Work/Life Battle

Guest Blog by Matthew Entwistle

Achieving the right balance between work and leisure can sometimes be a real challenge. It's all too easy to neglect your passions after a hard day in the office, and the little free time we struggle to create for ourselves is so easily lost.

It was with this in mind that my partner and I decided to escape the everyday and claw back some "me" time by heading to New South Wales in Australia for five months of bushwalking, camping and fishing on the nations south east coast.

After arranging time off work and leaving everything behind we soon found ourselves with all the time in the world - but still with no time to waste, so we entered the bush at the historic National Trust village of Central Tilba at the earliest opportunity with just our faithful rucksacks (and the odd luxury of course!)

Whilst slowly trekking through the easy going rainforest gullies and the vast State Forests around Gulaga (Mount Dromedary) and Wallaga Lake it soon became apparent that there is nothing quite like taking life at your own pace.

Photo courtesy of TravellingTamas

I guess it is the element of freedom that is most apparent as every decision made is our own and any deadlines to work to are as flexible as we wish.

Imaginations and senses work in overdrive when travelling through the bush and are not stifled by traffic noise or TV and the like and it's easy to picture yourself as a gold mining pioneer or bushranger. Rediscovering good old fashioned enjoyment with only the basic things in life is wonderful - priceless in fact. Materialism is highlighted as unimportant and we find that our most treasured possessions are our lifestyles and sense of humour.

I love my creature comforts, but after living without them for a while soon remembered a thing or two about making our own entertainment. I mean, what could be better than cooking our own damper bread or flatbreads on the campfire washed down with billycan tea and reigniting our enjoyment of deep (and shallow) conversation interrupted only by the odd visiting possum or tawny frogmouth owl; or listening to Kerrie sing a few Neil Young songs? What could be more relaxing than reading great literature such as Marcus Clarke's 'For the Term of His Natural Life', or eating freshly made popcorn whilst in our sleeping bags mesmerised by the amazingly clear Milky Way? Is there anything more rewarding than a few hours fishing for flathead or bream early in the morning before breakfast?

Possum, courtesy of Jess, Beemouse Labs

It was whilst enjoying these simple things in life that I started thinking how such activities had originally introduced me to the story of Millican Dalton and his spirit of adventure.

Having been inspired by him for years because of his affinity with nature, his focus on living his own life, his dislike of modern living, and his uncompromising lifelong search for thrills and adventure, I had now found myself enjoying the same sort of things and living a similar active lifestyle (although, sorry to say, only on a temporary basis).


This led me to ponder "Can we all live like Millican?" The answer was - yes, well almost.

Although it would be practically impossible to live the life of a modern day caveman in the 21st Century (and who would want to anyway?), we can, most definitely, have our own bite of the cherry and make more time to search out our own thrills and adventure. It's all about focusing on what’s important and developing our own philosophy of life. We can all set free our spirit of adventure and follow it wherever it goes.

So, when my Australian escapade is over and I'm back at work, I'll keep the spirit alive by planning my next well deserved holiday and claiming another little victory in the work/life battle.

Matthew Entwistle

Visit www.mountainmere.co.uk for more information on Matthew and Millican Dalton.