....AND THE HUNTER HOME FROM HILL
WAKEFIELD (UK): 19th October -- R.L.
Stevenson fans would know those famous final lines of 'Tusitala', the great
story-teller, in Samoa: 'Home is the sailor, Home from sea , And the hunter
home from the hill'. austraLasia' would like to tell you of another
story-teller, and 'hunter home from the hill'. Peter Hunter, Salesian Past
Pupil from UK, is back from a worldwide jaunt, now available as a book: NO
ONWARD TICKET. Perhaps we should let Peter tell his own story in the bits
and pieces below.
"I had always harboured a secret ambition to travel
the world and as a past pupil of a Salesian School, I had began to recognise
that I was a part of a world wide network of former pupils from schools
associated with ‘The Salesians of Don Bosco’. So, I began planning a journey
that would not only see me exploring the world's physical terrain but would also
see me exploring real people in communities both large and small, rich and poor,
with differing cultures and colours."
"The events of September 11th 2001 shocked the
world. I know that security has closed the door for so many travellers but I
believe that terrorist activities should not stop people from exploring our
world. I am now determined more than ever to see the world and defy the hurdles
that will be there (as a person of colour I feel this is especially relevant).
Many of the people that I work with could never imagine this kind of journey and
it is therefore important to come back and show them that their life can be a
challenge of success, setting goals that can be achieved – even one so grand as
this!"
Peter did more than keep a diary. He met
important people and ordinary people, reported at times for the BBC and for any
media that were interested...and most were! And in the course of a journey
that took 222 days (not 80!) by land and sea except where it was necessary to
fly, he found himself trapped on a burning ferry, left for dead after a
road accident at night, feeling powerless to change grinding poverty that
reduced him to tears, meeting the rich, the famous, the destitute and those
without hope....this was Hunter's journey.
It took him over the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas
and the Rockies; across the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans; it is a story
of accidents, emotions, friendships and fun. From the gas chambers in
Auschwitz, to the suicide bombings in Jerusalem; the children in the gutters in
Abbis Ababa to the terrorist bombings in Bali; the bushfires in Australia
to 'fire' of another kind in Iraq, to SARS in Canada. Peter saw
it or the aftermath of it. This is the story of an ordinary man making an
extraordinary journey, exploring cultures and talking with people. As a
young Salesian pupil he must be an inspiration to many others of his
kind.
