Tony Mangan ‘Walk Around The World’ #3
http://www.theeye.news/2018/03/06/tony-mangan-walk-around-world-3/
Have you ever asked yourself ‘Am I afraid of the dark?’, well, this is a thing that Tony Mangan can never be accused of. After reaching his 2nd anniversary on his world walk Tony now finds himself walking somewhere across Australia.
Every night he has a choice to make and often this choice means that he has only one real option of where to sleep. With his trusty cart which houses all his basic living equipment he unravels his tent and makes a home for the hours of darkness as he invariably sleeps outdoors quite regularly night after night, all over the world.
But, fortunately, another option often presents itself and that manifests itself following the goodness of random strangers.
This is when Tony is presented with a choice to make. As Tony is such an experienced world traveler it makes him attuned to the cultural differences throughout the world. Perhaps tempted at times by a potential indoor bed, his instincts need to be razor sharp for him to accept the kind offer of strangers to sleep in their home.
During this past week Irish man Tony hasn’t been thinking of darkness much, but more of native country as his sister continued to send him updates of the snow fall that covered most of Ireland. For all of us living in Ireland over the past few decades the recent snow fall seemed surreal, but, spare a thought for Tony, as he wanders alone across the lower half of the globe after being constantly updated last week with pictures of home under a veil of whiteness. Surely he had thoughts of his childhood remembering the show that was, and other thoughts of how the snow back home could sooth him as he sweated in the heat. When we were in the depths of snow he communicated to me saying:
It's over thirty one degrees here and having trouble sleeping in my tent!
Fortunately for Tony he ran into some very good people in Scott and Noel in the Darling Downs region. Scott who wondered about Tony as he peered from his home (at the then stranger Tony) quickly made his mind up to kindly offer him a bed for the night. Then there was Noel who came across Tony as he walked and decided to stride it out for an hour with him in honour of his late father who had passed away due to cancer.
Tony with some new friends as he stops for a bite to eat
Although Tony was having a joke with his fellow Irish man by quipping how it was nice to be away from last week’s snow fall, again within hours he had to ask himself ‘Am I afraid of the dark?’ as he was unsure of where he was to sleep the following night again.
No comments:
Post a Comment