High above Iraq and Turkey it struck me how different all our lives are… and how different each of them are when viewed from different perspectives.

I was captivated by the rugged landscape below and was thinking how wonderful it would be to live and journey across that incredible land… until it dawned upon me that I was looking down on Iraq and Turkey.

I then had a sad wave of recognition of the history of the peoples who have inhabited this rugged landscape, and had a sobering realisation of how different things are from different view points.

I felt a deep sense of gratitude for my life.

I am privileged to have been selected and invited to participate in artist residency aboard the tall ship Antigua, sailing around Svalbard for a couple of weeks. Max and I have started our journey together toward Oslo. Our trajectory over 36 hours took us through Adelaide then to Dubai which was  during the night… but the flight from Dubai to Oslo was spectacular. We passed over Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey, Black sea, corner of Bulgaria… then the clouds started to cover Rumania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Sweden, Norway.

It felt incredible to know that I was flying over countries and roads that Max and I drove through on our drive in Penny on the Peking to Paris rally in 2016.

Here are some photographs of this incredible landscape… viewed from such a privileged perspective.