Smile, Emote, Admit, Emit

Day 0 ~ Sydney to Beijing

I'm always up all night before a flight. And packing at four in the morning to be at the airport for seven. I was particularly proud this morning when I rolled out the driveway with only one bag to check, a first for me! Still, I'd be dragging along my camera bag and tripod, laptop backpack and lighting kit. I'm off to photograph The Great Wall of China and a journey of a million steps in the fight against Cancer! I wonder what that will look like?

I never arrive at an airport without expectation of exciting shenanigans. And I would not let myself down. About five minutes before boarding I was called over the loudspeaker. I'd left my passport at the security checkpoint! Rushing back to retrieve it I was stopped by a guard asking to search my bags. I'd just come through security but boy was he eager. He insisted in that way that security guards have a right to do, and so a search became a chemical swab and a swab became a pat-down. At the conclusion of a search I take great pride in always saying "thank you very, very much". And so offered the widest, brightest smile I could muster to the five personnel now assembled in formation around me, and sped off for gate 35, a ferocious, whirlwind blur of Australian Traveller.

My flight was groovy.

The new terminal at Beijing Airport is stunning! I was like a kid in a candy store. And without a responsible parent tugging on my hand it took me over an hour to make it from the arrival gate to the taxi stand, so frequently did I pause to take photographs. The driver practiced counting in English as we sped along dark highways, through the late evening in search of my hotel. He was counting out the meter fee and together we laughed at each wrong turn taken. The porters at The Westin were able to explain to him that in fact I'd be staying at The Ritz Carlton and once back on track we found our destination two blocks away in the downtown core.

This will be the first and last hotel bed I could jump on without breaking my back (or the bed). Jump! Then sleep.

Click here to check out my photoset from Day 0!

And Wish me luck, I'll need it! ;)

An idea

"I will travel the full walk and document the experience via visual art, photography, journal writing, poetry and story telling.

I will create photographs that capture the abstract essence of the journey. Be they landscapes, portraits or abstracts, the images will convey ideas and messages, and be accompanied by written reflections.

I will publish to an internet blog for the extent of the walk, connecting to the internet via cell phone or satellite connection where available, either daily or at completion of each stage.

I will promote this journal virally, through networks and communities, both local and international.

I will invite submissions to the blog from young people around the world.

These submissions will be stories of lives touched by cancer, told similarly, through the use of visual art, photography, creative writing and story telling.

I will publish these submissions, tying them back to my personal experience of the journey, perhaps even the shared experience of other walkers.

I will do this hoping that the journal then takes on a life of its own, and in effect tell a communal story of young peoples’ Journey with the shared challenge of cancer."

— Proposal, 06/03/08

A beginning

Hi! I'm Jarra.

I am an avid traveller, photographer and film maker. I focus my time working with NGOs as an advocate for social justice issues. This month I'm walking 230km along The Great Wall of China, in the company of cancer survivors and international celebrities, to raise funds for The Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre. You can learn much more about what this amazing team is achieving by visiting http://www.greatwalktobeijing.com.

Over the years, as cancer has come into the lives of my family and friends, we have witnessed unbelievable suffering, but always matched by incredible courage. My cousin passed away many years ago. His parents now struggle through each day. My best friend lost his father. He held his family together. Today I visited an internet blog I've been reading for many years, AuspiciousDragon, the personal journal of a woman battling secondary cancer. Her long battle, inspiring and at once heart breaking, is coming to an end. Her husband, Colin Jago writes - "We never did climb those mountains. I hope you climb yours before it is too late." But she climbed many mountains, she walked 'that wall' all its length. We've never met, but through her willingness to Be, to communicate, to reach out, I've shared a little in her story, in her struggle, in her triumphs and in her slow passing from this world. And so I need to climb.

I would like to walk the Great Wall for Christian Jago. I would like to 'meet' her Auspicious Dragon.