Rory Gibson: Stop whingeing Australia, you have it so good

After three months overseas, columnist Rory Gibson returns home this week. Here’s what he missed the most on his trip - and the first thing he’s going to do when back in the country.

WHEN YOU go away for a long time, what do you miss most about home?

Family, friends, your routine?

I’ll be back in Australia in a couple of days, having been away for three months. As usual when I spend time overseas, my view – that if you are lucky enough to live in Australia it means you have won the lottery of life – is reinforced tenfold.

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While I love poking around in other countries, I’ve never come across one better than our own, and I’m not particularly parochial. It’s simply a matter of comparison ... Aussies have everything required for a wonderful life at their fingertips.

Columnist Rory Gibson riding a motorbike in Cape Town. Source: Instagram

And having just witnessed real poverty, real sexism, real racism and real bureaucratic suffocation first-hand in 11 different African countries, let me just say this to anyone who wants to moan about Australia - you need to get out more. Really, stop whingeing and have a good look around.

Back to the question of what I missed most, the answer is the ocean. The first thing I’m going to do on Wednesday is jump in and let its clean, fizzy salt caress wash away the dirt and smoke that has filled every pore of my body and no shower can dislodge.

We are a coastal nation. The great majority of us live around the edges of this big dry island and can get to a beach without too much effort. Once there we throw a towel down on any patch of sand that takes our fancy and become one tribe, an egalitarian bunch of sybaritic sprites stripped of our pretence and united by the simple, sensual pleasures thrown at us by the ocean.

Columnist Rory Gibson can’t wait to get back into the Aussie surf. Picture: Nigel Hallett

People from other countries are wary of the ocean. They don’t trust it. They haven’t grown up with it. Swimming, something Aussies learn about the same time they start walking, doesn’t come easy to them.

We are so fortunate it is part of our culture, this relationship with the ocean. It is one of the factors that shapes our national character, our easygoing nature. When you’re lying on the beach or floating about in the blue, we are all equal. Money and status mean nothing when you’re covered in sand, salt and sunscreen.

I can’t wait to dive in.

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