For more than 12 months I had this scrap of paper under a magnet on my fridge.
“What’s this?” visitors would ask, and tug at the note covered with my scribbly writing.
“Oh, just some random sketchy details about how to find a tree.”
“A tree?”
“Yeah. You know what I’m like, it’s another tree I’d like to visit.”

My obsession has led to thousands of photos, and hundreds of kilometres of travel with sore feet, aching muscles, and even broken bones.

But I have a particular fondness for oaks; my beloved Quirkus.

I grew up squeezing through this little gap in my hometown to hug the oak inside, and when we travel to the cooler parts of Australia, we always make a date with our favourite oaks and listen carefully to their wisdom.

Here in the subtropics, we’re surrounded by the huge and ancient trees of the rainforest, and oaks are hard to come by.

So, when I came across a website that offered directions to what is considered the best local example of an oak, and it was in the ranges only a few hours from our home, I hastily scribbled them down and plonked them on the fridge.
It became the ‘one day…’ note.

And it sat there for ages.
While I dreamed of the Southern oaks.  

At the start of this month, Stew pulled the note from the fridge and said, “What was this about again?”

“It’s the oak, remember? We’ll get there one day.”

“Let’s go tomorrow.”

“Done!”

It turned out to be a 400-kilometre round trip through some wonderful scenery and a break from the regular no-man’s-land of life around the holidays.

And we found the oak,
and took lots of photos, and listened, and didn’t break any bones.
A perfect way to start the new year.

Have you ever travelled out of your way for something others would think is a bit bizarre? Have you wanted to, but thought it too weird?