Evolution

I was very interested this week to read in the news about the platypus and the recent genetic breakthroughs that have been made regarding this unusual creature. This unique animal which has a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs may well hold the key to unravelling the mysteries that surround human evolution.

I have always found evolution to be fascinating and do not think this process is in any way limited to living creatures. This blog is a perfect example of that, it started as a way for me to waffle on about pointless things while working out my notice before hitting the travelling trail. It then became an online diary for me to keep track of my trip and for others to be able to, in some way, share in the experience. Nowadays, after several site redesigns, 145 posts, over 16,000 visitors and the inclusion of a few add-ons it is still a place for me to vent my random thoughts to the world but it has undoubtedly changed a lot since day one back in July 2007.

The OzBus is also a great example of this, it began as a ground breaking trip from London to Sydney overland, it had to evolve en-route in order to survive, throwing in a flight here, an itinerary change there, a liability disclaimer every now and then, but it continues to grow. The speed at which the company is growing at the moment though brings me back to the start of this post and the platypus. The platypus seems to have evolved by just grabbing at whatever it could find that worked and while it has come out the other end in one piece it certainly has the look of something that was cobbled together in a hurry with the lights off!

OzBus 3 will pull in to Sydney this weekend and I have been keeping up with the journey where possible via blogs but have not seen much from them since Bali. OzBus 4 (Sydney to London) left Oz in April with no fanfare at all and not one blog from this trip has emerged yet. Reading the accounts from the third trip it seems they have run in to some of the same issues we did but are still having a great time so why am I talking about the company growing in strange ways?

Well with only two completed trips under their belt from London to Sydney they are launching:

• OzBus Down Under – a 56 day tour around Australia
• OzBus Africa - that will do various trips around the African continent
• OzBus Hippie Trail – Turkey to Nepal in 49 days
• An overland trip from Berlin to Sydney
• An overland trip from New York to London
  

Now don’t get me wrong, I like the concept and am interested in going on a couple of these trips in the future I just think that the company may be evolving a little to quickly, who knows it could end up like the platypus and inexplicably work to the wonderment of the rest of the world but I just have a feeling that it is better to learn to walk before you start running…