In just under three weeks I’ll be headed off on my second sabbatical. Five years ago I journeyed to England, South Africa, New Zealand, and Hawaii. And all without my checked luggage!

This time I’ll be enjoying various means of “slow travel,” including taking a train to Albuquerque to spend a few days there with family and friends; taking a 19-day cruise from Hawaii that eventually docks in Sydney, Australia; seeing the interior of Australia on a 3-day adventure on a train known as “The Ghan”; and taking a modern overnight train trip from Cairns to Brisbane.

In addition to sightseeing I’ll also take a couple of opportunities for some volunteer work. First, I’ll be spending two weeks at an Australian Forest Wildlife rehabilitation project that works with abandoned or orphaned animals so that they can returned to the wild. Later I’ll be at a Great Barrier Reef Turtle Rehabilitation project for another couple of weeks.