Mike DiDonna
 Mike
DiDonna, a music and photography major at Hampshire College, wanted to
see the wilds of Australia through a camera lens. "I just really
wanted to take pictures," he says of his 1999 NOLS spring
semester in Australia. "I was also so anxious to be out in the
middle of nowhere for awhile, and I knew it would be good for me to be
out in the sun, the heat, and the elements. I could sense the feelings
of accomplishment I would come away with even before the course began."
A native of Long Island, N. Y., Mike always felt a calling to go to
Australia, and a NOLS semester offered the perfect route to take him
there. Because of the logistics of the course, Mike had to leave most
of his camera equipment behind, taking instead a smaller camera that
would survive the canoe journey down the Drysdale River, and the backpacking
section through the Australian wilderness. He still managed to snap more
than 700 negatives, a collection he plans on exhibiting at Hampshire
College.
The Drysdale River in Australia
© Mike DiDonna |
Even without these images, Mike's NOLS course remains vivid in his memory. "It
was hot and humid in the beginning," he recalls. "But it's a
gorgeous and very diverse landscape. When you hike away from the water,
everything changes. It's a whole different world--a tropical setting with
birds and even palm trees when you're near the water, and an arid desert
climate as you hike away."
Mike enjoyed the region's isolation more than anything else--the knowledge
that he was exploring places where only a handful of human beings had
been before him. "We were walking through areas where nobody had
ever been before," he says. "You start to realize this as you
venture away from the river and know that you're one of the few people
in the world to have seen this place."
Back at Hampshire College, where Mike plays jazz piano and pursues his
interest in photography, this remoteness is long gone, but he still thinks
about his NOLS course almost everyday. And he has some advice for anyone
considering a NOLS semester in Australia. "Be prepared to push yourself
and go beyond your limits," Mike advises. "On the course, our
motto was 'Go beyond' because it's under the harshest conditions that
everyday life seems almost mundane. You've gone down this rapid on some
remote Australian river and now you can go out and do anything."
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