NO MATTER what stage of your life, sometimes it is simply time to move on.
The decision to leave a place where you are comfortable in order to risk happiness in an unfamiliar region is what drives some people forward.
And in a well-lived life traversing the globe, one long-term Mount Isa resident is no stranger to searching for the next horizon.
After more than three decades in the North-West, 90-year-old Ben Skeates packed a suitcase full of a few belongings and nostalgic items and flew out of the city for the final time yesterday.
The former garbage truck and bus driver at Mary Kathleen caught the lunchtime flight from Mount Isa to Brisbane yesterday, which will then connect with an international flight headed for London.
Born in northern England, Mr Skeates is returning home to live the remaining years of his life with his surviving daughters.
He said he was looking forward to returning to the country of his birth even though it meant he would leave his friends in the North West behind.
"There are so many people in Mount Isa that have been so helpful to me and I have greatly loved living here," he said.
"But I am also looking forward to being with my daughters in England."
The Australian Outback always seems to attract those with an adventurous spirit.
Sit down with almost any "immigrant" to the North-West and they have interesting stories of how or why they came to live in this most isolated and unique of regions.
Mr Skeates decided to take the long way to travel to Australia.
With the assistance of a former Navy mate he built a camper van and planned to drive across Europe and Asia and into Australia.
Back in the 1970s, in order to arrive in Australia, an English citizen didn't need a passport, but they did need to present an X-ray to immigration officials to prove they did not have tuberculosis.
And it was not until Mr Skeates went to his local English hospital to collect the aforementioned X-ray that he discovered he actually had tuberculosis.
Unable to travel, he underwent two years of hospital treatment - where he needed medical attention every single day - in order to be considered well enough to enter Australia.
As soon as time and health permitted, he and his nephew began the long journey across the continents to Australia.
In Germany, he was abused by a petrol station owner because he was English and was followed by undercover police.
On the road leading to Yugoslavia he almost drove off a cliff along the Alps.
And in India he said he took some of the best photos of his life when he viewed the Taj Mahal at night.
His journey through Asia on route to Australia brought back memories of the days he spent during the Second World War as a young petty officer onboard submarines through the South-East and the Mediterranean.
He worked the sonar when the tiny submarine entered a minefield or was attacking another vessel and he had been present when the Japanese surrendered to Commonwealth forces in Hong Kong.
In one episode from a remarkable life, Mr Skeates was suffering from a form of pleurisy after a long period at sea and he could not take part in a mission.
The submarine would be destroyed in a battle with almost all onboard killed and seven men would be taken hostage by the Japanese.
Only two men would survive the ordeal, one of which Mr Skeates remains in contact with to this day.
Another submarine Mr Skeate was based on in the Mediterranean Sea sunk the second highest number of German troop and supply carriers in the war.
Looking back on his life of wide travelling, Mr Skeates said he believed it was a natural evolution for him to return back to the country of his birth.
"It might sound strange but if I had to live it all again I wouldn't change a thing," he said.
"It is the uncertainty that makes life so wonderful and now I'm looking forward to my next journey."
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