It was the adventure of a lifetime, and cemented an affection for Australia that would eventually see him move down under.
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In 1978, Olly Taylor packed his bags and jetted off from his native England to spend a 'gap' year in Australia.
It was a wonderful experience that five decades later still evokes fond memories.
"I worked at Perisher Valley at the ski resorts. Then we hitch hiked all the way up the east coast to Cairns and Townsville, around that area, doing various jobs on avocado plantations and potato farms," Taylor recalled.
"Then we went to Papua New Guinea for a whole month and had a wonderful time up in the hills there with the tribes going from village to village."
"It was absolutely fascinating".
He then lobbed in Melbourne where he worked for cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris "humping great big bales of tobacco around".
So different to the life he knew, the trip left him with a hankering to return one day.
It would though be almost another 40 years before he did; the 2015 World Cup bringing him over, with son Rob playing for Scotland.
Following him around, it rekindled his passion for the country, and two years later he relocated here.
"I had married an Australian lady and then we just thought actually, we would like to bring up our two little children over here back in Australia," Taylor said.
Initially basing themselves in Sydney, they then settled in Tamworth so their kids could be close to their grandmother.
Five years on, and he is currently in Geelong preparing to play for the NSW over-60s at the national championships after reigniting his cricket career with the Tamworth vets.
As he tells it he was sitting on the boundary at a local game one day and chatting cricket with another spectator. He mentioned to him that Tamworth had a veterans team and asked had he thought about coming and playing.
Invariably one thing led to another and Taylor found himself dusting off the whites.
He hadn't played for about 20 years after packing away the pads when Rob started playing professionally with Leicestershire and later Scotland.
"I decided it was time for me to give up cricket and time for me to follow him around the world playing cricket," he said.
Having loved the game for as long as he can remember, the opening batsmen and spin bowler, said it "was wonderful" to pick up the bat again.
"After the first game I just sort of thought why did I stop," he said.
"It was just so nice to be out there again."
This season he is also playing fourth grade for City United alongside son Archie, which he said is "very special".
"It is very, very nice I must admit," he said, adding that there had been "no arguments yet."
Taylor also had the opportunity to play with Rob, as well as oldest son Harry, who now lives in Singapore and plays for the Singapore Cricket Club.
Playing Premier Division before he gave it away, Taylor is looking forward to the nationals, which get underway on Sunday.
"It's going to be a really good, high level of cricket. There's definitely going to be some ex-first grade cricketers playing and I think the standard there is going to be very high," he said.
Greg Kellett and Andrew Stevenson will also pad up for the various NSW sides.
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