An Afterword!

Australia was AMAZING!!!
A year I will never forget and a year that has influenced my life so much since! There is absolutely no way it all went to plan. There's no way it all went right and it definitely wasn't without infinite problems but there's very little I would change, though I would do it very differently if I were to go back.
Now I'm going to address something that's come up often since, Travelling Alone. I do have more to say on the subject now, a year and a half, and multiple trips later, but for now I'll stick to my thoughts and feelings after returning home from my first big trip; Australia!

I still can't work out if travelling alone is refreshing or depressing. Both maybe, and neither and so much more.

Having the money to pack your days with activities, go to enjoy the bar and atmosphere of the evening, that's great. That was New Zealand, though I had Rich for company with me there, I had the travel alone freedom, the fun. But that isn't really the reality.

Travelling on a budget is different, harder. That freedom is lost slightly. You constantly check yourself; at each activity, limiting your drinks in the bar. It takes meeting those special people to really create the experience.

I guess the big difference is the way you travel. New Zealand would have had that freedom of experience with or without a friend there. Why? Because it was a tour; a bus, taking a group of people from one place to the next. You're thrown into a social environment, with little choice but to mix, and that's okay.

But that's not really travelling alone. That's travelling individually, with a group of people. Travelling alone you plan your transport, your stops, your activities, your destinations. It includes tours, but that's only part of it. It's individual parts put together by you. The people you meet aren't doing the same thing. They have their own agenda, but that's okay because you're free to do what you want. You meet a person or people and maybe stay a bit longer to enjoy the company or you change a plan for a little while, you're not constrained. Then you move on. You follow your plan, they follow theirs, then maybe you meet more people, or you spend time enjoying your own company. And it's not always easy. You don't have a safe package that tells you where, how or when you'll get somewhere. You don't always have company when you want it. Sometimes it is scary, you feel lost, have no clue what you're doing, but the experience is completely yours!

Homeward Bound!!! (Jan 11-13th)

Even leaving wasn't without it's dramas. Breaking down (again). Nearly not making it to Sydney!
But a beautiful last minute stop in the Blue Mountains.





Then an amazing hotel room in Korea. I had an apartment, pretty much!

And then after 2days of travelling, landing in London to a British winter... and a big red fleecy jumper!!! (Thanks Mam)

Home to Christmas, Birthday and Easter all rolled into one. It's good to get home!

The Red Centre (Jan 03-08)

This was my last big trip of my year 'Down Under' and an absolute highlight. I flew from Canberra to Alice Springs for a 3 day Rock Tour, a Christmas present to myself. Basically there are a lot of pictures coming, so first another writing exert:

Central Aus from the Air

A shadowed scar on a bright red skin: the snaking yellow of a river bed in the sea of orange, red brown. Dry. No water flows, just the shadowed gorge banks telling you that water does run here, and the dark green, proclaiming these scars to be bearers of more fertile soils, just.

The soils, a myriad of oranges, reds: burnts, from the air, come to life the closer you get. Green makes a valiant effort, twisting itself into the landscape like a watercolour, never quite dominant but present, if yellowed. Dark shadows; shrubs that manage to survive and trees, present but failing to find that vivid green. Always to the horizon, the greens mirage to blue, but red is ever dominant.

And the land begins to jump out at you. The twisting scars begin to take shape. Ragged, torn ranges; still so bleak and lifeless, rise; imposing; majestic from the ground and the landscape comes alive.

The Rock Tour- Amazing. Meeting in Alice Springs for 3 days of walking: Uluru, Kata Tjuta, King's Canyon. Hiking through and around these beautiful rock formations and at night camping in swags under the stars. Sunrise at Uluru. The mini bus group made up mostly of Europeans. An optional camel ride at the end.
And then back at Alice Springs and dinner and drinks at the Rock Tours own bar. Don't ask what an Inception Bomb is. Basically a brilliant time in Central Aus. Highly recommended... and now for the pictures!!!

Merry Christmas!!! (Dec 25th)

Merry Aussie Christmas!!!

Queensland Pt. 3- Barefoot Tours!

My tour was meeting at 07:45, a 15min walk from my hostel. 7am alarm, plenty of time, add goon to the mix and problems occur. I woke up at about 07:20, still needing to pack, with my alarm still going off at regular intervals. Needless to say it was a bit quicker than a walk across town... Oops!
I somehow made it on time, amazingly, and somehow without a hangover. Great start to the tour: a hug from the tour guide. Then as most of the people on the tour were traveling alone, I ended up sitting next to a Scottish guy most of the day, and if you're ever on a Barefoot Tour in Cairns be prepared to answer 'do you fold or scrunch toilet paper?' as a welcome/get to know everyone question. (Europeans tend to fold, British roll and Aussies scrunch.)

Basically it was an INCREDIBLE day! Exploring the rainforest in a crazy bus. My shoes didn't leave the bus. I did Barefoot Tour barefoot. -That should be a t-shirt slogan.
First stop of the day was the Cathedral Tree. Like the vine-like trees I saw in Townsville, but huge. You could fit about 20 people in the middle. There were some seriously awesome shaped trees in the rainforest; spirally vines and some really weird roots... I like trees.

Then on to the first swimming stop- we all spent the majority of the day in swimwear. This stop was a crystal, clear, blue crater lake, complete with little turtles. Water was entered by jumping off the fence of the pontoon. Of course it could be done more gracefully, but where's the fun in that? Perfect way to start the day though, and a fantastic way to wake up. Floating around in the lake on pool noodles, and afterward; tea and fruit. This was one of the best parts of the day; tea and fresh, local fruit at the swimming stops. Josh (our guide) would set it up while we were swimming. All local fruit; bananas, mangoes, passion fruit, melons, papayas, kiwis, dragon fruit, pineapples- BEAUTIFUL!!

And on to the next stop. No swimming here, just a really deep crater filled with water and green algae. We threw rocks in just for the noise, the splash and to see how quickly the algae regrouped. I'm not quite sure what the point of this stop was but it was quite interesting anyway.

The second swimming stop was a pool at the base of a waterfall. It was colder than the lake, and apparently the place where the Herbal Essences hair flick advert was filmed. This of course led to a lot of hair flicking. I really don't have enough hair for this, but it works quite well with a Santa hat, it was Christmas after all.
It was a beautiful place to swim, despite the cold. You are able to swim right up and under the waterfall and scramble out behind the waterfall. The water falling on you is brilliant, like a personal massage =)

There was even a guy in the group who couldn't swim so he was put onto a pool noodle and swum out so he could enjoy the experience too. Another brilliant place.








On route to the third stop we pulled up at the side of the road where there were passion fruit trees growing wild. After a quick scrounge round for any which had fallen, we had a few for our next serving of fruit.

Josephine Falls was our third swimming spot. This was a trio of pretty little falls with a pool at the bottom. Easiest way to get into the pool? Scrambling up a rock and jumping in of course. Many flips and cannon balls ensued! The main attraction here though was on the other side of the pool. After swimming across, scrambling out up a very slippery slope, inching across the lip of rock at the top; the water flowing down the rock created a natural water slide, which was absolutely hilarious to go down face first!

All in all an incredible tour. Passion fruit fresh from the tree tastes so much better. The passion fruit we get in the UK, makes me so sad in comparison. We stopped at a little road side fruit stall on the way back, where we could buy all the fruit we'd eaten during the day. The passion fruit was amazing. The dragon fruit I brought was amazing coloured but I found it quite bland really.


We also stopped at a random garden on the way back. I still can't decide if it was someone's home or just a road side attraction. If it were someone's home, they must get so fed up with tourists traipsing all over their front garden. It was really crazy colourful and full of statues. Really quite strange.

And back to Cairns. We arranged to meet up in Gilligans, a pub/club in Cairns. I really wish I hadn't arranged to be back in NSW for Christmas and could have stayed in Cairns longer. The people I met, both on the tour and in my hostel were brilliant, and the tour itself, well I wish it had been longer. A 3 day rainforest tour would have been fantastic. It was so much fun, it could have only been improved by increasing the length.
Still missing some friends from the trip anyway, and the Lion King wasn't even showing in Sydney the day I got back.

Queensland Pt.2- Magnetic Island and Cairns

Part 2 is just a short post, before the amazingness of Barefoot tours, but not to be overlooked because Magnetic Island was also so incredible.

My Queensland trip was a Greyhound bus package thing, kind of an Aus experience trip, very different to Kiwi Ex, but we'll come to that another time. Greyhound buses run all over Australia, as individual trips, as packages, in all sorts of formats. My Aus Ex included the bus travel from Brisbane to Cairns because that's the distance I chose; tickets to and from Magnetic Island; and a Barefoot Tour.

So I was off for my trip to Magnetic Island. I wish I'd had so much more time there. It was beautiful. I did a lot of walking and exploring; off-path-ing and scrambling down cliffs to get to deserted beaches; and scrambling up hills and through trees to get the magnificent views and sunsets; and lying in hammocks; and walking along beaches with fallen coconuts lapping the shore in the surf. It was incredible, and tropical, and just amazing. I just needed another week there, just like I needed another week in Cairns, but more on Cairns shortly...
Watching the sunrise over the ocean, snorkeling in tropical waters, again; walking out onto the sea wall for a view of nothing but blue ocean... Paradise.

Basically Magnetic Island was everything I could wish for from an island. It is what I'd wrongly imagined Phillip Island would be- Perfect!

And on to Cairns and Asylum Hostel. Asylum was about the right name for it. The hostel itself would have left a lot to be desired, if it wasn't for the brilliant atmosphere there. Friendly and sociable, and more than a little bit crazy. Everyone knew everyone. Most of the guests seemed to be European, staying months at a time whilst working in Cairns. I definitely would have. The staff were great. I was reading my book on the sofas, outside, like only in Aus, and before long I was sucked into conversation around a table, and drinking Goon, and yes, I admit it, smoking weed.
Cairns was brilliant. Goon, not so much. It is a horrible thing; cheap boxed wine. It is lethal. I drank far too much of it whilst staying in Cairns, just how much is still disputed, but it did nearly make me very late and very hungover for my Barefoot Tour.