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Saturday, November 24, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Top 5 Highlights of my life in Australia
Seeing as we are nearing the end of my amazing trip in Australia, I felt it would be fitting to summarise my highlights of this incredible country. There have been some tough times, some hilarious times, and some unforgettable times. I feel so blessed to have had the most incredible, life-changing adventure, all pretty much on an 'I have no idea what I want to do once I graduate' whim!
Apart from the obvious, the Embelton family and their amazing generosity, kindness and love, there are so many things that I have been so fortunate to have experienced in the past 10 months. This is my 'top five' list (not in order, because that would be pretty darn impossible) of the highlights of my crazy life in Australia
1) Outback adventures. Unbelievable scenery, awesome people, sunset over King's Canyon (pretty hard to beat in my book), sharing beers around a bonfire, driving for hours without seeing anything than BAM there's a brown snake in the middle of the road. So many people come to Australia and completely miss the outback. What.a.mistake. I had the most incredible week travelling from Adelaide to Alice Springs; no trip to Australia is complete until you have seen the sun rise over Uluru at 5am. And eating Kangaroo on a BBQ.
2) Sailing on the Whitsunday Islands. Incredible! I loved it so much that I stayed for an extra three days as a volunteer! The perfect sandy beaches of White Haven, snorkelling with blue-spotted sting rays, scuba diving with turtles and sharks on the Great Barrier Reef, whale watching at sun set, I defy anyone not to fall in love with the beautiful clear waters of Queensland.
3) Sydney! Amazing! My real highlight of Sydney was the four hour bike tour I did with the coolest guide ever - Graeme at BikeBuffs. Voted number 3 of things to do in Sydney, it was absolutely the best way to see Sydney! Just walking around the botanical gardens with the view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge was fantastic. Again, I met some awesome people and had a lot of fun (albeit very expensive) times in Sydney.
4) Surfing in Noosa. Ok, so I will never be the surfer babe that I would love to be, and I only stood up on a surfboard once, but hell was it fun! I vowed to myself that I could not return from Australia without standing up on a surfboard so PHEW mission accomplished! Seriously good exercise as my body ached so much the day after! (and I really enjoyed my glass of wine as a 'post surfing' treat watching the sunset over the beach!)
5) Byron Bay, now it is finally sunny, I am in love with it here! It reminds me a lot of Stroud, mainly because it is full of vegan cafes and tragic hippies. The easy, laid back attitude of Aussie's is just magnified by one hundred in this awesome town. The beach is full of surfer dudes, the views from the lighthouse are beautiful and I saw about fifteen dolphins jumping waves here! Amazing! Oh and red lentil Dahl and rice for $5 is hard to resist at the amazing restaurant 'Cardamom Pod'.
Other amazing experiences of Australia include the Great Ocean Road, Tasmania, Fraser Island, Melbourne CBD.... I could go on forever!
I'm going to miss Australia more than I can say, but I am really looking forward to coming home to my wonderful family who I have missed huge amounts, and then I'm off to Belgium for my next big adventure! One day, I suppose I should settle down and get a 'real job' but for now, I am loving life, living it to the maximum and seizing the day because life is beautiful and I'm feeling incredibly cheesy! xxxxx
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Dingoes are not my friends
It's been a while since I've updated my blog, mainly because I've been too busy having lots of fun! However, I have two hours to kill until my bus takes me to Noosa so I thought I'd update y'all about what I've been up to.
After Cairns, I started my journey south and ended up on a Magnetic Island (refereed to as 'Maggie' by the locals). It's a really beautiful island with lots of bush walks and white sandy beaches and I even spotted me a koala in the wild! From Maggie, I headed to Airlie Beach for my Whitsunday's trip. Like a lot of these small towns on the East Coast, there isn't a whole lot to do in Airlie but Whitsunday's was A-MAZ-ING
I was on the boat 'Anaconda III' which, unlike most of the boats, is three nights long so we went all the way to the outer reef, where I finished my scuba diving certification. If I could afford this very expensive habit, I would become absolutely addicted to scuba diving. It's incredible! I did my very first night dive as my first dive as a certified scuba diver which was just out of this world. The experience of diving at night is something else! I found myself swimming underneath a turtle which was about a meter long. If you wake a sleeping turtle they immediately try and find the moon to find where the surface is to take a breath so you have to guide them up with your torch. I had a bit of a hairy experience where my torch actually stopped working, not something you want to happen when 12 meters underwater in pitch black! Fortunately the instructor gave me his and all was fine as soon as I swam to catch up with the others!
The Whitsunday islands are so beautiful it's unreal. The water is crystal clear so the snorkelling is really good (I saw a blue spotted sting ray on one snorkel!) and on White Haven beach the sand is so fine that you can polish jewellery, exfoliate tur face and even wash your hair with it (yes, I tried all three!)
I had such an amazing time sailing on the catamaran that I decided to stay on as a 'volly' which was a lot of fun. It's weird seeing it from the perspective of the crew, who do this day in day out for five trips in a row, eating the same food, answering the same questions, living in such a cramped environment but I had fun and I managed to get three free dives thrown in which on it's own was worth $180!
After saying goodbye to the beautiful islands, I headed further south to Rainbow Beach where I am now to do Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and a LOT of fun to drive around in 4x4's. Days were spent following the lead car around the island, swimming in lakes, hiking around the sands dunes and avoiding any confrontation with dingoes at all costs! The evenings were filled with drinking Goon (sweet wine in a box, very cheap and absolutely revolting) playing card games and dancing like lunatics around the campfire. The island itself is beautiful and we saw dolphins, whales and went to a really cool fresh water rock pool full of tropical fish.
The only negative thing bout Fraser is the bloody scary dingoes! We've all heard the story about the baby eaten by the dingo but I kid you not, dingoes are flipping scary! Our guide was really strict with us about walking anywhere on our own and insisted that we go to the toilet in groups of four because 'two people against four dingoes isn't going to come off well' erm great!! Every time someone wanted to go to the toilet you would stand up in the communal social area and shout 'anyone need a toilet buddy?' - we all managed to get on the same 'pee cycle' for the camping trip and just pray that you don't need to go in the middle of the night! Although I was never confronted by a dingo, we did see about five dingoes circle a girl which was pretty scary as they started growling at her but fortunately the guide was there to control the situation!!
Apart from dicing with death on Fraser Island, I'm loving the backpacker lifestyle, meeting tonnes of people and seeing some amazing things, but I'm desperate for a decent meal that doesn't involve carb on carb (it's like being back in halls at uni!) and a kitchen that doesn't seem to be growing mushrooms in every corner. However, I'm having an amazing time and cannot wait to see what Nossa, Brisbane and Byron Bay have to offer!
Three weeks and I'm back on English soil - where did the year go?! Xoxo
After Cairns, I started my journey south and ended up on a Magnetic Island (refereed to as 'Maggie' by the locals). It's a really beautiful island with lots of bush walks and white sandy beaches and I even spotted me a koala in the wild! From Maggie, I headed to Airlie Beach for my Whitsunday's trip. Like a lot of these small towns on the East Coast, there isn't a whole lot to do in Airlie but Whitsunday's was A-MAZ-ING
I was on the boat 'Anaconda III' which, unlike most of the boats, is three nights long so we went all the way to the outer reef, where I finished my scuba diving certification. If I could afford this very expensive habit, I would become absolutely addicted to scuba diving. It's incredible! I did my very first night dive as my first dive as a certified scuba diver which was just out of this world. The experience of diving at night is something else! I found myself swimming underneath a turtle which was about a meter long. If you wake a sleeping turtle they immediately try and find the moon to find where the surface is to take a breath so you have to guide them up with your torch. I had a bit of a hairy experience where my torch actually stopped working, not something you want to happen when 12 meters underwater in pitch black! Fortunately the instructor gave me his and all was fine as soon as I swam to catch up with the others!
The Whitsunday islands are so beautiful it's unreal. The water is crystal clear so the snorkelling is really good (I saw a blue spotted sting ray on one snorkel!) and on White Haven beach the sand is so fine that you can polish jewellery, exfoliate tur face and even wash your hair with it (yes, I tried all three!)
I had such an amazing time sailing on the catamaran that I decided to stay on as a 'volly' which was a lot of fun. It's weird seeing it from the perspective of the crew, who do this day in day out for five trips in a row, eating the same food, answering the same questions, living in such a cramped environment but I had fun and I managed to get three free dives thrown in which on it's own was worth $180!
After saying goodbye to the beautiful islands, I headed further south to Rainbow Beach where I am now to do Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and a LOT of fun to drive around in 4x4's. Days were spent following the lead car around the island, swimming in lakes, hiking around the sands dunes and avoiding any confrontation with dingoes at all costs! The evenings were filled with drinking Goon (sweet wine in a box, very cheap and absolutely revolting) playing card games and dancing like lunatics around the campfire. The island itself is beautiful and we saw dolphins, whales and went to a really cool fresh water rock pool full of tropical fish.
The only negative thing bout Fraser is the bloody scary dingoes! We've all heard the story about the baby eaten by the dingo but I kid you not, dingoes are flipping scary! Our guide was really strict with us about walking anywhere on our own and insisted that we go to the toilet in groups of four because 'two people against four dingoes isn't going to come off well' erm great!! Every time someone wanted to go to the toilet you would stand up in the communal social area and shout 'anyone need a toilet buddy?' - we all managed to get on the same 'pee cycle' for the camping trip and just pray that you don't need to go in the middle of the night! Although I was never confronted by a dingo, we did see about five dingoes circle a girl which was pretty scary as they started growling at her but fortunately the guide was there to control the situation!!
Apart from dicing with death on Fraser Island, I'm loving the backpacker lifestyle, meeting tonnes of people and seeing some amazing things, but I'm desperate for a decent meal that doesn't involve carb on carb (it's like being back in halls at uni!) and a kitchen that doesn't seem to be growing mushrooms in every corner. However, I'm having an amazing time and cannot wait to see what Nossa, Brisbane and Byron Bay have to offer!
Three weeks and I'm back on English soil - where did the year go?! Xoxo
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Great Barrier Reef and being woken by some guy getting arrested in my dorm... Standard stay in Cairns
Currently updating my blog whilst on my very first Greyhound bus experience on the way to Townsville for one night before Magnetic Island. So far, a very exciting few days as a backpacker down under!
Yesterday was possibly one of the coolest days ever; diving on the Great Barrier Reef! The diving itself was actually not as great as my dive in Kho Tao in Thailand (gosh aren't I spoilt!) but it was pretty darn amazing. After the dive, we got to snorkel for as long as we liked and went to a few different sites. My highlight of the dive was finding Nemo in his anemone (they actually do the 'back and forth, back and forth' just like Marvin taught him!) and my highlight of the snorkel was seeing the biggest most amazing turtle EVER. Just absolutely stunning! We also saw stingrays, sea cucumbers, giant clams and hundreds and hundreds of fish of all different colours. Just incredible! I bought an underwater camera so fingers crossed I took a decent photo. Met some cool people along the way and am very excited about diving again on the whitsunday's :-)
Ok, now the 'travel' bit done, now for the drama! Staying at Cairns Beach House is hopefully not an indication of what hostels are going to be like down the rest of the east coast. Ok so I didn't get knifed in my sleep, but let's just say it wasn't the nicest of places. I got woken up at 5am by an actual physical fight in my room. Two guys just started beating the living daylights out of each other which was pretty alarming. One of them ran off (wearing nothing but underwear) and an hour later the police came round to arrest the other guy (all the whole, I was trying to pack my bag without looking
Like I was doing some sort of a runner; I genuinely needed to leave for my bus!!) Needless to say I am pretty glad that was my last night in Cairns Beach House. Hopefully my female only dorm in Townsville will be slightly less dramatic and hey at least the police are very diligent and extremely apologetic about disturbing us. Fear not grandparents! I am well and safe and 'looking over my shoulder at all times!) actually, Mum you might not want to show them this blog)
Update: hostel in Townsville is LOVELY. Feeling much happier (and safer) and looking forward to a sunset walk up Castle Hill, the highest point in Townsville, later on :-) xxxx
Yesterday was possibly one of the coolest days ever; diving on the Great Barrier Reef! The diving itself was actually not as great as my dive in Kho Tao in Thailand (gosh aren't I spoilt!) but it was pretty darn amazing. After the dive, we got to snorkel for as long as we liked and went to a few different sites. My highlight of the dive was finding Nemo in his anemone (they actually do the 'back and forth, back and forth' just like Marvin taught him!) and my highlight of the snorkel was seeing the biggest most amazing turtle EVER. Just absolutely stunning! We also saw stingrays, sea cucumbers, giant clams and hundreds and hundreds of fish of all different colours. Just incredible! I bought an underwater camera so fingers crossed I took a decent photo. Met some cool people along the way and am very excited about diving again on the whitsunday's :-)
Ok, now the 'travel' bit done, now for the drama! Staying at Cairns Beach House is hopefully not an indication of what hostels are going to be like down the rest of the east coast. Ok so I didn't get knifed in my sleep, but let's just say it wasn't the nicest of places. I got woken up at 5am by an actual physical fight in my room. Two guys just started beating the living daylights out of each other which was pretty alarming. One of them ran off (wearing nothing but underwear) and an hour later the police came round to arrest the other guy (all the whole, I was trying to pack my bag without looking
Like I was doing some sort of a runner; I genuinely needed to leave for my bus!!) Needless to say I am pretty glad that was my last night in Cairns Beach House. Hopefully my female only dorm in Townsville will be slightly less dramatic and hey at least the police are very diligent and extremely apologetic about disturbing us. Fear not grandparents! I am well and safe and 'looking over my shoulder at all times!) actually, Mum you might not want to show them this blog)
Update: hostel in Townsville is LOVELY. Feeling much happier (and safer) and looking forward to a sunset walk up Castle Hill, the highest point in Townsville, later on :-) xxxx
Friday, June 1, 2012
Goodbye Melbourne!
Today is my last official day as an au pair in Australia! Wow that came about fast! Tomorrow is the first day of my 'East Coast Adventure' and I am feeling an absolute multitude of emotions. I really cannot sum up what the past nine months have meant to me, but man has it been an experience!
When I came to Australia, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I knew going from being a student, just back from the craziness of backpacking around Thailand to looking after four children under the age of six would be a challenge, but what I didn't expect was the amount of love and warmth I received from the Embelton family and the other wonderful people I have met along the way. I also never expected to leave Australia wanting to make childcare a part of my career! (so much for that degree in politics and geography!)
I feel so much has changed me over the past nine months. I've learnt so many invaluable lessons about parenthood and have a whole new level of appreciation for my wonderful parents as I realise from an adult perspective how much sacrifice and selflessness is involved in parenthood. Hopefully my friends and family will see me as matured and more independent than when I left (Lord knows I needed it!) I have absolutely loved my time here and I will be eternally thankful for Lori and James for their love and kindness they have shown me and they are both inspirational people whom I feel blessed to have in my life.
So Goodbye Melbourne, it's been wonderful. I will miss your sporadic weather, your kooky and eclectic fashion sense, and yes, your amazing skinny lattes (extra hot, preferably served by Beautiful Barista Boy) xxxxxxx
When I came to Australia, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I knew going from being a student, just back from the craziness of backpacking around Thailand to looking after four children under the age of six would be a challenge, but what I didn't expect was the amount of love and warmth I received from the Embelton family and the other wonderful people I have met along the way. I also never expected to leave Australia wanting to make childcare a part of my career! (so much for that degree in politics and geography!)
I feel so much has changed me over the past nine months. I've learnt so many invaluable lessons about parenthood and have a whole new level of appreciation for my wonderful parents as I realise from an adult perspective how much sacrifice and selflessness is involved in parenthood. Hopefully my friends and family will see me as matured and more independent than when I left (Lord knows I needed it!) I have absolutely loved my time here and I will be eternally thankful for Lori and James for their love and kindness they have shown me and they are both inspirational people whom I feel blessed to have in my life.
So Goodbye Melbourne, it's been wonderful. I will miss your sporadic weather, your kooky and eclectic fashion sense, and yes, your amazing skinny lattes (extra hot, preferably served by Beautiful Barista Boy) xxxxxxx
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Hiking through the outback
I didn't really know what to expect from the mysterious 'outback' that I've seen on TV and movies such as Baz Lerman's 'Australia', but I certainly wasn't expecting the incredible nothingness for hundreds of kilometres which welcomed us for hours upon hours. The terrain itself changes pretty swiftly from semi-arid land with a few sheep grazing into red dust where the only large animals we see are a few emus although you can be certain that there will be a whole load of venomous snakes, lizards and oversized creepy crawlies everywhere.
We arrived at Uluru (Ayers Rock) eagerly anticipating the sunset over Uluru. The view did not disappoint. The changing light over the rock was stunning, if a little crowded with people trying to get that perfect shot of the rock. It was defiantly worth the 5am start the next two days to see it again at sunrise without cameras just taking in the view.
Over the next two days, we did a few different hikes and walks. Dan took us around the base walk of Uluru, teaching us about the various spots of cultural significance for Aborigines. We then went to Kata Tjuta which is still used by Aborigines for men's initiation, so there are certain spots we are not allow to go to. If you do, it's an $8,000 fine and a lifetime ban. The hike was a 9km rocky path with stunning views which I actually thought was more impressive than Uluru. Six months ago I'd certainly be struggling to finish the hike, so it just shows that running around after 4 kids is doing me the world of good!
Our final, and my favourite hike, was on the penultimate day of our tour through King's Canyon. This was a 7km hike with some serious altitude full of fossilised jellyfish and seashells from millions of years ago (I know less than nothing about geology, maybe it's billions? Bloody old anyway) Half way through, we had a welcome break at a watering hole where Dan took us on a perilous climb round the cliffs for the most incredible view of my life. It was like something out of a film set - as far as the eye can see there was nothing but desert and underneath was a fern gully. Whilst I was convinced I was going to fall to my death, or at least destroy all dignity by falling over face first, smacking the person climbing behind me in their face with my humungous bum, it was well worth it. It was not quite included in the itinerary (I'm pretty sure health and safety would have a field day) and there was no chance of anyone bringing a camera on that death-climb which made it all the more precious knowing that we saw this incredible view that only a handful of people actually see.
We finished off the hike just as the sun was starting to set and the light hitting the rocks was just incredible. The sun setting over King's Canyon defiantly made it into my top five experiences of Australia and it's going to be pretty hard to beat. I've now been given a taste of what the 'real Australia' has to offer and I cannot wait to explore the Northern Territory and go hunt me some crocodile!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Swags, Thorny Devils and bonfires!
HURRAH! 6am and I'm off to see the 'Real Australia'. Having a very limited knowledge of outback Australia and 'the bush' I really didn't know what to expect, but my week was beyond all I could ever imagine. It was flipping awesome!
We kicked off our seven day tour driving from Adelaide to out first destination (The middle of nowhere). I knew we would be sleeping in swags but I didn't really want to admit that I had no idea what a swag was or what it involved so I was a little nervous to say the least! The group I was with involved a few Germans, four antisocial Swiss boys, a Canadian, a guy from Litchensutein and a girl from Argentina. The rest of the group were to join us in Coober Pedey, two days away from us. Our tour guide, Dan is this crazy guy who has basically been camping in the outback since he was a toddler knows so much about the wildlife of the bush it's unreal. He would just stop randomly on the side of the road, skip off somewhere and come back with all sorts of crazy animals from bearded dragons, thorny devils, emus, to brown snakes and itchy grub (seriously cool catapillers who form a train of a few meters long to protect themselves from predators, and being run over - safety in numbers and all that!).
By this point I'm rest assured that this week is going to be AWESOME and other than being kept awake due to heavy snoring (not my own this time!!) I loved sleeping in swags under the stars after a few beers by the bonfire.
(FYI, a swag is a glorified sleeping bag, with a 'monster flap' to put over your head to stop the millions of flies eating you alive)
xxxx
We kicked off our seven day tour driving from Adelaide to out first destination (The middle of nowhere). I knew we would be sleeping in swags but I didn't really want to admit that I had no idea what a swag was or what it involved so I was a little nervous to say the least! The group I was with involved a few Germans, four antisocial Swiss boys, a Canadian, a guy from Litchensutein and a girl from Argentina. The rest of the group were to join us in Coober Pedey, two days away from us. Our tour guide, Dan is this crazy guy who has basically been camping in the outback since he was a toddler knows so much about the wildlife of the bush it's unreal. He would just stop randomly on the side of the road, skip off somewhere and come back with all sorts of crazy animals from bearded dragons, thorny devils, emus, to brown snakes and itchy grub (seriously cool catapillers who form a train of a few meters long to protect themselves from predators, and being run over - safety in numbers and all that!).
By this point I'm rest assured that this week is going to be AWESOME and other than being kept awake due to heavy snoring (not my own this time!!) I loved sleeping in swags under the stars after a few beers by the bonfire.
(FYI, a swag is a glorified sleeping bag, with a 'monster flap' to put over your head to stop the millions of flies eating you alive)
xxxx
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