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Road Trip: The Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon
This post is the first part of a two month road trip I took around The States. September 2017 I got the family discount, even though I wasn’t exactly family. Ross and I had known each other since we were ten, having moved to Big Bear the same year, and given each other shit for our entire acquaintance…so in a way we were absolutely family. I hadn’t been to the Grand Canyon since I was three and didn’t have the keenest memory of the experience. In fact, I remembered absolutely nothing other than a story mum told about how I nearly gave her a heart attack by climbing up the…
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Pompeii
This Throwback Thursday posts took place during one of my favorite trips. It was my first time in Europe and I was travelling with my best friend, who was the ideal travelling companion. This story takes place on the very first day in Italy. May 2015 It was our first day in Italy and with only a thirty-minute train ride between us and Pompeii, the ruins of a city once drowned in the ashes of the volcano Vesuvius, we knew exactly how we wanted to spend it. After a complimentary breakfast of Nutella croissants, espresso, and orange juice, we hopped (literary we were bouncing) onto a train south. Little to…
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Australia: Looking Back
On my flight back to California, I spent my time alternating between blogging and watching Star Trek: Discovery. When I attempted to write this post, I realized that I couldn’t, as, to quote one of my favorite shows, I was “emotionally compromised.” I had held it together pretty well, shedding a few tears while making a farewell Facebook post, but when the first boarding call came over the speakers I broke down. The crying didn’t stop until we were in the air and I managed to lose myself in SciFi. Travel is difficult in countless ways. There are those of us, however, who find the pros outweigh the cons. Australia…
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Lovely Litchfield
As drove down the dirt road towards a plume of smoke, I found myself praying it wasn’t coming from Litchfield National Park. Since arriving in the north of the Northern Territory (NT) there had been endless days of smoke polluting our lungs. I understood it was vital to the maintenance of the environment, but I grew up in a fire prone area and whenever there was a big burn school was cancelled and alerts were released due to the poor air quality. I was enjoying my time in the Northern Territory and all of the amazing natural pools, but my lungs were not happy hiking in the smoke. Compared to…
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Unsealed Roads
2WD accessible, unsealed road, that’s what the map said. It had neglected to mention, bumpiest ride of your life, will destroy bookshelf and rip down most of your ceiling. Kakadu had been one of the top spots on my places to visit. Per person it was forty dollars for a seven-day park pass or forty dollars for a fourteen-day pass (not a typo), and in the dry season most of the sites were accessible by van…in theory. We had spent the previous night at Nitmiluk, a neighboring National Park, in a place called Leliyn (Edith Falls). Leliyn was one of the last havens to swim safely, as most of the…
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The Great Barrier Reef
Diving just wasn’t in the books for me. Initially, I had considered doing my PADI certification in AUS, but what if I spent all that money and couldn’t go through with it? The truth was, I still had anxiety from my dive in Colombia at El Oceanario. So, I would settle for snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. From what I had been told, the experiences were quite similar; some people claimed there was more to see while snorkeling anyways. Sarah had recommended the Coral Sea Dreaming; as she had done the same tour a few months earlier and had a wonderful experience. Neither her nor Looci intended to accompany me…
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Crikey Mate
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not always the biggest fan of zoos. In general, I find them inadequate to the emotional and instinctual needs of the animals. Though there are a few that are doing a thing or two right; one of which was the Australia Zoo, brainchild of Steve and Terri Irwin. The zoo was originally started by Steve’s parents, though then it was a much smaller scale and focused predominantly on reptiles. Today the zoo is huge, includes an animal hospital, and focuses its efforts on conservation, rehabilitation, and education. The exhibits are designed to enrich the animals, including an entire island where lemurs run wild. The only…
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My Precious Holiday
There was someone sleeping in my bed! I had managed to find my way to the Airbnb, in the middle of the night, without a functioning GPS, and there were no beds left. At first, I just stood there, not knowing what to do. I tried to connect to the wifi with the password I had been given; only the wifi wasn’t working and I didn’t have a New Zealand sim card yet. I was stuck. Should I sleep in the car I had hired? Could I get a fine for that? Besides it was quite cold, and I didn’t have any sort of blanket. The guy trying to help…
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Byron Bay
The cocks began crowing around three am, though the sun was far from rising. Whether they belonged to a nearby farm or had simply decided to make the campsite their home, I do not know. There were at least ten of them wandering around while we made coffee. Don’t fret, we waited till the sun was up, despite the cock’s best efforts. Fog hugged the landscape, but it was evident that the sun would claim victory over the day. After a quick bite, we continued on our drive to Byron Bay. It was quite far so we stopped at Lennox Head for lunch and considered having a swim. There was…
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Newcastle
I put my beanie in the bottom of my clothes box and took out my bandanas. I wouldn’t need it again until much later in the trip, if at all. The time had come for sand, sun, and sandals. Truth be told, it wasn’t entirely summer weather; I was still wearing jeans but could get away with a t-shirt. I had even woken in the night to remove a layer because I was sweating. As I sat in the park, the sun tickled my skin like a lover’s touch, and I discovered myself wanting to expose every inch of flesh to its embrace. Looci sat nearby on the swings. We…
Insights and Stories Through the Eyes of a Wanderer
