Deep Thoughts

I got back from my Whitsunday sailing trip five days ago. 3 days of sailing, snorkeling, eating great food, and hanging out with cool people was definitely not my idea of a bad time. For many a backpacker, the Whitsunday islands are the highlight of their Australia experiences, but I have to say I think camping at Fraser Island was a more unique experience. The beaches on the Whitsunday islands are very beautiful, but NZ scenery has totally spoiled me and even the most beautiful beaches in Australia just can’t match it. Snorkeling on the reef, however, was pretty amazing, and it was pretty wild when I realized that the strange munching sound I heard underwater was actually the sound the enormous fish make as they nibble at the reef. The colors and patterns of the reef itself and the marine life inhabiting it are not to be believed. The most vivid purples and fluorescent greens and everything undulating with the current was so spectacular… I felt like a kid in a candy store. We had to wear stinger suits as it’s not quite the end of stinger season (the jellyfish here can easily kill a grown adult) so a few of us rocked em out by jumping off the boat in the most retarded positions we could muster.



At one point in the trip, a brief thunderstorm came through and left a full double rainbow in its wake. The rainbow hung around all the way through sunset and I’m pretty upset that I can’t show you what that looked like because left my card reader to my camera in Yepoon and can’t get the pictures onto my computer without it! I’ve actually managed to lose that, my sunglasses, my favorite black hoodie, and seemingly, my sanity all within the span of 3 days (and my little point and shoot is officially broken, so I’m pretty much useless).

Anyway, after the Whitsundays, I stayed in the area for one more night to recharge my batteries before boarding a bus to Townsville where I’d be getting my scuba diving certificate. I’ve spent the last week or so at Magnetic Island which is about a 20 minute ferry ride from Townsville working my butt off to get that certification. It was more labor intensive than I’d expected especially considering the fact that the course coincided with the monthly Full Moon Party (which was definitely not worth all the hype surrounding it). But I got through the exhausting 4-day course intact and I am now a certified diver. Scuba diving is definitely a much different experience than snorkeling. It’s very meditative in that you are keenly aware of every breath you take, and you feel much more a part of the underwater environment when you’re totally free to move around within it. There’s an incredible dive site here called the Yongala (a huge shipwreck) but all trips out to that point have been cancelled for the next week due to high winds so I’m a bit disappointed that I’ll be missing out on that. Hopefully I’ll be able to swing back down at some point to check it out.

So it’s almost the end of the line for my east coast leg of travel, and I’m feeling such a strange mix of emotions. Many of the friends I’ve made will be hanging out up in Cairns (the most northeasterly city) for a short while, so thankfully I’ll know a few people once I get up there, but I’ve had to say goodbye to so many people that I’ve grown very close to that it’s stating to become emotionally taxing. I sat on the beach at sunrise the other day and had myself a good cry as it hit me that in all likelihood, I won’t see those people again, at least not for a very long time. Along with the ups of traveling alone come the downs of knowing that once I settle in a new place, I’ll have to do the legwork all over again to keep making new friends. Once you get past the prerequisite barrage of questions about where you’re from, where you’ve been, what you do, etc, there’s rarely enough time to get much deeper before you have to go your separate ways, and when you do get deeper, it makes the constant stream of goodbyes that much more difficult.

This might be sacrilege to even write, but I’m also feeling very ready to work (never thought I’d speak those words)! After 5 months, I’ve definitely become oversaturated by beaches and small towns and need some measure of routine and hard labor so that I can start seeing it all with fresh eyes again. I’m also feeling like a change of scenery is in order… once I save up some money in my next location, I will definitely make it a point to see the outback and am becoming ever more interested in checking out SE Asia and South America. I’m craving more culture in general (there’s not much culture to speak of here on the east coast of OZ), and the more tales I hear of fellow travelers who have been to those locales just make my mouth water for those kinds of experiences. I’m feeling much more confident to take on trips like that now that I’ve seen that it’s not so hard to navigate the ins and outs of a new place.

I’ll be leaving Magnetic Island in 2 days and will be spending 3 days at another beach town to do some white water rafting before landing Cairns. If it’s as hard to get work there as it was in Byron By, I’ll be booking it over to Darwin ASAP where I know I’ll be able to get work pretty easily.

Well, that’s all for now folks…all there is to do at this point is go sleep on a hammock on the beach. Nap time!

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

The town of 1770 is such a small town that the main street consists of one square block of shops. The hostel I stayed at was a beautiful little retreat out in the middle of nowhere, but despite it’s inconvenient location, it turned out to be really pleasant experience because I knew half the people there. It was a very chilled out, oasis-like place, and because I was surrounded by such good company, I felt absolutely no need to go out and paint the town red (however, had I tried to do so, it would have taken me approximately 15 minutes).

My friend Solene and I spent one whole day surfing and got a few fun shots. We had to surf really close to the shore (and really close together) to get the following pic…


which made this pretty much inevitable:



Aside from acquiring a few new bumps and bruises, I had a really great day out in the water. The following morning, I went for a “beauty hike” where this very, um, colorful guy takes about 10 people on a 20 min walk to a beautiful, secluded beach to get painted with natural mud and oils. While the mud is drying, you get the chance to scour the beach for shells with which to make some jewelry if you so desire. All the shells on the beach have little holes in them created by worms that have burrowed through to eat the animal inside, thereby turning them into perfect little beads. I could have spent all day shell hunting, and the man who led the hike informed us that one girl he took on the hike a few years back stayed and financed her entire trip making and selling bracelets she made out of the shells collected on that very beach. (Then again, this came from the same guy that spent half the hike trying to convince us of the existence of UFOs and parasite mind control, so I’ll take what he says with a grain of salt.)

After the “hike,” I went down to the beach to get in one last surf, as that will be the last time I will be able to surf for quite some time. I was feeling quite tired out after the day’s activities, but some friends back at the hostel convinced me to go for a sunset kayak.


I never seem to be able to resist the chance to go kayaking, even though I really don’t have the money to be spending on such activities at this time. It was good fun, but a big part of the allure for me was the good possibility of kayaking with dolphins and unfortunately, they just weren’t out that day. After the totally exhausting excursion, most of us left 1770 and boarded a bus headed up north. Everyone continued up the coast, but I got off earlier at a small, random town called Rockhampton to stay with some friends of a friend in Yepoon, a 40-min drive from the bus drop off. The people I was supposed to stay with couldn’t pick me up that night because the bus got in at 11:30 pm, so they sent their very nice neighbor, a fellow American named Randy, to come get me. As it turned out, I would be staying at Randy’s place the whole time, as there was not enough room for me at their house! No worries, I spent the next 2 days at Randy’s magnificent hilltop home eating great food, doing laundry, and reveling in the free wireless internet. After 5 months of hostel jumping, it was such a pleasure to sleep on a real mattress in a room all to myself. I had a very generous host, and the highlight my trip to Yepoon was an excursion to a very small and intimate wildlife center where you can interact with all the native animals. In most zoos, you can’t touch the animals and you’re surrounded by thousands of tourists, but I was in Yepoon and it’s not exactly the most popular tourist destination. What a day I had! Aside from seeing some of the brightest, most colorful birds I’ve ever seen (some of them looked like they had been tossed into rainbows), I got to live out my ultimate dream.



I will never forget what it felt like holding that little guy. He was so soft and cuddly, I could barely stand it (I had to resist the urge to run off with him). And he kept grabbing my braids! If it were possible to die of an overdose of cuteness, that moment would have been the end for me. After that near-death experience, I went out into the main area to play with some kangaroos and wallabies. They really seemed to like me…




Haha! So much fun. Yepoon, random as it is, is a pretty special place if you have the right person to show you around.

Tomorrow, I’m off to do my Whitsunday sailing adventure, which is a 3-day sailing trip though the Great Barrier Reef. I can’t say I’m dreading it!

Four Wheelin it on Fraser

After leaving Byron, I spent 3 really nice days about 5 hours north in a town called Noosa. I planed on doing a lot of surfing there, but the ocean was virtually flat so there were no waves to be had. It was disappointing that I couldn’t surf, but I ended up spending a lot of time exploring the town and was psyched to run into a few people I’d met previously in my travels. It was a pretty chilled out couple of days, and I’m glad for that, as the weekend I was about to have required all the rest I could muster.

The last three days have been total action-packed rustic madness. The weekend kicked off with my arrival at Rainbow Beach, from where I would be leaving for my camping trip on Fraser Island. I got off the bus and soon after, joined 50 other backpackers for our prep meeting. The Fraser Island trip works like this: you show up and divide into 5 groups of 10-11 people. You don’t know the people (unless you’re traveling in a large group and want to remain together) and whom you end up with is basically luck of the draw. The group dynamic, even more so than the weather, can make or break your trip. The next morning, you meet in your groups and receive all your gear. This includes your Jeep, tents, food for 3 days, gas stove, pots and pans, and a map of the island with vital high-tide info (you drive on the beach, so if you don’t pay attention to the tides, you could end up as shark bait). Anyone with a license and over 21 years old can drive the Jeep…it’s a self guided tour and so there is no tour guide. The group decides where it want to go and when. After that, you drive around the island for 3 days, camp where you want, eat where you want, and all you have to do at the end is show up at the ferry with the Jeep intact and all your gear accounted for.

So after our got divided, we got a chance to talk and get to know one another. I had met a girl earlier in the day who asked me to join in with her and her friend, so I ended up in a group that was made up of 5 girls and 6 guys. Everyone seemed really nice right off the bat. The group was made up of two 19 year-old boys fresh out of high-school, a couple, a Spanish girl, two old ladies (that’s me and the other 28 year-old girl), a guy and a girl who were not a couple but were traveling together, and 2 other guys whose choppy English made for complete hilarity when we played our drinking games). That night, we all hung out in the bar and went to bed early, as we had to be ready to leave by 7:30 am. We got our Jeep, chose our drivers, loaded up the roof (all quite time-consuming) and off we went. We arrived in the island and it was high-tide, so we had to drive on the bumpy inland road. It took a long time to reach our first destination, and we got there later than we’d hoped (we got stuck in the sand along the way had we all had to get out and push) but when we finally arrived, we were awestruck. Our first stop was Lake McKenzie. It’s a pristine fresh-water lake nestled in sand as white as snow, surrounded by small delicate trees. It was right out of a fairy tale.





The pictures can’t convey the true color of the water. I was continually surprised that the water was fresh…I’ve never seen a lake that looked so much like the ocean before. It was a truly special place, and sadly, we only had about 2 hours there all in all. It gets dark so early now that we had to leave to give ourselves time to see the shipwreck and to then find our campsite (always an adventure in itself).

There was a storm brewing by the time we left the lake, and when we reached the shipwreck, the sun had already gone down. But the encroaching thunderheads added that element of eeriness that a shipwreck wants, so even though I was hoping to catch some afternoon light, the scene was almost more interesting for the lack of it. These shots are not perfectly exposed, but you can get the drift.



We did manage to get back the next day to catch a sliver of remaining sunlight so I got this shot as well:


By the time we left the wreck, it was already getting dark and we were having a hard time finding our campground (it didn’t help that it wasn’t on the map and no one could remember the name of it!) Eventually, we did manage to piece together the name and got there just in time to use the remaining light to set up our tents and food. The campground we were using that night was on aboriginal land and is the only place on the island where campfires are allowed. This is a considerable draw, so most of the other groups, including ones traveling with different companies, were camped on that site for the night. It was a good time…we set up our dinner and had a feast, and after that all the boys were painted in white body paint in preparation for the aboriginal dance (the girls painted eachother). At the end of the show (which was actually quite good), everyone got up and joined in dancing.



I tried to go to bed early that night, but, um, no. People were shouting and playing music well into the night. Between that, the brutally hard ground, and the torrential downpour that began at about 4 am, I think I managed about 4 hours of sleep. We were up with the sun and happily eating breakfast when the next downpour began in earnest. I’m not gonna say that wasn’t a pain in the ass. Our stuff got totally soaked as were trying to load it onto the roof of our truck, and we still had dishes to wash so my friend Miriam and I ran out into the rain in our bathing suits and scrubbed the pans. That was a sight to behold.

Once the roof was loaded, off we were, and in another hour or so, the storm cleared and the sun made its way out. At that point, we had arrived at our next locale; an incredible lookout point called Indian Head. From there, you get great views of the huge ocean and the gorgeous coastline of the island.


After the lookout, we hiked the entire length of the beach on the other side of the point to reach a beautiful spot called the Champagne Pools. It’s basically a big rock pool, but really lovely and it was so nice to be able to spend the day there just relaxing in the sun. Determined not to be caught in the dark once more, we packed up early and made our way to our next campground…a deserted stretch along the beach behind some sand dunes. Wow. What a beautiful and hilarious evening.





We watched the sunset and ran around acting silly for a while and all the girls got together to cook a delicious Asian stir fry (cooking for 11 people with 2 burners and only a pot and a small frying pan took some serious creativity). We spent the night playing cards, listening to music, singing and dancing around like fools. After we had totally gorged ourselves and were all gamed-out, we turned off the accessory light of our car and all piled together to look up at the gazillions of stars.

We all did go to bed early that night, but once again, like clockwork, the rain began at about 4 am. This time however, one of the pegs came out of our tent and the girl I was sharing a tent with and I woke up in a pool of cold water. Joy!! So much for a nice leisurly (dry) dawn breakfast…we booked it out of there. Luckily it was our last day and we wouldn’t have to use those sleeping bags again. We packed the truck up as quickly as possible and made our way towards our final destination, Lake Wabi, This lake is an emerald colored fresh-water lake that sits at the bottom of a huge sand dune. You can run, roll, or do whatever your heart desires down the hill and land face first in the lake at the bottom. It takes about 45 min to walk to the lake, but it was cold and raining very hard, so some people didn’t want to venture out. Of course, being the insane person that I am, I decided that not only was I going to the lake, but I was going to jog there to avoid getting cold along the way. I recruited one of the 19 year-old boys to come with me, and off we went, running through the woods in our bathing suits like wild animals. It was SO FUN, and I think the rain just added to the experience… we made it there in less than 20 min and wow, jumping into that lake after 3 days without having showered (and frankly, sweating like pigs after that run) felt pretty good. I don’t have any pictures of the silliness that ensued when the rest of the gang got there because I didn’t bring my camera with me, but you’ll just have to imagine a group of 11 people running/rolling down a sand dune (one of whom was holding a poor, broken, useless blue umbrella).

Here's a ridiculous picture from someone else's camera of me tackling the hill.
Sand everywhere? Check.
Mental problems? Check.



We spent about an hour at the lake, but it poured the whole time and although that was pretty awesome, it did get quite cold. So we all ran all the way back to the car and some of us figured we’d splash around for a while and enjoy the rain… I mean, there is something really amazing about being outside in a storm like that.


By the time we got back on the road (well, back on the shoreline actaully), the rain was easing up and the sun was trying to come out. We made it back the ferry with ample time to spare, and were back safe and sound (and dry) at our hostel by 2pm. I tried to take a nap, but that just wasn’t happening. I then figured I’d go online for a bit, but every time I looked up I saw someone I’d met from somewhere else along my travels. At one point I was talking to someone and a friend from NZ recognized my voice from across the room and came over to say hi. It was impossible to even concentrate... I can’t believe the number of people I’ve been running into (people I spent significant quality time with that I never thought I’d see again). So funny, and so comforting to be alone and still have friends everywhere.

Anyway, tonight, our group had a massive feast all together at the hostel. We all got on so well…everyone was so easy-going and even the people I thought were quiet and reserved turned out to be such good fun. I’m so happy with how the weekend turned out, but will be grateful to have a few days to recoup before I begin my Whitsundays sailing trip (great barrier reef). If the group on that boat is half as good as the group we had this time, I’ll be an even happier camper.

Good BYron :(

Well kids, the time has come to bid Byron farewell. I left this morning bright and way too early on a bus headed up north to begin my east coast month of madness. I have mixed emotions about leaving the place that has been my home for the past month and a half. It wasn’t always comfortable living in a room with 10 people. I was always waiting to use the bathroom, and never really slept through the night. I had very little privacy and getting everyone to clean up after themselves was a losing battle. My friend and I cleaned so much that we earned the nicknames Agee and Kim after the two meddling old ladies in “How Clean is your House?” If I’m the neatest one of the bunch, something is definitely awry in the universe. But living in such close proximity to other people also has its upsides. I’ve made such amazing friends with whom I share a comfort level that could not have been achieved had we not been sharing the same space. It’s hard to make good girlfriends and I count myself so lucky that the girls in my room were so open and funny and caring.


Every night was a slumber party–much to the chagrin of the one or two boys that had to live in the room as well (but they dealt with the overload of estrogen pretty well). Working in the bar was a blast. I only had to work about an hour a night and it was a fun, easy job with the added bonus of being able to drink for free (but also rather annoying on the night’s I didn’t want to drink).


One night last week, in honor of the other bartender’s last night, the managers grabbed her and threw her into the pool. I was too busy hysterically laughing at a drenched Martine to notice that I was going to be the next victim. Luckily, I got my shoes off in time. After we got out of the pool, sopping wet and freezing, Martine grabbed a hose and sprayed everyone in the bar. It was absolute madness, but just a typical Tuesday in Byron Bay.

I cried my eyes out on the street last night out thinking about my impending departure, which shocked those of my friends who aren’t used to seeing such wanton displays of emotion on my part. (The only thing they’ve seen me get gushy about was our friend’s huge cuddly dog that is happiest when he has managed to fit his entire body onto your lap).

Thing I’ll miss most:
• Staff movie night (basically one big candy fest)
• Impromptu beach bonfires
• Quality girl time
• Delicious pies from the 23-hour bakery…the stuff of dreams

Things I won’t miss:
• Annette jumping into my twin bed in the middle on the night because she’d claimed she’d seen a rat. I didn’t believe her, but the next night she provided photographic evidence. (Well, I won’t miss the rats, but I will miss Annette)
• Cheeky Monkeys, a club which might just double as Satan’s bathroom… the average age in there is about 19 and someone called me a MILF

Despite my old and aching bones, I had a really wonderful last week, which included seeing a great band play, hanging out at a really cool bonfire on the beach, and surfing some perfect, gentle waves (I’m now a surfing addict).



It’s a shame to have to leave now as I’ve been meeting enough locals to have job opportunities abounding, but the weather is changing and in a few more weeks, it will feel like winter in Byron. I, on the other hand, will be chasing the summer all the way up the coast. There haven’t been that many blog-worthy adventures as of late because my days have been rather chilled out, but all that is about to change starting now.

I just arrived in Noosa, which is a lot like Byron Bay, only a bit bigger and more expensive. In the span of one hour, I ran into two people I know. I had met a cool girl surfing in Byron a few weeks ago and she turned out to be in the same room as me here. So funny, but I have a feeling I’ll be running into people I know all the way up the coast. It’s wild. So my plan is as follows: I’ll spend 3 nights in Noosa, then head up to Fraser Island for a beach camping trip. You are placed with a group of people and you drive around this amazing and unique island in a Jeep and camp out under the stars. After Fraser, I’ll check out a surfing town for a few days and possibly stop in a random town along the coast to stay with some friends of friends. I’ve never met them, but people are super friendly around here and are always offering up their relatives and friend’s places for me to stay in. Why not give it a go? After that, I’ll take a tour of the Whitsunday Islands (which are part of the Barrier Reef). It’s a 3-day sailing/snorkeling adventure and I can’t WAIT (everyone who’s gone has said it’s the best experience they’ve ever had. After the Whitsundays, I’ll do a white water rafting trip, and end up on Magnetic Island for the Full Moon Party (an annual all-night party) and a 4-day scuba-diving course. Where better to get certified than at the Great Barrier Reef? At the end of the month, my friend who is a pilot is going to pick me up near Magnetic Island and fly me to Darwin, the wild west of Australia (it’s reputed to be somewhat of a cowboy town with a pretty interesting cast of characters). Door to door service… gotta love it. Darwin is not that easy to get to and is a bit off the beaten path, so it attracts a different kind of traveler then the 18-year olds you’ll find heading up and down the east Coast of Australia. It’s also home to Kakadu National Park, which is purported to be the best national park in the country. I plan on hanging out there for a while and getting a J-O-B. Apparently there’s tons of work up there, so I think I’ll be ok money-wise once I start working. After this east coast trip I will be pretty much flat broke. But it will all have been worth it.

Ok, that was a mouthful, but I’ll be updating as frequently as I can to avoid these long-winded posts. I’m SO EXCITED!!! (And also very, very tired). Goodnight!