Some Thoughts on Long-Term Travel

I've been thinking a lot about writing a post like this for a while, on whether I should write it, and how I should word it, and what exactly I want to say. When I started writing this blog back in late 2015 I wanted it to be about health and holistic living with some honest truths about what I have found out along my own personal health journey. However, because I wanted to keep writing whilst I was away it has gradually evolved into a travel blog. Either way, no matter what I blog about, I always wanted to be honest and write my true feelings about my experiences, which I think is becoming rare in a 'everything is amazing all the time' world of Instagram and social media.

Travel IS amazing, but just like any lifestyle that you choose to lead, it isn't amazing every minute of every day, especially when you travel for an extended period of time. It is inevitable that there are going to be aspects of your day-to-day life that you become bored with, or that annoy you. The truth is that a significant portion of long-travel is actually quite tedious. There's a lot of waiting around for busses, trains, planes, your luggage, the ticket queue to move faster. There is also a lot of planning involved and the amount of decisions that you have to make on a daily basis is multiplied. Where am I going to eat, where am I going to stay, how long am I going to stay here for, where am I going to go next, what fits in with my budget, what fits in with my timescale - these are just a handful of decisions that run through your head every day and may sound trivial, but making these decisions after a 16-hour bus journey or lost in the 42 degree heat in a part of the country where nobody speaks English, for example, is HARD. When you have a settled lifestyle all of these things are taken care of and you can focus on all of the other things that make your life your own, which is why it is so easy to get into a routine when you already have a routine to work around, and less decisions to consider.

People say that travel is addictive, and although this is a cliche phrase I really feel that it is the most accurate way to describe long-term travel. You're always on the hunt for that ultimate feeling, the high, the earth-shattering experience that shakes you so hard that you become a different person. In between the highs, what do you do? You wait, you plan, you save, you live your life in the best way possible to enable that high. So when I think of addiction, or what I know about addiction, it is very similar, the waiting, the shifting and the constant adjustment of your life with the sole focus and motive on the one thing that gives you that ultimate intense high, whatever it may be.

Over time, the high becomes less intense as you become less impressionable. When I got to South East Asia everything amazed me, I was constantly taking photographs, writing blog posts, eager to sign up to every tour and always wanting to go out and party and experience every little bit. Now that I am 18 months into my journey, I am still amazed by a lot of things but less appreciative of it as a rare moment. That's because I have accepted this as a part of life now. My mind has come to terms with the fact that hopping to a new place every few days or so and constantly seeing something new is a given. Even typing this seems absurd, I can't believe that moving through countries and taking the time to experience them has become a normality, but this has been my life for a year and a half now. When I meet other travellers, I can tell immediately how far into their trip they are. New travellers are more excited, more appreciative, they have their eyes more wide-open. That was me at the very beginning of my trip and I miss it! Once the exhaustion has set-in from a life of constant upheaval, it is difficult to be excited and you become more selective with your itinerary, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as you know more about what you want but it does hinder your willingness to try a little bit of everything, and love it even if it doesn't turn out how you planned.

I would not trade the past 18 months of my life for anything in the world. I am a completely different person because of travel and I am incredibly overwhelmed that I have had the opportunity to do this. When I think about leaving this life that I have led, the habits and skills I've adopted and the small comforts I've found in living an ever-changing life of uncertainty, my chest feels heavy and restricted a little like it does with heartbreak. However, when I travel, I want to soak up every moment. I want to be the fresh-faced traveller with my eyes wide-open. I don't think travel is a box that you tick off in life. Once you have fallen in love with travel, or succumbed to the 'addiction', you can never turn your back on it. Travellers always find a way to travel, if only for a few days, just to gain a sense of that feeling. Isn't that the only reason anyone does anything in life?

I MADE IT TO BALI

After a year of working and saving and waiting and planning I am here in BALI and I'm so excited I need to just remember to R-E-L-A-X and enjoy it. Decided to do the whole 30 days here (which is as much as they will allow on a tourist visa) as there's so much that I want to see and do - as well as take my time doing it so that I don't have to rush around so much.

First of all, I actually want to start with the food here which is just a dream. It's so fresh, so healthy, so cheap, and there's a huge western influence here with lots of brunch places, eggs, avocado, etc. I know that when you're in another country it's more cultural to try all the local dishes, but after 4 months backpacking SE Asia I ate enough local cuisine and it got to the point where a mini packet of lurpak butter excited me. Plus, I'm in serious HOLIDAY mode at the moment, so I'm happy to just be a bit of a tourist right now and ease myself into trying new things as the weeks go on. My favourite place for food was Canggu and I had to stop myself taking pictures before every meal because it was all so instagrammable:

Duan Cafe - Canggu

Crate - Canggu

Shady Shack - Canggu

Coco Poke - Uluwatu

In fact, me and John both loved Canggu so much we're going to swing back there at the end of our trip when we finish up in Lombok. It's really chilled out, laid back, surfer town and it's easy enough to get around, especially if you have a scooter. The roads aren't too hectic either so there's no stress with traffic. After Canggu we headed to Uluwatu which was a lot quieter and had some of the most stunning beaches I've ever seen in my life! All we did here was explore the beaches, eat great food and go to see the sunset at Uluwatu temple one evening. I also tried to go for a run one evening - big mistake. Too hot, too hilly, too tiring. My legs feel like lead running in intense heat. I never learn.

From Uluwatu we went to Ubud. I was majorly excited for Ubud. In my head it was this jungle paradise surrounded by temples, rice paddies and little huts and guesthouses. In reality the centre is really busy with crazy traffic that's a nightmare to navigate through. It's also really touristy, even up in the rice paddies at Tegalalang (there may be more rice paddies that are not so well known, I'm not sure.) Most people come to Ubud to do yoga and chill out by infinity pools. It's also meant to be extremely spiritual but I didn't get that vibe at all, probably because I was staying in the centre. A lot of people also do the sunrise trek up Mt. Batur, which is well worth the hype. It's an incredible experience despite the early start. You get picked up at 2AM and drive a couple of hours out of Ubud centre to a small village where they give you some breakfast and introduce you to your tour guides before you start the hike. The trek up isn't too difficult and only takes a couple of hours, and once you arrive at the top the view is unreal.

After the sun comes up there are LOADS of monkeys about. I like to stay well clear of these little horrors. They will scope you our for food and snatch anything remotely shiny off you and any bags that are left unattended, but some people think they're cute (?!?!) and some people even feed them although they can get vicious at the slightest wrong movement.

Bali is a pretty big island and there's so much to do, you could easily spend the full 30 days here. We decided to try and see a little more of Indonesia and got a fast boat to Gili Trawangan for 6 nights and then on to Lombok, but we head back tomorrow to spend the rest of our time in Canggu <3 So much has happened since I started writing this post and I haven't been able to keep up to speed thanks to erratic WiFi connections so I'm going to be blogging like mad to squeeze it all in as I only have 5 weeks left of my travels!

What I will miss about living in Melbourne

Oh Melbourne. I've hated this city, accepted this city, enjoyed this city, left it and returned pretty swiftly, but now I have finally, FINALLY, really left after living there for almost an entire year. I've had a very on-again off-again kind of relationship with Melbourne, and whilst there are lots of things I definitely will NOT miss (to name a few: the erratic weather, waiting a MILLION years to cross the road, breaking into a hot sweat and flustered panic when the MYKI inspectors get on the tram) there are plenty of things that I definitely will miss. 

Being surrounded by street art

This is something I became so complacent about as time went on, but when I first arrived in Melbourne I was so excited and inspired by all the amazing street art EVERYWHERE. There are places likes Hosier Lane which have become a tourist  for graffiti and urban art, but when you get out of the centre and explore all of Melbourne you notice that every suburb is it's own ever-evolving art space. I stopped taking pictures in the end, it just goes to show how complacent you can become over time. Here are some of my favourites when I had my eyes open in appreciation:

Melbourne's creative scene

Melbourne is a huge creative hub with amazing gallery exhibitions and an array of art classes, workshops and events. I dropped art after my second year of University but continued to draw and paint for years before I just completely stopped around 2 years ago. It  was so difficult not to be inspired and motivated with all the street art around me, so I found a life drawing class in St Kilda (St Kilda Life drawing - check it out if you're in the area. Good people, good music and just pure drawing for 2 hours) and went from there. There's also a good space called Work-Shop Melbourne which has so many amazing courses, work shops, taster sessions, classes. I did a calligraphy class there and met a lot of cool people. Once I realised that there are so many like-minded people around me just being creative for the pure joy of it and not letting anything stop them, it motivated me to start drawing again (even if I think what I create is rubbish).
After being so down-and-out when I first arrived here I thought this would be the least likely place for me to reignite an old passion, but life is full of surprises, so thank you Melbourne for motivating me to create again.

The brunch scene.

Melbourne turned me into that person who takes pictures of food before they eat it, and I don't even care. The brunch scene in Melbourne is as delicious as it is instagrammable (that's officially a word now, right?) I ate at a different cafe every weekend and still didn't scratch the surface. Whether you're veggie, vegan, paleo, gluten free, sugar-free, lactose intolerant, raw, all of these things or none of them, you will find a cafe that caters to you and you won't be short on brunch options. Shout out to some of my favourites - Fourth Chapter on Chapel Street, Monk Bodhi Dharma in Balaclava, Manchester Press in Melbourne CBD for some excellent bagels, Uncommon in Windsor and Sister of Soul on Acland Street in St Kilda. 

Living by the ocean

When I first arrived in Melbourne I lived in the CBD for the first two months. It was hectic, busy and a little isolating. As soon as I moved to St Kilda I immediately felt a tension I didn't even realise I was carrying release from my body. There's something so calming about living close to the ocean. This was one thing I never, ever took for granted and I loved running along the beach at weekends and evenings. In the Summertime we would all head down and sunbathe for as long as we could stand the 38 degree heat. I never did get up early enough to catch a sunrise despite my best intentions, but I did catch some amazing sunsets on walks down to St Kilda Pier in the evenings.

FRIENDS <3

I saved the best until last :) Being so far away from home and from your friends and family is one of the hardest parts of moving to Australia. I would have left a lot earlier if it hadn't been for the amazing people that I lived with and who became close friends over the past year. Everybody is in the same boat and understands you when you are feeling homesick or hopeless or a little lost. Moving into a big house share was a lifesaver. We had some huge house parties, Christmas day on the beach was unforgettable, there is always somebody to talk to, eat with, or just chill with.

Melbourne is a hub for people in Australia over on working holiday visas and there's a huge backpacking/traveller community. Once you feel connected to it and a part of it it really does make the experience less daunting as everybody really does try to help each other out. The friendships that I made and the people I met over the year really did make the experience and it wouldn't have been the same without them. So, thank you everybody for being a part of my year. And thank you Melbourne, for being my temporary home, and teaching me a lot of important lessons along the way.

One Year of Travel - What have I learnt?

One year ago today I left the UK with two bags and a one-way plane ticket to Bangkok. Travel was my main goal. I wanted to see and experience as much as possible. I quit my job, my apartment in Manchester, my car insurance, my phone bill, everything I had worked for and lusted after for three years was put on hold. Wanderlust had well and truly taken over. Mentally I had prepared myself for being away from home for at least one year. Now that year has been and gone (and it's flown by very quickly too) what have a learned from it all?

Nothing turns out how you expect it

Oh life! You are full of surprises. As much as I try to visit new places with an open mind, I can't help but have a picture built up in my head of how I think it will be. Some things have been more amazing than I could have ever imagined. Some things have been more difficult. It's all a part of the experience.

I didn't expect to be blown away, time and time again, by how beautiful and amazing and breathtaking nature is all over the world. I didn't expect to be so confident riding a motorbike. I didn't expect settling down in Australia to be so difficult, because it's a Westernised country. I didn't expect to be returning to Asia so soon to go and teach English. I didn't expect the Great Barrier Reef to be as bleached as it is :(. I didn't expect that I'd find so much comfort and peace in meditation as I'm such a loud person that's always on the go. Everything is a lesson, a huge learning curve that shapes who you are, what you want, what you don't want.

Learn to look after yourself 

When I left the UK, some people said to me "Enjoy your holiday!" Obviously I didn't correct them because I didn't want to sound like an arsehole and also because I'm sure that they had the best intentions, but I can say it safely in the space of my own blog. I'm not going on holiday! I'm going travelling. I'm going to be living out of a backpack, budgeting constantly, sharing beds and dorm rooms and communal kitchens and bathrooms and goodness knows what else and for how long. It's a lifestyle, and it can get really tiring. Which is why it's okay to give yourself a break sometimes. This might mean just getting a private room for a night or two and relishing in your own space, being able to watch a movie without everyone else commenting on it, or reading a book without having another conversation going on in the background, or having a meal that isn't cheap street food or beans on toast. Get your nails done, get a massage, go have a spa day, whatever relaxes you or chills you out or makes you feel more human - go and do THAT. Don't feel guilty about splashing out every once in a while or recharge your batteries. You need it. You deserve it. 

Stay in your own lane

You meet a lot of amazing people travelling. You also meet a couple of idiots who love to try and "one-up" other travellers, you'll know the sort, their experience was always more interesting, more unique, less touristy, the parties so much wilder, etc. As a new traveller, sometimes this makes you compare your own experiences and think, well maybe I should do this or that. Well, if you want to, great, do it, if you don't, don't. Always do what you want to do, don't feel pushed or shamed into changing your experience. Everybody's is different and that's what makes it so interesting and fun to meet new people and hear their different stories. The beauty of travel is that you can make it fun and amazing and challenging for you, this is your gift to yourself, so remember that and just do you. 

Enjoy it!

This sounds obvious. However, when you are away long-term you can get caught up in the stress of organisation, or the pressure of saving and budgeting. I had to remind myself a few times that I'm only here once and to stop stressing and just relax and enjoy myself.

The tough times will pass

Being away long-term also means that there can be some challenges that you will have to face that you won't necessarily enjoy. For example, the inevitability of homesickness. Since I've been away, I've only been really homesick twice. Once was when I was ill in Cambodia with a parasite infection and all I wanted was my own bed and some familiar surroundings. The second time was at my lowest point in Australia and nothing seemed to be working out. Both of these times the homesickness faded away as the situation changed. It's inevitable that you will get annoyed or tired or homesick or angry at some point when you are away for a long time, but this changes. Home will still be there when you get back, the situation won't stay bad forever, etc. I've learned to take a deep breath and enjoy the ride.

Travelling is the most freeing feeling I have ever experienced. 

From expectations, from routine, from the limitations I had set myself. You make all of the decisions, where you go, what you do that day, when you want to settle down, when you want to move on. Nothing feels like living more than backpacking the world with all of your life crammed into an 80 litre bag. Even with all the difficulties and annoyances and challenges that can get you down sometimes, I can look back on it all and honestly say that I wouldn't change a thing. At the end of the day nothing is holding you back, you have no ties to any place and you can change your life in a heartbeat. 

Working Holiday Visa - the lowdown

I've had a lot of people back in the UK ask me about the Australian working holiday visa, what it is, what kind of work you can do out here, and whether it's worthwhile doing it. The great thing about a working holiday visa is that you can pretty much make your experience in Australia whatever you want it to be and everybody's experience differs slightly depending on where they have lived, worked and travelled during their time in the country.

A working holiday visa allows you to legally live and work in Australia for one year. The main purpose of this visa is to allow you to save and fund your travels further, which is pretty awesome. You can work for any one company for up to 6 months, and once the 6 months is up you have to find work at a different company. Australia is a brilliant country to save in as it has one of the highest minimum wages in the world at $17.70 p/h, but I've never worked a job that paid me less than $20.

The visa is pretty straightforward to obtain so long as you've been well behaved in life and have no criminal convictions that will hinder your application. You can do it yourself from the Australian government website, or if you're like me and leave it until completely the last minute you can pay an additional fee and get a company to do it for you. I bought mine from STA travel, it took 2 weeks to be accepted and cost me less than £250.

Now lets talk jobs. I've done so many jobs since I've been here. I started with temp casual work working a stall selling kids modelling clay at events and festivals, I worked three weeks at a cafe before I quit, I've done bar work, and I've office temped. Although I enjoyed all of my roles for different reasons, office temping has been by far the best. It's decent hours, decent pay, and I've had nothing but positive experiences with every temp assignment I've worked. The people have been helpful and welcoming, it's been great exposure to different office environments across various industries, and I've learnt loads of new skills. I fully recommend it to anybody with any office or administration experience.

Before I came to Australia I met a few people in Asia who had managed to secure roles in the industries that they worked in back home. When I first arrived I was very keen to remain working in media and slogged pretty hard on applications and made a good few phone calls to various places. Whilst I did have some very positive conversations, none of them were willing to take me on whilst I was on a working holiday visa. You have to understand that big companies have to play by the rules, and it doesn't benefit them to take on a new recruit, train them, and only get a good 4 months from them before having to let them go. Now, if you know somebody in Australia that can set you up with a sweet deal, have a lot of contacts and connections, or are willing to accept a sponsorship visa early on into your working holiday visa, then that's great, but the chances are you're not going to be able to work within the same industry that you did at home and you have to be okay with that. I knew I was only going to be here temporarily and so took this opportunity to work casual jobs and enjoy the variety of work I was offered from my agency all whilst keeping in mind my main goal of save save save so that I can get out and explore this big beautiful country.

5 minutes down the road from my place in Melbourne

The two big players for settling down and finding work in are Melbourne and Sydney. When you get here, you'll meet a lot of people that love Sydney but hate Melbourne, or love Melbourne and hate Sydney. I've yet to meet somebody who loves both. They are both amazing cities for different reasons. Melbourne is full of street art, amazing cafes, culture, bars and live music venues tucked in alleyways. The weather is erratic and it can get a lot cooler here. When I arrived in September it was freezing, I had to buy a coat and honestly I felt that I'd made a terrible mistake. Read about my first experiences of Melbourne here. The summer gets hot, hot, hot. It reached 38 degrees on Christmas day. Sydney is full of iconic landmarks (Hello Sydney Opera House and Darling Harbour!), beautiful beaches, amazing swimming pools integrated into the landscape that overlook the ocean, surfers, free barbecues by the beach and overall the weather is much better. Both of them have an abundance of work. You'd have to weigh up the pros and cons after visiting both, and if I could offer one piece of advice it would be to see as much of Australia as possible before settling down in one place, or at least seeing both of these cities before deciding on one. If you're coming straight to Australia then I would really advise coming with a decent amount of funds behind you so that you can take time to decide what you like. I came to Melbourne straight from backpacking South East Asia for 3 and a half months so my funds were low, but if I could go back and change one thing it would be to see both places before deciding on one.

One of the many stunning views from the Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach walk in Sydney 

Now, this post is getting pretty long so I'm going to wrap it up with a short answer. If you want to come and travel, and you want to work somewhere that allows you to extend your travel, or stay in Australia for an extended period of time so that you can see as much of it as possible, then get a working holiday visa. For me, on the whole, it's been an incredible experience. It's been tough at times, it's been challenging, it's been interesting, it's been amazing and wonderful and definitely something that I'll remember for the rest of my life. 

Travelling the East Coast of Australia

After 6 months in Melbourne working, saving, planning, saving more, I finally, FINALLY set off to travel up Australia's East Coast at the start of April for a 4 week long trip. A holiday from my working "holiday". The East Coast is the most travelled part of Australia and the majority of backpackers will travel up or down starting in Sydney or Cairns either by hiring a van or car or on a greyhound or premier bus. After weighing up the pros and cons of hiring a van (pros - more independence and flexibility, cons - cost, space, fear of breaking down on the road) we decided against it and bought a hop-on-hop-off Greyhound bus pass from Sydney to Cairns, stopping off at:

Sydney, Byron Bay, Brisbane, Australia Zoo (day trip), Noosa, Fraser Island (3 day tour), Agnes Water (Town of 1770), Airlie Beach, Townsville, Magnetic Island, Cairns.

Australia is an astoundingly beautiful country. This is hard to realise when you're in the midst of a city and only hit me when I really got out and explored. I was craving a change of scenery and wanted to take advantage of the national parks and spend as much time in nature as possible. I headed to the Blue Mountains as soon as I could whilst we were in Sydney and I was not disappointed. The mountain views were breathtaking. It was strange to experience the landscape change so drastically only 2 hours out of one of Australia's biggest, busiest cities.

I loved seeing Australia's diverse landscape change the further we went up the coast. Cairns was tropical with humid days and warm rain. There are huge curtain fig trees in the middle of the city and at dusk they are loud with the sound of bats awakening and flying through the city. Moments like that hit you and make you remember that you're in another part of the world that's foreign and exotic and exciting. We walked through the rain forest to Behana Gorge and it was hard to believe you're in the same country when you compare it to Melbourne's cool climates.

Behana gorge was one of my favourite places. Some of the National Parks like the Blue Mountains are very touristy and you have to trek for a couple of hours before you find a quiet spot. The gorge was huge and there were only a couple of other travellers there when we found it, and for a good hour we had the whole place to ourselves. Maybe the walk put's people off - 45 minutes up and down steep gradient paths was hard work but you can jump straight into the cool lagoon pools at the gorge.

My favourite places were the smaller more laid back towns and the islands as it made such a refreshing change to big cities and busy party-vibe backpacker hostels. Magnetic Island had something really special about it, with huge rocky landscapes and coves and beaches. I fed Rock Wallabies at sunset and saw a baby Wallaby poke it's head out of it's Mum's pouch. I loved Byron Bay for it's laid back vibes, abundance of surfers and effortless beach cool. I loved Agnes Water's quiet, small-town comfort. It was so relaxed and I had no problem surrendering to the fact that my phone had no signal and dedicating my time there to exploring and taking it all in.

I fed Kangaroos. I held a python, a baby freshwater crocodile and a small turtle. I swam through the Great Barrier Reef which made me feel heavy in my chest as it's just so bleached now. I was surprised that it made me feel so sad. Travelling up the East Coast really reminded me how incredible nature is and how amazing the Earth can be, but it can be destroyed so easily.

Backpacking Australia is very different to South East Asia. Australia is full of tours, day trips and guides to destinations that are difficult to reach if you don't own a vehicle. Because of this, I did feel a little like I was on a package holiday at times rather than really travelling. SE Asia felt so much more adventurous to me. I imagine if you hire a campervan or own a car then it may feel a little different as you'd have a little more freedom and independence to explore the country.

It also goes without saying that travelling Australia is expensive. We went just out of peak time (November - March), so hostel prices had dropped slightly and there was always space for us to book a day or two before, which gave us flexibility. A lot of people we met had pre-booked their entire trip beforehand so that they didn't have to worry about it during their trip. This is probably a very wise idea in peak time as things get booked up fast and prices for tours and accommodation escalate quickly.

It sounds like I'm stating the obvious here but for me, travelling Australia was so much better than working it and being settled in one place. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't seem to fully relax in Melbourne. Being stuck in one place was also shaping my opinion of Australia as a whole even though I knew it was such a huge country with so much more to offer. Seeing more of it made me appreciate how beautiful it is and how different each place can be. I fell in love with it a little more as each new place revealed something new and wonderful.

It's easy to fall back into a routine quickly when you settle down in one place, and it's also tempting to stay put for a long time not just for comfort, but to save money. I've met a good few people who come here and find a job that allows them to save a lot whilst maintaining a decent lifestyle. Before they know it they've spent their whole year in one place and they're quite happy to just go home with their savings. The East Coast was an expensive trip and it was a little disheartening to see 4 month's of hard-earned savings blown in 4 weeks, so I can understand why this is unappealing to some. However I think that it's a shame to come all this way and not even scratch the surface of such a vast, diverse country. Don't forget the holiday part of your working holiday visa! It's a big beautiful world out there, take the chance to see it.

Agnes Water

I haven't dedicated a blog post to once specific place in a country since Pai in Thailand, but I have to give this amazing place up Australia's East Coast a special mention. Agnes Water is a quiet, relaxed place in Queensland. It's not a party place. It's very small, the main town centre consisting of one small row of shops, one cafe, one supermarket and a handful of restaurants. Life moves at a slow pace; nothing is rushed. The wifi is intermittent and phone signal is non-exsistant, which is a blessing or a curse depending on what kind of traveller you are. There are some beautiful picturesque spots to seek out, an abundance of surfers and a lot of sunbleached blonde kids skateboarding barefoot around the streets. It's how I imagined the majority of Australia to be away from the bustling cities and vast expanse of the outback. 

So what is there to do in such a small, quiet town? There's actually a lot to explore and see here despite it being so quiet. Agnes has the cheapest surf lessons along the East Coast at only $17 for a 3 hour lesson. The beach is beautiful and comes without the crowds. The Scooteroo day tour is pretty popular and provides you with an opportunity to ride bikes through the town of 1770 in the full authentic biker get-up, leather jackets with flame motif included. 

However, my visit to the Kangaroo Sanctuary here was by far my biggest highlight. It's ran by a guy who rescues young kangaroos from mothers who have been hit on the road by cars. He's really passionate about what he does and will tell you a lot about kangaroos, how they eat, how they impact and contribute to the environment and how they reproduce and look after their young (a female Kangaroo can suspend her pregnancy for up to 12 months - insane!) The kangaroos are very gentle - natured and comfortable around people. You really get to interact with them, feed them and stroke them and they'll come right over to you and nudge you for food.

It was amazing to see the kangaroos relaxed and happy in their environment. I love animal sanctuaries and I really believe they are the best way to see animals and support their care. Despite being very well cared for and having a lot of space, the kangaroos at Australia Zoo were understandably very indifferent to interaction as they see an average of around 5,000 people a day. They are also highly tolerant as some of the younger children can approach them a little boisterously and be heavy - handed when they pet them. There was a subtle but definate difference in their behaviour that I really picked up on.

The sanctuary visit really touched me and it was one of those rare travel moments that reminds you why you wanted to travel in the first place. It's easy to become complacent whilst travelling long-term as travelling quickly becomes a lifestyle that you adjust to and like any lifestyle it has its pros and cons. It's easy to lose your way when you are stuck in once place and forget your purpose, but once you leave you're able to gain perspective again. 

Most people skip Agnes Water to head straight to Airlie Beach. I hope my post inspires you to make time for this beautiful part of Queensland! It really surprised me and I loved my time here.

Turbulence

How long do you stick something out for before you give up or decide that you need to try something new? When do you decide that enough is enough? Where do you draw the line? How much are you willing to put up with? These were all the questions that ran through my head and went unanswered for weeks and weeks when I arrived in Australia. Melbourne muddied my fresh expectations of a laid-back, sunny life down under with a cold and windy spring that locals assured me was the longest spell of cold weather they had experienced in years. Not what you want to hear when you've arrived from South East Asia with not much in your backpack but bikinis, denim shorts, crop tops and sandals. My first purchase in Australia was a coat.

It wasn't just the weather. I massively underestimated how difficult it is to land yourself in the midst of a new, foreign environment, completely unprepared, and start a brand new life from scratch. I knew nobody in Melbourne, I had no job interviews or flat viewings lined up, I came straight off a flight from Bangkok after 3 and a half months of trekking through jungles, exploring caves and balmy beaches, meditating, and eating all three meals for less than £5 a day. Financially, Australia is a shock that nobody can quite prepare you for. A $16 salad was a painful reminder that I needed to find a job as soon as possible.

We lived in a hostel for over a month. We moved 4 times in less than 2 months. I had to buy a whole new wardrobe from scratch, only to have $400 worth of clothes stolen. When I wasn't job-hunting, I was flat-hunting, and when I wasn't hunting I was getting deeper into a state of worry and anxiety that made me feel utterly lost. I never expected to feel that way when I was living my dream and pursuing what I had worked and saved for for years. I want to travel. I want to see as much of the world as I possibly can. I didn't want want to give all of that up, so I kept going, I kept trying.

When I read travel blogs and look at travel pages and instagrams, they only focus on the positive aspects, the freeing adventure. Whilst it's true that travel is amazing for the most part, I really feel that it's important for me to share the difficulties because it's such an important part of my story. I can only do it now that I am much happier and more settled so that I can write about my experience with some decent perspective, and not in one angry rant (which is pretty much all I did for a good couple of minutes every time somebody asked me how I was enjoying Australia. Sorry to those that were on the receiving end.) It also shows that dreams don't always turn out the way that you expected or like the picture that you had in your head. Once that shatters, what are you going to do? I came to Australia with all these expectations of what I thought it should be like and of what I wanted it to be like. The reality was completely different. Once I accepted that, I could mould the situation and make it work for me.

Things got better. Everything seemed to come at the same time, I got decent work, we found a nice place and moved in immediately. Summer (finally) came, bringing a 38 degree day over Christmas. I've started saving again, and the gnawing anxiety has subsided. I keep having to remind myself that I won't be here forever, that this is just a temporary situation. It took us so long to settle I'm even more determined to make the most of the remainder of my time in Melbourne, and enjoy everything that this city has to offer <3