Australia

So I jumped the gun slightly on posting my Indonesia blog before we left but only due to one event which I think you will all enjoy. We headed to the airport at about 9pm for our flight at midnight. We packed up the mini buses and when we got to the airport unloaded all the bags grabbed our own ones and went to check in...Only to discover that Brian had picked up the wrong bag at the hotel!! After a couple of frantic phone calls to get in touch with the hotel and to try to reach Rachel to explain the situation to her we eventually established that he had left his bag at the hotel but thankfully it was still there and hadn’t been picked up by the person who owned the bag we had! A taxi was arranged and the bag made its way to the airport and we all checked in without any hassle (my bag was 15.7kgs!! Go me!!!) Anyway the only reason I tell this story is that we had been joking with Rachel whose job looking after us officially ended once we got on those mini buses that we would be ringing her or coming back to the hotel because someone would have a problem with flights or something. We didn’t think that this joke would jinx us and that it would actually happen!! Anyway the flight went without any incidents and we landed in Darwin at 4am...another hour and a half ahead of home...that’s eight and a half hours ahead for those of you who may have lost count!!! After years of watching Border Patrol and all those programmes on TV I was slightly nervous going through customs as I was waiting to be picked out and have my bag thoroughly searched...luckily the cute little dog passed my bag and I was officially in Darwin. Slight aside here...considering I entered the country on a Working Holiday Visa they asked very little questions and all I got was the bog standard entrance stamp...bit of a letdown after all the cool stamps and visas I have gotten throughout the trip!! We walked into the arrivals hall to be greeted by Steve who was going to be our driver for the 2 weeks of the Oz trip. As we walked out to the bus that was to be our new home I was excited but knew I was going to be terribly disappointed as it was never going to be as cool as our big orange truck...I was not wrong as it is a white 24 seater mini bus so nothing too exciting. The only thing that did make me smile was the trailer that is attached to the back to transport all our bags (as there is very little room on the bus itself) is the same colour orange as our truck....so the truck lives on with us J we got lost TWICE on the bus that day...attempting to get out of the airport car park!!! All I could think was 5 minutes without Rachel and we had lost a big, 5 minutes on the new truck and we had gotten lost twice in a CARARK!!! I won’t go into too much detail about our first day in Darwin as it was all a bit higgledy piggledy due both to the lack of sleep, as very few of us had managed to sleep on the short flight, and also the mix up with the equipment that some of us had posted from Nepal after losing the truck. We did get some time to explore Darwin which is a fairly nice place but very quiet. We arrived there at about 7.30 in the morning and the place was dead considering it was a working day! But I saw their little Christchurch, the Old Town Hall and the famous Brown’s Mart theatre (think it may just be famous to Aussie’s cause I have never heard of it!!) That evening we headed to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market. We had a wander around and walked down to have a quick look at the beach before heading back to the bus to head to camp. We were all fairly tired at this stage and just needed sleep but it was nice to see the market all the same. We were staying in a campsite on our first night which we were all thankful for as it meant a shower after the flight and a long sticky day!! As some of our equipment had got caught up in customs some of us were without tents and sleeping equipment but we came across some very nice people who were staying in the campsite who offered us tents and an abundance of blankets and sleeping bags so in the end everyone had a home. That night however there was a massive storm and most people got flooded out of their tents due to the rain and sheltered in the cooking area and the shower block. There were massive roles of thunder going on for longer than I had ever heard and I loved it....but still managed to sleep through a good portion of it due to the lack of sleep over the previous few days!! The following day we got up and headed back to the airport to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we got all the equipment through as quickly as possible. It took a couple of hours but in the end there were no problems and we were back on the road to head to Ubirr in Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is a World Heritage listed site and covers 19,804sq metres in the Northern Territory. The park is home to 1,600 plant species, 275 bird types, 75 reptile species, 25 species of frog and a rough estimate of 10,000 species of insects. When we arrived at Ubirr, Steve told us that there was a viewpoint to watch sunset from and examples of Aborigine rock art along the way. So we set off and discovered lots of the art with information points telling us what the drawings meant. Once we reached Ubirr Rock we climbed up it and found ourselves on top of a large rock plateau that looks out over the park. We got some stunning views and at one point I turned around to take a picture to find some sort of bird of prey (I’m not the most avid of bird watchers so I can’t be more precise) at eye level with me about 10 feet off to me left. It was amazing!!! We settled ourselves down for what we had been promised would be an amazing sunset...but once again the UKtoOz curse struck and we had storm clouds moving in! We still got to see some of the sunset but then big drops of rain started plopping down on us so we retreated quickly and headed back to the bus to head to camp. And wait for this, our campsite was at a place called Malabanjbajdju!! I popped this in here so that when I come home and tell stories and simply talk about “a place in Australia” you will understand why I either a) don’t remember the names of the places or b) just can’t bloody pronounce them!! Our camp that night was a bush camp with no facilities, but we had a nice dinner consisting of kangaroo chilli con carne. Then it was bed time before an early start the next day.

On our third day in Australia we headed first to Nourlangie which again had many example of Aborigine art. We came across one story about an evil spirit called Nabulwinjbulwinj (pronounced apparently as Nar-bull-win-bull-win) who eats females after striking them down with a yam!! We don’t know why he does this or why, if he has yams at his disposal to throw at women, he doesn’t just eat the yams!!! We then arrived at another viewpoint, this one called Gunwarddehwardde. Even though at this stage it was only about 9am the sun was starting to get really hot so we didn’t hang around too long before we headed back to the bus. Our next stop was the Anbangbang (Arn-barng-barng apparently!) Billabong. We did a 2.5km walk around the billabong where we saw a load of wild (and noisy) cockatoos. Despite the warnings about crocodiles we didn’t come across any and we had an uneventful but beautiful walk getting to see Nourlangie, where we had just been, from a distance. Our next stop then was the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre where there was lots of information about the Bininj and Mungguy clans who look after the park with the help of the government. To give people an insight into the history and culture of the park they have told some of the stories that have been handed down to them by their ancestors, which explains their beliefs and also interprets some of the rock paintings we had seen. Being completely honest I don’t remember many of the stories with too much detail...the only thing that I can really remember is wondering how they managed to come up with these stories about their own culture and that. Some of them are pretty out there and involve grasshopper people and a lightening man and then the dude who eats women!! Some of the guys were then going on a boat trip on the yellow river, I passed on the boat trip but did a short walk on a little board walk out to have a look at the river which was really still and peaceful. Steve then drove those of us who didn’t do the boat trip to a place called Cooinda where some people used the pool. I just had a sneaky shower in the campsite and freshened up with a nice cold shower. When the boat trippers got back we headed off on the road again to head towards Harriet’s Rest where we were due to camp for the night. However because we had got all the days sight-seeing over nice and early (everything I have just mentioned was done by 1pm!!) we were able to go a little further up the road and get closer to Katherine where our activities were based the following day.

It was another early morning start (you’ll probably start to notice a pattern!!) but we were glad of it as the heat and humidity meant it was impossible to stay in the tent past sunrise anyway! We headed to the Nitmiluk Visitors Centre to get some information on the walks we could do around Katherine Gorge and then we set off. Most of us chose to do the short walk and my little group chose to do the really, really short walk...but ended up doing the whole 3.7km walk that we were trying to avoid! In the end it was actually quite rewarding as we got to see some of the wildlife of the park before we came across the gorge itself. And as usual, it was spectacular. Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge) is 18,000 hectares and consists of 13 naturally carved gorges along the river through the Arnhem Land Plateau. The viewing point above the gorge was spectacular and I couldn’t get over how still the water was. We saw a couple of canoes on the river (probably the best way to see the gorge) and even they only caused the slightest ripples on the water. We stood and took it all in for awhile and then headed back to the visitors centre. Along the way we stumbles across a small group of wallabies having a little feed and even saw one with a little baby in her pouch which we got quite excited about! Once everyone was back from their exploring we headed then to Mataranka where we had a chance to get into the Mataranka Thermal Pools. I gave this a miss and instead had a little walk around the pools and made sure to keep an eye on the thousands of bats that were sleeping the trees. The bats are fruit bats or flying foxes and there were literally thousands of them covering very space on every tree. And even though it was day time they were still making plenty of noise and flying around the place...and they were fecking huge too!! Luckily I managed to avoid getting crapped on and my relaxing walk turned into a very quick dash through the paths because I was a little freaked out in all honesty!! When I was finished being bullied by big bats I went and had a walk around the Mataranka Homestead. Mataranka is known as the “Capital of the Never Never” thanks to a book that was written by a woman called Jeanie Gunn in 1908. She wrote a book about her experiences in the Outback and it was made into a film years later (both called We of the Never Never) there is a replica of the Gunns house at the Homestead and it is the set that was used for the movie. Even though I had never heard of either the book or the movie it was still cool to see it and walk around...and I might be more likely to watch it in the future!! It was also at the homestead where we came across a very relaxed wallaby relaxing in the shade by hiding out under the pool table which was just ridiculously cute!! We then headed off to our campsite for a lovely relaxing evening and yet another fantastic sunset.

The following morning our first stop was at Gorrie Airfield which was used during World War 2. There wasn’t much to see there really except for the runway which was pretty run down. The only notable thing that happened there was as we drove back out from the airfield to the main road we disturbed a couple who had obviously come of the main road for some privacy and instead got interrupted in a rather compromising position by a bus full of tourists! We gave them a little beep and drove on!! We then drove on to Daly Waters. Our first stop was at the Daly Waters airstrip which is what made Daly Waters a place where people actually came to live!! It is the site of Australia’s first international airfield but then focus turned to military air traffic during WW2. It has not been in use since 1965 but the original hangar is still there and houses a small exhibition giving details on the history of the airfield, including the fact the 2 Aborigines were employed to refuel the planes at a time when the Aborigine people weren’t recognised as citizens. Our next stop then was to stop at the famous Daly Waters Pub. It was first opened in 1930 and got its license in 1938 ) I guess out in the middle of nowhere you can get away with not having a license for 8 years!!) The pub is quite small but manages to have a lot of crap in it! Tourists going through like to add to the memorabilia on the walls which range from GAA jerseys (this every county was covered!!) to bras and underwear, ID cards (including a few Garda Age Cards!!) and flags from every country you can think of! I’m telling you, dusting the place must be a nightmare!! Our camp site that evening was at the foot of the Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) This is a small formation of rocks that are precariously balanced on one another and gave us a slight preview as to what we would see when we reached the famous Devils Marbles. Once again we got an amazing sunset which turned the rocks a beautiful colour that I watched in wonderment as they changed. It was a really nice campsite although we all woke up with a tonne of red sand in our tents the following day!!

The next day we stopped first at the Mary Ann Dam. In all honesty I had a quick peek at the dam and then dived into a nice shower before hand washing most of my clothes so I would be semi clean for the coming week!! Once we were all relatively clean we then headed down to the Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) where I really couldn’t believe my eyes. Once again they are a formation of rocks that balance on each other in a gravity defying way!! There will be a massive boulder bigger than the size of a house balancing on top of a rock the size of a car!! It was crazy to look at it but I loved exploring them. I think my favourite part of it was finding a rock that looked like it had been sliced in two with a knife. The two sides were flat and smooth as anything and again I couldn’t figure out how they were split so smoothly! When we were finished crawling all over the rocks we had a quick lunch in the shade at the base of the rocks and once more hit the Stuart Highway to Connor’s Well where we set up camp for the night.

We next headed to Alice Springs where there seemed to be some civilisation once again! We arrived pretty early in the morning and the first thing we all did was head for some breakfast and to find some internet to let people know that we were still alive and hadn’t perished in the middle of nowhere never to be seen again! I did a little tourist stuff in Alice Springs finding the Old Gaol that was built in 1907. It was stuck in between two huge modern buildings which made it kind of quirky. I also found The Residency which is basically where royals and dignitaries stayed when they visited Alice Springs. It was built in 1927 and the information board outside seemed to take some pride in the fact that when Queen Elizabeth and her family visited in 1963, Prince Charles got food poisoning!! Steve also brought us to Anzac Hill which gave us a view out over the whole town, there was nothing that spectacular about the view but it was still nice to see! We were camping at a proper camp site that night and not bush camping so we all got nice long showers and had a toilet block to enjoy for a night before heading back out into the bush for pretty much the rest of the trip.

Our next major destination was what we had all been waiting for in Oz...Uluru (Ayers Rock) we had a slight delay on this day as we stopped at one of the few petrol stations on the road for fuel only to be informed that they had no diesel in stock. So Steve had to unhook the trailer, leave us all at the petrol station and drive an hour or so back to the previous station and hope that he made it before running out of fuel!! He did and he arrived back with a full tank so that we could complete our journey to Uluru. Uluru is 348 metres high, 3.6km long, 1.9km wide and covers just over 3sqkm. It was formed 550 million years ago by the Earths crust being lifted and folded and pushed against each other with sediment settling. My first glimpse of Uluru was weird! I’m not sure what I was expecting or how I thought I would react or feel but whatever it was it wasn’t how I did feel. We drove right up to it and got out to go for walks around it. I did the half walk which was about 5km and that was enough for me in the heat. When I imagined Uluru from the pictures I had seen I thought it was a soft rock and kind of sandy or something, and that it was smooth and just that iconic table shape with no texture or anything to it. I was completely wrong!! The rock is not just one smooth rock wall it has indents and parts that are higher up stick out a bit more than the lower down part of the rock. There are holes and little caves all over it. Waterfalls run down the sides during the rainy season. The rock isn’t as red as the impression I had gotten from the pictures. But aside from it being totally different to what I thought...I still loved it. It was amazing to see. To try and come up with words to describe its height and expanse is just impossible and I tried even to stand at the base of it and to get the top of the rock in the picture too but there just wasn’t enough space, it was either cut the top out or cut me out!! The walk around it was good though and there were information boards all around it telling us about the different Aborigine stories and why Uluru is such a sacred site to them. To be honest I think they have amazing imaginations! From different shapes in the rocks and even a dark ribbon going through a lighter shade of rock they have these wonderful stories about how these things are their culture. And I can gladly say that I had my dinner (and breakfast the following day) looking at Uluru as it changed with the sun going down (or up) it was actually pretty special for me watching the sun set on Uluru as it was the 13^th of October which is a special day for most of my family so it was a nice place to be sitting and thinking about everyone from back home in such a humbling setting. So the following morning we went back to Uluru. Some of the guys had decided to try to the Uluru climb so we dropped them off and kept our fingers crossed that the climb would be open as it was closed the previous day. The rest of us went around to the sunrise viewing point and I think I preferred this to sunset. It was still pitch black when we got there and we could just make out the silhouette of the rock in the darkness but best of all it had an amazing full moon shining over it. As it got a little bit lighter we were able to take photos of it with the dark sky behind it and the moon shining brightly. Then as the sun came up the sky got brighter and bluer and we watched it until the moon had disappeared and it was nice and warm with the sun in the sky. We then went back around to the start of the climb to pick up the other guys who unfortunately had not been able to climb as the winds were too high at the summit. Once we were all back together it was time to drive 50km over to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) to explore them. Kata Tjuta is a huge pile of domed rocks (36 in all) that have also been around for 500 million years and formed in a similar way to Uluru. The tallest one (Olga) stands at 536 metres high. They are spread over 35 sqkm and have a circumference of over 20km. Kata Tjuta means “many heads” and when you see them from a difference you can see how they get their name and also there is an Aborigines story behind them that gives “many heads” a further meaning. We spent about 2 hours walking up through them and again seeing some fantastic scenery.

The next day we were in South Australia and our first stop was Coober Pedy. Hmm what exactly can I say about Coober Pedy...it is the opal mining capital of the world apparently...and it doesn’t open till 10 on a Saturday morning. Which really wasn’t much use to us and we were there ay 8am on a Saturday! So we drove about the town for a little and then saw a sign that said “scenic views of Cobber Pedy”. So we all point Steve in that direction and stopped at this view point. Before I go any further I will tell you that the signs said things like scenic, beautiful and breathtaking. We got off the bus to have a look...and promptly all burst out laughing!! All we saw was mounds of rocks that had been mined with a few run down ramshackle buildings in the town!! It gave us all a great laugh though and showed us what we were in for in Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is pretty cool on paper, everyone lives in cave houses as it keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter when the temperature goes to extremes. They do have supermarkets and shops above ground now but all the houses and the tourist accommodation is all underground!! We visited the Old Timers Mine for a tour around an old mine and cave house. It was fairly small but fun none the less to see the mine and how small the mines were. And I liked seeing the cave house which was lived in up until 1990 when the mine was turned into the museum and the family moved out. Since the museum has opened people can no longer look for opals in the mine but there is still plenty of opal around and one stream (that’s what the call it) was found when they started doing the museum and is apparently worth about 40,000 dollars!! So not much to say about Coober Pedy really, but here are some interesting facts!! Coober Pedy when translated means “white man in a hole”!! It was in 1914 that opal was first discovered at Coober Pedy when a 14 year old boy discovered a gemstone. He was in a group of people including his father who were out searching for gold. Since then people from over 50 nations have moved to Coober Pedy to make their fortune...some of them have been successful, and some of them less so. In the two hours we were there I encountered 2 Indians, a Russian, an English woman and a couple of Chinese people. The population of Coober Pedy is 3,500 with 60% of them being European (us Europeans wanting to make a quick fortune!!) Oh and when you search for opals, you can tell people you went “noodling”!! And so that pretty much sums up Coober Pedy! Glad I saw it, was a bit of an anomaly but as our saying went after each stop in the Outback, “I wouldn’t want to live there”!!!

Coober Pedy was our last stop of note before we finally took a left turn and left the Stuart Highway...we didn’t really have a choice in all honesty as once we got Port Augusta if we didn’t turn we were all going for a dip in the Southern Ocean.  We stopped off for a couple of hours in Broken Hill. We found another sign for a viewing point...made the same mistake again and decided to go have a look...nothing of note to report (surprise, surprise!!!) We did go to McDonalds though and find a shopping centre which seemed to mark our road back to civilisation!! Our next stop after that was Dubbo, where again it was an Outback town but in Dubbo we found actual PEOPLE!!! Coober Pedy and Broken Hill were like ghost towns with a really eerie feeling that we were the only ones who had survived a zombie attack or something like that! But in Dubbo there were people in the shops and on the streets and actual traffic on the road! We also found a pub that was open so took great pleasure in going in for a cold drink...and I felt instantly at home due to the betting screens that were all over one of the walls and horse racing was on the screens!! Dubbo still didn’t have too anything exciting in it but it was yet another step in the direction of normality!! We had an amazing camp site that night in the middle of nowhere. Now I know I’ve been going on about the whole of the Outback being the middle of nowhere, but this middle of nowhere felt like home! We drove through fields with cattle and sheep in them and stopped at the end of a track beside a lake that we watched the sunset go down behind. We all pitched our tents and sat around sitting on the grass (not the red sand!!) and chatted the night away while cook group out did themselves with steak, rice and cheesy broccoli! And Steve treated us once again with cake and custard for dessert (no family, it wasn’t as good as my custard but it was still pretty damn good considering it was cooked on a camp fire!!!) it was a very relaxed evening around the campfire and brought it home for me that we were very close to the end of the trip and that nights like this were to be treasured.

Our last full day and night were spent in the Blue Mountains...and they reminded me of home! Finally after 2 weeks of flat, barren nothingness as far as the eye could see we came across hills and green trees and, well LIFE, to be totally honest!!! As we drove through the hills it started to feel more like a lived in country, than the deserted Outback! The Blue Mountains were great; we stopped in Lithgow a little town just up the road from Lake Lyle where we would be spending our last night. Lithgow was a nice little town and once again our return to civilisation was evident after coming across the local library and actually finding people in it!!! Once we had all stocked up for the campsite (beer and wine for our last night!!) we headed further up into the mountains and to yet another spectacular camp. We were literally on the bank of the beautiful Lake Lyle and got to watch the sun go down over it. I’m not sure if we were all sensing that we wouldn’t be spending much time in our tents from then on in but once again we congregated around the tents and beer bottles were opened and wine popped (myself and Rosie indulging in Sparkling Jacobs Creek...thinking of you Amy xx) We had quite a laugh before enjoying our last supper...a full blown BBQ with steak, pork and chicken (the sausages were kept aside for our last truck breakfast the following morning!!) When dinner was over we all huddled in around the fire and reminded each other of funny stories, what we loved most and best about the trip and basically just reminisced on what had been exactly what we all thought it would be...the trip of a lifetime. Bit by bit we drifted off into our tents, not wanting the night to end but knowing that we couldn’t sit there forever no matter how much we may have wanted to. The next morning I got up to open the tent and find a mist down over the lake and the sun starting to come up...and it was a truly magical scene. I stood and took it in for a few minutes before having my last truck breakfast, flapping my last dishes and dismantling my tent home for the last time. Funnily enough throughout the whole Oz leg of the trip we had been ready before departure time every morning, either because it was too hot to stay in our tents up in the north or because we were all bloody freezing early in the morning down in the south and just wanted to get back on the bus!! On the last day though we were a half hour late leaving...something of a psychological factor for most of us I think, not wanting it all to end! We eventually did all get packed up though and our last stop before hitting Sydney was to go to Katoomba to see the Three Sisters, a rock formation in the middle of the Blue Mountains. We all get out at the view point (an actual view point this time!!) and took in the amazing scenery in front of us. We had a group photo taken and stood in silence for a few minutes as we took in all that was in front of us and contemplated the goodbyes that lay ahead. We, rather reluctantly, headed back to the bus for the last time and drove the last couple of hours to the place we had been trying to reach for so long, Sydney. As we drove closer and the buildings got bigger and closer together I started looking out the windows, waiting for a glimpse of something that I recognised...and then I saw the Harbour Bridge and with that the biggest smile on my face. That first glimpse of it was all I needed to know that the last 7 months were worth it, and the best 7 months of my life. We drove through the city and then Steve dropped us off on Macquarie Road where we walked to the end of the street and had the Sydney Opera House to the right and the Harbour Bridge to the left. I stood in amazement of the two and couldn’t actually believe that after seeing all those pictures that I was actually standing in front of that iconic building. We also had our own welcoming committee with Greg waiting at the side of the road for us with a big orange sign congratulating us for “making it”!!! It was great to see a familiar face when we got there and once we had taken the last group pictures we all headed back to the bus to take our bags off it for the last time. And once we did that do you think we moved??? Of course not, we stood there for about 10 minutes talking with no one wanting to go anywhere and start the goodbyes!! So we all picked up our bags and walked to Circular Quay and got a drink at a cafe together...and then arranged to go for dinner the following evening!! When we did start moving from the coffee shop we put on quite a confusing show for the other customers as we all stood up, hugged each other. Looking like we were saying goodbye and kept saying “see you tomorrow”!! I could see the puzzled looks on some people’s faces but it just felt like our little secret! Myself and Joe then headed to our hostel and once we found it we found we had been guided in the right direction once again by Rachel after finding ourselves in what I will go so far as to say the best hostel I have possibly ever stayed in! The staff are amazing and gave us loads of information; the whole place is spotless and has a real homey feel to it! So we settled in got some dinner and went to our beds for the first time without our UKtoOz family all around us.

And so UKtoOz Odyssey Overland April 2011 is officially over. I can say, hand on heart that I had the time of my life. I can’t say that it’s what I thought it was going to be and that is only because I don’t really know what I thought it was going to be. I don’t think anyone could honestly say they knew exactly what was in store for us on the trip but what I can say it that I loved every minute of it. From camping in the snow, to our own little wedding, days without showers, sweating away covered from head to toe in Iran, being escorted through Pakistan, being stalked by tuk tuk drivers in India, falling in love with Nepal and being so glad to get to spend a month there, bathing with elephants, seeing wild rhinos, the tears of the Punhill trek, the disappointment of losing the truck, Greg and not getting to go to China and Tibet, the ping pong show in Bangkok, the Wats in Cambodia, 3 weeks exploring the wonders of Vietnam and loving every minute of it, the crazy unexpected night in Godmothers in our first night in HCMC, Kev’s Karaoke birthday in Hue, tubing in Laos, zip lining in Chiang Mai, the day trip around Kuala Lumpur, beating Australia and Dublin getting the All Ireland in Singapore, the shitness of Jakarta and the bed bugs to the absolute stunningness of Mount Bromo, relaxing resort style in Bali and roughing it in the Outback for two weeks it has been one hell of a trip with experiences of every kind and every kind of experience that I never want to forget. And along with all these memories I have made some amazing friends, some who I have already said bye to, and some that I am lucky enough I will see again very soon...and one in particular that I don’t seem to be able to get rid of (not that I want to J)

UKtoOz has been 100% worth it. After all the disappointment with two cancellations before I even got on the road with another (now bankrupt!!!) company I think I am a true believer now in the saying “what’s meant to be”. The people who I spent my time with on this trip have truly become friends for life and I now share some of my greatest memories with them. I will treasure the memories and have (literally) thousands of pictures to document the fun and laughter we have all shared together for the past 28 weeks.

And so the trip is over....but the adventure is not!! I am in my new home of Sydney, Australia, starting a new life for myself doing all kinds of crazy grown up stuff like looking for jobs and flats and about to embark on another great adventure in what I can already tell is going to be a great place to be. So although the trip is over, keep an eye on the blog, I may have a few stories to fill you in on from Australia. I hope you all enjoyed the blog and hearing all my stories, I loved being able to share them all with you and hope some of our crazy adventures made you laugh a little.

Love always,

Orla