Home at last!

Finally reunited at JFK airport!

Well friends, this is it! I finally arrived home on Friday and it couldn't feel better. My mom and Tom were my heroes - driving all the way down to NYC to pick me up and back that same night. Even after a few days home, it is a little overwhelming, and I haven't quick kicked the jetlag, but it is so wonderful to see everyone! It was a wonderfully busy weekend with family in town and lots of events going on. Now, I am looking forward to a few nice weeks of relaxing and easing back into some sort of schedule. I have already made it to the chiropractor and I have a hair appointment tomorrow, so soon I will be all fixed up and back to normal - from the roots of my hair to the small of my back.

Looking back on the past 3 months, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was rushing around to buy my gear, saying goodbye to all my friends and family, and hopping on that endless flight over the North Pole. But at the same time, I can't believe how much I've done in those past three months! And now, I am ready for a rest, and I am actually looking forward to looking back on this adventure through pictures and stories for as long as anyone will listen and look :)

I think I have definitely gained a lot from this trip - confidence, travel experience, new friends... I could go on and on. And I think it as been an amazing experience to document it all in this blog. Partly, my motivation to write this was selfish - I think it has helped me to process and take in all the many experiences I have had. So thank you all for taking this journey with me and putting up with my rambling entries and sporadic postings.

And I think on that note, I will finally wrap this adventure up and go take a nap! It has been an amazing journey - thanks for tuning in!!

xoxo, Katie

Through the Chunnel....

Hello mates!

Before I get into my adventures here in England, I wanted to leave you all with one last visual for my time in France.

My first weekend in France, I was feeling a little lonley in these tiny villages in this big house all by myself. I spent a lot of time reading and poking through the bookcases and walking around saying 'Bonjour' to the neighbors... and suddenly, I realized exactly where I was!!!!



Okay so there was no hunky Gaston, no one actually knew who I was, and I could only wish that my kooky Papa was there to keep me company, but the Bonjouring neighbors, the books, the animals, the baguettes.... it was all pretty perfect! Sometimes when I was walking, I sang this song to brighten my spirits.... yes, it's true.

Anyways, that time has come and gone, because now, to quote yet another Disney favorite, I am in a "Whole New World." Haha okay, I promise that is the last awful Disney allusion I will make. Two weeks ago, I set off on the train to travel through the French country side on my way to England! It was a long day, with many transfers in both little and big French train stations. One thing about trains: it is a pain to lug my bags through the stations and on and off the luggage racks. But, I pretty much have the hang of this whole travelling thing now and I feel comfortable reading the train schedules and finding my coach, etc.... even when it is in French! I was very excited to realize that I made it to all the right platforms, found the right places to put my bags, got off at the right stops. When I arrived in Lille-Europe, my last stop in France, I made my way to the Eurostar terminal and smiled when I finally started hearing announcements being made in English. I had to go through some customs, and then got on the Eurostar to travel under the Chunnel to England. When the train arrived, an attendant asked me if it was alright if I switched coaches, since my assigned one had a rather loud group in it. Of course I said it was fine, and to my delight, I got bumped up to first class! I soon found myself being offered champagne and a full cooked lunch and tea (which I definitely did not have to pay for)! That was definitely highlight of the whole day.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to stop in London but I did spend a few confused hours trying to figure out the tube. After asking for help and finding the right places to go, finally I was sitting on the train to Taunton. I arrived in Taunton, met my host and was soon travelling through the windy roads to Over Stowey.


Over Stowey, Somerset is a little town in the Quantock Hills, which are a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. I have been staying at a B&B called Parsonage Farm, with the owner Suki, and her husband Rich and daughter Rachael. It is surrounded by beautiful farm lands and preserved forests and just breathtaking nature all around. The B&B is very pretty and welcoming, with three rooms and a beautiful veg garden with hens roaming out back!

The front of the B&B:

The terrace out back:

My lovely host family! From left: Rich, me, Suki, and Rachael!The beautiful garden out back - great for reading on a sunny day!

Meet Henry and Haley, the feline members of the family :)

And meet Poppy: the ancient but incredibly sweet dog here at Parsonage. I love her!!!

Suki's kitchen with a beautiful AGA stove! This is where the magic happens each morning at breakfast!

My tasks over the last few weeks have been pretty routine. I am staying in a spare room in the B&B, (not one of the nice ones, but at this point I have learned to be thankful for any kind of bed!!!). I get up at 7 and set the table and set out everything for breakfast. Then Suki comes down and slowly the guests trickle down and we start cooking like crazy. I chop things and serve coffee and tea and try to keep up with the dishes. Then I clear everything and do all the dishes. I try to get some breakfast in during this time, but sometimes I snack on the leftover toast that the guests didn't eat :) Suki makes great homemade bread! The mornings are always busy, but I definitely fell into a sort of routine during my two weeks.

After breakfast, I usually would go up and work on the rooms, tidying rooms where guests are staying anothern night, and redoing rooms that will have new occupants. This often involves a lot of laundry shuffling, since there isn't an abundance of sheets. We try to hang things out on the line when it is sunny, but it is hard to get them dry in time! All the sheets and pillow cases also have to be ironed, a job I have actually come to enjoy! I use a little press iron and listen to my iPod and just zone out in the warm heat of the laundry room. We also clean bathrooms, refresh the tea trays, etc. Again, as the days went on, I found the work easier as I developed my own patterns and systems for getting things done.

A pretty beautiful table setting, if I say so myself!

My best friend over the two weeks - Henry the Hoover. Honestly, how can you not enjoy vaccuuming with this thing??

A few days I have worked in the garden, but mostly I have been just helping with the B&B tasks. I did do a few days of weeding and even a little carting of manure... to get a new patch ready for some potatoes The garden is beautiful and well organized, although not much is ready to be eaten right now! As for the B&B, it has been really fun to help out, although I can definitely see that it is a very demanding job. It has been great to meet all of the different characters that come to stay here, from solitary bikers to families, young couples to old. Two my favorite guests were a father and daughter who stayed here with the most adorable golden retriever puppy. I spent quite a bit of time chatting with them, and even showed them pictures of my family! I think that would definitely be one of the most rewarding parts of having a B&B: meeting so many interesting people from all over the country, and even all over the world!

Speaking of eating, I think my single favorite new thing I have eaten these past two weeks is nettle soup. There are TONS of stinging nettles everywhere here, and when you touch them they give you a bumpy rash that stings pretty badly for a while. But stew them up into a soup with some potatoes and broth and man, it is GOOD. I got the recipe, but I'm not sure that we have the same kind of nettles in the States... Other than that, we eat simple but yummy food: lots of salads, bread and cheese, soups, etc. I am now thoroughly enjoying my morning porridge, and I think I am an oatmeal convert! I never thought I'd see the day...

I have also had some free time to go on walks and do a little tourism. I spent a day in Bath, which is a beautiful and historic town near Bristol. It was fun to get away for a day by myself, take the train, and wander around, getting hopelessly lost, visiting museums and going out for lunch. It was a drizzly gray day, but I had a great time, visiting the Victoria Art museum, the Jane Austen house, the Roman Baths, and my favorite, the Fashion Museum!

A few times we went out to pubs for dinner or lunch, which was a very fun English experience. They have wonderful hard cider that is local to different areas in Somerset, and I wish I could bring some home! But the pubs are quaint and old and full of old English blokes having a pint after work, families out to a nice dinner, and teenagers hanging out with friends. It has been great to drive around and see different churches and villages around Over Stowey, because everything is just so old and historic here!

The George - a cute little pub in Nether Stowey that Suki and I went one night for a drink!

It has been really fun to be surrounded by English culture (although Suki is American, and Rich was born in this area but mostly grew up in the States). I slowly got used to using all the right words, like loo, and the right term for which stage of education I am in (you have to say university, or "uni", because college and school mean different things). I love all of the accents - that will be one thing I will miss for sure! I have learned about traditional English breakfasts and also had a "cream tea," which is a tea served with a scone heaped with clotted cream and jam - which is delicious even as you feel it clogging your arteries!

I've also been on a few short hikes through the fields and woods, enjoying the beautiful of the Quantocks and remembering what it feels like to hike up hills! One of my new favorite joys in life I think is walking up a hard hill and then sitting down to eat an apple. There is nothing like biting into a crisp apple after a hike! I also had a nice walk around some adorable little houses near Nether Stowey (a nearby town with a few pubs and a library). They all have these great names, like Westlea, or Broomsquires Cottage. I was also really struck by the amount of open farm land you can see from the top of any hill. It just stretches on and on and on in these rolling hills, marked out in grids with bright green grass. There are adorable farm animals every where; baby sheep, and powerful horses, and lazy-looking cows. One day, we even got to walk along the coast and see the Bristol Channel!

View from our walk on the coast!

These next few are from my walks in the fields and woods:

Okay, have you EVER seen anything this cute???

My favorite animal encounter happened on my very first day. I was walking to Nether Stowey to use the internet and the first thing I had to do was turn off the road onto the public footpath which leads through some fields and is a shortcut to the village. I climb over a stile and start walking between a stone wall and a hedge and immediately stop short, because at the end of the passage, where the path opens onto a field, stood an ENORMOUS horse, completely blocking my way. Now, I am not terrified of horses or anything, but I kind of needed to get by and had no idea what horse speak for "Excuse me, could you please step to the side?" might possibly be. I tentatively edged up to the horse, who could clearly care less that I was getting up in his grill and gingerly patted his nose a bit. He rolled his eyes over to look at me, but didn't budge. I glanced around, but I was definitely boxed in. After a few more nervous pats, I sort of ducked under his head and pranced away. Again, he didn't bat an eyelash and obviously didn't mind my passing by. Triumphant at my first real brush with the farm life, I marched off toward town.

Here he is, in all his glory!

That was 13 days ago. Today is my very last day here in Over Stowey, and it is already quickly coming to a close. I am so lucky to have spent the last few weeks in such a lovely place, learning about B&Bs, wandering through farm land, eating good food, and meeting nice people. But I have definitely been weighed down a bit by my growing readiness to head on back home. The past few weeks have been really hard, underneath all the beautiful parts of being here. I have been more homesick and lonely than ever, and it feel so good to finally be going home. I have had an amazing adventure, but all of the new experiences, new people, new challenges, new foods are finally starting to catch up with me a bit. On the one hand, I am exhilirated to have made it through such a rewarding, life-changing journey, but I am also just plain tired! I am now ready to go home, both in my body and in my mind. My body needs a good long rest, and my mind needs to be surrounded with the familiar once more, to see the people and places I love. When I wake up tomorrow and head to the train station, and then to the airport, I will not have a single regret about leaving, because I know I have had a full and complete experience. I have learned a lot from every single place I have been, and these last two weeks have really brought my journey to the perfect close.

So, my friends, I will post one last entry when I get home, so those of you who aren't in Ithaca will know I have officially arrived safely, and to have a little closure on this adventure blog of mine! For those of you who are in Ithaca, rest assured that I will be recounting all of the stories you have already read here a million times again when I get home :) See you soon!!!

Love, Katie

Bonjour mes amis!

Hey there!

It has been a while - much too long - since I have posted an update. I haven't had email access until now, and a lot has happened since I left Australia! I will do my best to condense and not make this post TOO long :)

So I said goodbye to all my Pacific Discovery mates, which was a very sad parting, and hopped on the plane to begin my next adventure. I had an easy flight and slept most of the way. I had a short layover in Bangkok, and was at Charles DeGaulle Airport before I knew it. But on the flight from Bangkok, people around me had started speaking French. At this moment, I started to realized...'Oh no...I don't really speak French.' Of course I had my few years of high school French, but it was all fuzzy and wedged away in some unused part of my brain.

I had to wait for 6 hours in the CDG Airport for my train, and started to go a little stir crazy. It sort of hit me that I was all alone, which was so strange after months of constant company. I tried to order a sandwich, but I had no idea what I was ordering and of course it turned out to be some gross thing. I was very happy to finally get on the trains, although nervous the entire train ride since I wasn't 100% sure I was on the right train.

When my train pulled into Thiviers station, it was dark and I was so relieved. My host, Leni, met me at the train station and we drove 30 minutes to her farm. She lives in a tiny village called Anlhiac, in the department of Dordogne. In rural France, there are little clusters of houses within each village with names, and ours was Le Bourmier. Leni (who is actually British) and her adult daughter, who was there for the weekend, took me to a little restaurant down the street from their house, where I somehow managed to feed myself, before dropping my exhausted body into bed, after a solid 40 hours of traveling.

Here are some pictures of where I was staying:

The front of the house:

The view from the back of the house!!

This is Le Bourmier, one of the little group of houses in Anlhiac

The beautiful kitchen!

The even more beautiful floor! Hard to sweep though...

I had one full day with Leni and her daughter, during which we met a few friends, and I started to learn my way around the house. The house is a beautifully restored farm house from the 1700s, and I was staying in the 'barn', which was just as beautiful as the house. Then, Leni and her daughter left for the weekend to celebrate Leni's birthday in Paris. I was home alone with the cats for the weekend. I was dreading three empty days just as I was feeling so homesick and like I would never get through the last weeks of my trip. Fortunately, one of Leni's friends, an American woman named Sophie, took me under her wing and kept me company. We had teas and lunches and walks and long talks. It was great to have the company and it really turned around my attitude for the rest of my trip. Also I watched all of the Star Wars movie, which was also a good cure for homesickness :)

When Leni got back, we started to fall into a regular schedule. We got up for breakfast at 8, and had oatmeal and toast. Now, I don't remember if I have mentioned this, but I HATE oatmeal. It makes me gag and I was miserable at the thought of eating it everyday. But magically, a few days in, it suddenly didn't taste SO very bad. The next day, I even wished I had a few more bites. And now I love it. That was just the beginning of my rapidly expanding taste buds...

I had the mornings free most of the time, as Leni is a writer and uses her mornings to write, and read, and occasionally run errands. We had a cooked meal for lunch nearly every day, and then a 'siesta' as Leni called it. One thing that I noticed is how much time the French take for their lunch breaks. Shops are closed from 12-2pm for employee lunches, and we always had these big leisurely meals and a rest. Then we got into our work clothes and headed out to the garden!

Our project for the duration of my stay was building a living willow bench out on the terrace. We cut down cherry trees to make posts, and planted willow cuttings in between. Then we wove thin cherry branches and willow branches alternatingly around the posts to create the bench. We didn't get to finish before we left, but it was really starting to come together. It was a really fun project to have - much better than if we had just been weeding the whole time! Leni was doing this bench as a sort of experiment, and it was fun to help figure out what the heck we were doing!

Here is the photographic journey of our progress:

First, we weeded and put down newspaper to block out any new weeds:

Then, we cut posts and stuck them into holes we made with an auger:
Next, we started to weave - first cherry, and then a row of willow.
This was as far as we made it on my last day! It finally started to look like a nice weave:

Occasionally we did other tasks, like one day when I peeled apples for 5 hours. It was pretty boring and stained my hands for days, but we did make this AMAZING apple cake that I will certainly be replecating back home! Another day we had a major house cleaning blitz, and occasionally we did regular garden tasks like weeding and watering. I helped a lot with the cooking and washing up, and learned a lot about vegetables and different ways of cooking things, which was fun. We had a few baking projects as well, which was fun. Leni makes homemade bread every few days, which was delicious.

Another highlight was meeting all the different characters in Leni's life. She has a mix of British and French friends, so I was never sure if I was going to get spoken at in rapid French, or friendly English. But I made my way through conversations and found a few opportunities to practice my slowly surfacing French. I heard many stories about the conflicts between the many ex-pats and the native villagers. I also loved to hear all of the British accents. They really used all those funny words/phrases, for example: 'nutter,' 'drive me crackers', 'off the plot' (i.e. crazy), 'bloomin', 'popped round for tea' etc.

It was just an interesting experience, looking back. I was in a totally different environment from anything I had been in before. I drank about 5 cups of tea a day, and ate only homebaked bread with real butter. I fell into the routine of things pretty easily after my first few days of extreme homesickness, although I could never imagine myself living on a farm all the time. I took some beautiful walks and marvelled at the old stone houses and chickens and donkeys roaming in the fields. Occasionally I went with Leni into the little nearby towns when she went on errands and got to explore around a little bit. I saw castles and Roman ruins and little French boulangeries. It always gave me a thrill to find my way to a bakery and order a pain au chocolate (chocolate croissant) and munch as I walked.

One of the Roman ruins I saw in Perigueux:

One of the biggest changes I noticed in myself had to do with food. Now for any of you who know me, I am not a big vegetable eater. And I am not really one to try new foods. Just about every single thing I ate at Leni's house contained vegetables and something new. I had vegetables I had never even heard of! I tried buckwheat pie and ginger and beets and figs and pumpkin soup and a leafy green called rocket, another called lovage, spinach.... the list goes on and on. And you know what? I liked almost everything I tried, especially when it was in a soup. The first few days I was miserable, too overwhelmed by the new sensations flooding my tastebuds - Leni cookes with very unique cominations of spices and vegetables. But within a few days, I realized I wasn't gagging, I was asking for seconds. There are a few things I still can say I don't like with certainty - beets, stinky cheese, ginger...

But the crowning moment of trying new food was when I went to a dinner at the local restaurant with Leni and a group of locals. The dinner was part of an effort in the Slow Food movement, which tries to combat the growth of fast food and teach people to appreciate local, homecooked food. Leni organizes these monthly dinners, and they are also supposed to be a way to bring ex-pats together with the French villagers for a night of the French language and culture. Now by some fluke, this dinner had low attendance, and happened to be all Brits, so we ended up speaking English. But the main course was served, which we had heard was lamb, but was in these little round half-spheres. A portly British man in a bow tie asked the waiter what it was, and the answer was something that sounded like 'favorit', which was quickly translated into sweet meat, i.e. lamb testicles. Well, I thought, I've made it this far, and dug in. I have to say, I truly would have enjoyed in more without the mental image. It wasn't bad, but I didn't ask for seconds.

I started the week in total misery, thinking the time would never pass, desperately wanting to be home. But I soon found myself finding pockets of enjoyment, in a simple slice of yummy bread and butter (okay, okay, more like 4 slices), in the sun spilling across acres of green farm land, in kind strangers taking the time to make conversation and invite me to their home. I made myself find exciting things to look forward to in each day, whether it was spending an evening reading Little Women by the fire that I had made, or seeing the beautiful willow bench coming together under my fingers. By the time two weeks had passed, I realized I hadn't suffered all that much. In fact, I had had quite a wonderful time, marked only by intermittent hours of sadness and homesickness. However, I was ready to go, on the chilly Thursday morning when Leni drove me to the train station in the still-dark morning. Two weeks was the perfect amount of time for me to experience this French country side, and to learn from this woman who took me into her home and taught me about her life.

Now, I am on the last leg of my journey, on a B&B in the south of England. I have arrived here safely and again, I am eager to be working my way towards home. But for today, I will leave this post as it is and give the full details of my British voyage for next time. I miss you all and can't wait to retell you every single story in person!

xoxo, Katie

P.S. Here are a few more photos from my time in France:

My farm-girl hands!

View from one of my walks:

A little visitor we had one day...

Sophie and Stephen: Leni's American friends who kept me company when I was home alone! They are much cheerier than they look here, I promise!

I took a walk on a gray day, but ended up getting this beautiful photo:

A sad, slow donkey in a nearby field:Our afternoon tea, taken on the terrace as we worked on the willow bench!

Me and Leni!

Is that all she wrote?

Hey everyone!

I am writing from the Sydney YHA hostel, just hours away from my plane flight out of Australia. I just wanted to put up a quick post before I left, to sort of close off this chapter of my adventure. I will most likely not be able to post any more entries for the next 2-4 weeks, maybe not even until I get home! So be ready for some massive updates when I DO get a chance to post :)

And on that note, I thought I should post some Sydney pictures, and a few from surf camp!!

Beautiful Sydney :)

View of Sydney from the back of the Manly Ferry!

Me+Sydney=<3

Sydney Opera House!

Huge pelicans at surf camp!

One of the beautiful beaches we surfed on!

Some of the guys catching a wave!

Audra paddling out through the surf

Margaret riding a wave :)

Unloading the boards...

not the most fun part...

And for now, that's all she wrote! But she'll be back in a while, with a fresh new adventure to share :)

Love, Katie

Everybody's gone surfin'......

So here's the verdict. I am not moving to Hawaii and going pro surfer any day soon. Or ever. However, I actually don't suck QUITE as bad as I thought I would. Despite numerous wipe outs and blows to the head with my surf board, I actually can say that I have surfed a good handful of waves here down under.

So basically we drove down the coast from Byron Bay on Wednesday to our Surf Camp at Crescent Head. The company is called Surfaris, and runs a year-round camp that includes room and board and surf lessons each week to different groups. We arrived and dumped our stuff in the dorms, had a quick snack and a tour of the buildings, and headed right out to the surf. Our surf instructor for the first two days was quite the character. Whereas we had been expecting some dreamy buff Aussie surfer dudes, Plenko, our instructor, was a big beefy guy with a smartass attitude and quite a potty mouth. But he promised he would have us standing on our boards within the afternoon, and he was true to his word!

But first we had to practice on the sand. We drilled "popping up," or coming to the standing position once we had caught the wave. It seemed so easy on dry land.... But not so much in the water. First, he had us each go in turns and he would help us stand on the board in the water and then sort of push us along the wave. That seemed okay. Then we had to do it on our own boards, and it started to get a bit tougher. Most of all, it was tiring to continuously paddle back out through the waves! We all made a bit of progress and were completely tuckered out by sunset, when we headed back to camp for dinner.

There was a big group of people that had been there since Sunday, and we spent the next few days eating and surfing with them. We met people from Germany, Sweden, Iceland, France and even the States. Any moment you could be speaking English and then turn to hear three different languages going on around you. It was cool to spend some time with other people after just out little ragtag group for so long.

We spent the next three days surfing around at different beaches, each with their own character. I definitely liked some better than others, depending on the tide and time of day. We got up each day bright and early, and had breakfast and a half hour drive to the beach. Then we surfed from about 7:30 until we were completely tuckered out, and ate lunch and passed out until about 2 or 3, when we would jump back in the ocean for an afternoon surf.

The way it works is this. You paddle out into the surf, trying to maneuver this huge board through crashing waves. Then you wait and wait for the perfect wave (which I'm never sure I can recognize) and then turn around and paddle as hard as you can. As soon as you feel that you have caught the wave, you hop your feet up onto the board and hope you don't fall off. I realized on the second day that I ride "goofy", meaning with my left foot in front instead of my right. I had tried to do it the regular way on the first day, and it felt really awkward. Then I remembered that when I learned to snowboard, I rode the other way and as soon as I switched I started to get the hang of it. That's not to say I didn't have a LOT of wipe outs. In fact, I would say I rode one wave for every 10 that I fell off. But the times I did manage to stand, and actually ride for a bit, felt so awesome. I was really frustrated for the first few days, because I would have it, then lose it, etc. etc.., but on the last two days I could stand up on most of the waves I caught. The trouble then was just catching the waves, i.e. paddling hard enough on just the right wave.

The Surfaris camp had some fun activities at night too. The first night there was a live band (not so great, but a fun time anyways), and we had a bonfire the second night. The third night we had a ping pong tournament (I was out in the first round...) and the last night we drove in to town for a little bit. But each night I tried to get to bed by 10 or so, because we had to wake up at 6am to hit the surf! It was really just a cool, relaxing place to spend a few days, and even though I'm not sure how often I will be surfing again, I really had fun!

Sorry if this blog post seems a little unfocused. We just arrived in Sydney, after morning of surfing and a long afternoon of driving. I am freaking out a little that I have two more nights to sleep in this country. Then I leave all my trip mates and set off by myself to Europe to work on farms for 4 weeks. I am really nervous for that, to be by myself. At first I was worried that it would be hard to constantly be around people on this trip, but now I am worried about being lonely without them! It is also hard to hear them talk about going home to see their families and friends and dogs and cats, and I have over a month to wait before I can see mine. But I am still really excited for whatever lies ahead in the next 4 weeks, and I think this trip has prepared me for the solo travel.

I will try to post some surfing pictures tonight or tomorrow, but I am going to post this as is in case I don't get a chance. We are going to have a busy time here in Sydney, saying goodbye and exploring the city. I am not sure what my internet situation will be once I leave Australia, so I'm not sure when I will post again! Soon, I hope.

xoxo, Katie

Australia: Too hot to handle?

Hey hey!

Here I am, in Oz! Even though this land of Oz doesn't have the Emerald City or the Tin Man, my adventures here have already started! We set out on our backpacking trip the day after we flew in from Brisbane and all I can say is,

"Toto, I've a feeling we aren't in Kansas anymore."

...Meaning that Australia and New Zealand are very different, much more so than I expected!

NZ/Oz Difference #1: the heat. As we stepped off the plane at about 8am in Brisbane last Tuesday morning, we were slammed with an unwavering, sticky heat that immediately called for a change into some breezier clothes (we had to wear all our heaviest clothes and hiking boots on the plane to make our bags lighter). After a few weeks of chilly-ish, rainy South Island weather in NZ, it felt good to see some solid sun.

Finally arrived!

At Brizzy International!

We headed into the city of Brisbane for some lunch, a ride on a ferris wheel overlooking the water and the city, and a peek into a little museum.

View from the top of the ferris wheel:

By the time we met back at the car, we were all very eager to get back into some A/C...just walking around the city had us sweating! We drove two hours to our hostel in Noosa, a cute little beach town on the east coast. We had a little apartment to ourselves, and the hostel was kind of funky and beachy; much different than the typical YHA chain hostels we had stayed at for much of our NZ travels.

Everything was bright and beachy - with hammocks and chairs for naps!

We immediately threw on our togs (swim suits) and got our beachy bums down to the ocean! It was awesome to jump and play in the waves - and I wasn't even afraid of jelly fish or all the other horrible creatures I have heard about. NZ/Oz Difference #2: water temperature. No matter how warm it was in NZ (and we had some pretty beautiful days), the water was always just a little chilly. But at Noosa, we might as well have been in a (salty) bathtub. I have never been in an ocean that is so warm! After the waves tired us out we had a little sunbathing time before heading back to the hostel to clean up for dinner.

We walked into town to get some dinner, and then to take a 2 hour walk on a track that ran through some woodsy areas and then around the coast and back to the beach by our hostel. NZ/Oz Difference #3: (sometimes scary and dangerous) animal life EVERYWHERE. We had plenty of interaction with birds and bugs in NZ, but there was just a different feeling in Australia. Our hostel ceiling hosted a tiny lizard and cockroaches crawled on the floor. The woods were buzzing with life in a way NZ never had. On our walk, we encountered plenty of toads and an amazing bird that was some type of owel. As we walked, the forest floor around us was always skittering with life. After hearing so many stories about poisonous spiders and snakes in Australia, I tried to keep a good eye out... In NZ, there isn't much that can hurt you, besides bees and wasps.

Scott picked this toad up, it peed ALL over him, and then he put it down the back of Jordan's shirt. :)

Cool owlish type bird that we saw on our walk!

NZ/Oz Difference #4: Time change. I hadn't even thought about this, but we were 3 hours different once we got to Queensland (Australian state). On this trip, our waking hours are often dictated by the sun, and we were used to the sun setting around 8:30 or 9pm. Now, as we walked, the sun was setting (which meant a beautiful sunset on the beach), and we immediately felt like we should be in bed!

Beautiful Australian beachy sunset :)

During our walk, we strayed from the path to walk on the beach, and ended up getting a little lost in the dark and bashing through some brush to find our beach front. We had planned on a nice leisurely stroll, but with us, it always has to be an adventure... always has to include some bush bashing!

Our walk marked the first step in which my feet decided to give up on me. As many of you may know, I have problems with my arches, and for some reason, they had been hurting really badly for the past few days, and this walk ended up being pretty darn painful. I was wearing sneakers and had taped up my arches with sports tape, but I was limping down the beach by the time the walk was over!

The next step in the decline of my feet came when we got back to the hostel and I collapsed in a chair, only to peel off my sports tape and realize that I was most certainly allergic to the adhesive in the tape (which has happened to me in the past). Precisely along where my tape had touched my foot was a bumpy, swollen rash that proceeded to itch worse than any sandfly bite I ever had, through the entire night and up until the moment I am writing the post.

But aside from the beginning of my feet troubles, I loved Noosa. It was such a beautiful beachy town, and it felt like exactly how I imagined Australia: beautiful beaches, sun, etc. We headed out the next morning for an even more in depth look into the true Australia: a 3-day backpacking trip on Fraser Island. First though, we stopped at this amazing farmer's market where I ate massive amounts of food and looked at all the local crafts :)

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and seems to be a popular place for tour buses and backpackers to explore while visiting the east coast. NZ/Oz Difference # 5: Sandflies vs. mosquitoes. As soon as we arrived at the barge landing, we were attacked by mosquitoes that plagued us almost worse than the sandflies had! They continued to attack us the entire rest of the trip anytime we stood still for more than 30 seconds. Somehow I must have had super good bug spray though because I didn't really get many bites... but everyone else looked like they had chicken pox on their legs! At the landing, we hopped aboard a barge for a 30 minute trip over to the island, where we were met by a 4-wheel-drive taxi that drove us across the island to our first campsite. Since the island only has sand roads, it was a VERY bumpy ride!

Piper and Margaret on the barge!

Our first campsite, Dilli Village, is home to a learning and research center of the University of the Sunshine Coast, so it had nice bathrooms, outdoor cooking areas, and showers. We pitched our tents and then headed to a little lake right next to our campsite to cool down. The water in the lake was red, which was a weird experience to swim in. On the surface, the water looked pretty normal. Then, when you looked down at your stomach, it was an orangey yellow color. By the time you looked down to your legs, they looked a deep blood red. Apparently the water is dyed from leaves that fall in it, but I had never seen anything like it!

You can't really see the red water here, but this was our first little swimming hole at Dilli Village!

We had a pretty quiet night at Dilli Village, and got to bed early since we were still on NZ time. The next morning, we packed everything up into our backpacks and headed out for our first day of hiking. I felt like this trip should have been a breeze, since we had a trail and the hills were much less steep than on our Waitomo trip in NZ. But I forgot about the heat. Within 5 minutes, I was completely soaked through with sweat and already feeling dehydrated. Also, our packs felt a lot heavier, which made even the smaller hills pretty tough. But one difference I noticed was in my ability to keep on trucking along. Whereas I felt like I had to struggle on our last backpacking trip to keep to the front of the pack, I was leading way out in front for much of this 3 day trip. I found that when I was in front I could get myself in a rhythm and sometimes I wouldn't even realize that I had gotten far ahead!

These trees have the perfect name: Squiggly Gums. We saw a lot of them on our first day of hiking.

One downside to being in front: spider webs. We had only walked for maybe 20 minutes when I screeched to a halt, with my nose 5 inches away from a HUGE spindly spider that had made its web across the entire path. We all freaked out a little, took pictures, etc. Scott told us that the spider was indeed poisonous, but that it wouldn't bite us unless extremely provoked. Still, it gave me the heebie-jeebies a little bit. I walked with a stick in front of me for a while, but I had similar encounters at least 4 more times! Most of the spiders we saw were yellowish on their bodies with long black legs, but we did see this one big hairy one that just looked so deadly...

We also saw a ton of lizards. They ranged in size from little cute 3cm guys to big 2 foot long ones that were nearly camoflouaged on trees. Check this one out:

About an hour and a half in, we got to this "sand lookout" and decided to check it out. We dropped off our packs and started walking up this nearly vertical pitch of sand. It was hilarious, especially since I was one of the last to come up: it was impossible to get up this sand! Everyone was basically running in place up this hill, while the sand avalanched down towards those of us in the back. It was a workout for the calves, that's for sure!

But boy was it worth it when we reached the top. Suddenly we were in an entirely new world, totally disconnected from the woods we had been walking through. We were in a desert of sand, with huge dunes stretching out in front of us. We kicked off our shoes and ran across the sand and jumped off the top of one of the dunes and slid down the side, getting totally saturated with sand. I just felt so tiny amidst these thousands and thousands and thousands of grains of sand.

This would probably be a good time to mention the third part in The Decline of Katie's Feet. I was starting to get these big blisters on my pinky toes which were making it painful to walk. It was weird, since I had been wearing these hiking books the whole trip, with no problems at all. On the plus side, my arches were feeling a bit better with the added support of the boots. But these blisters were pretty big and growing...

Anyways, we continued on for another hour or so until we reached Lake Boomanjin, where we stopped for lunch. Again, the water was that weird red color and was as warm as a bathtub. Since we were parched and sweaty and sandy beyond belief, we had an awesome swim before hunkering down to lunch. We weren't on a tight schedule, so we took a nice long break for swimming and hanging out by the water. Not a bad way to hike, eh? Walk a little, swim a little, eat a little...

Margaret relaxing in the red water!

And then we started hiking again. Again, we were suddenly in desert land as we walked around Lake Boomanjin before getting back into the woods track. For about 30 minutes, we hiked across sand in the blazing sun. The red water was streaking across the sand in places, and this spikey grass stuck up all around.



Walking across sand is hard work, even without the blazing sun. When we finally reached the edge of the woods again, we collapsed and had another little break before continuing on. We hiked for about 2 more hours before reaching our campsite at Lake Benaroon. This campsite was much more minimal than Dilli Village: just sites to pitch tents and a compost toilet. We did have to store all our food in these metal bins to guard against dingoes, which are like wild Australian dogs that can get pretty vicious sometimes when food gets involved.

To escape the mosquitoes, we jumped in the lake (are you sensing a theme to this trip?) and stayed in until it was time to cook dinner. We had to spend all our time at the campsite wearing long clothes to guard from the bugs, which was kind of hard in the hot weather. I didn't even use my sleeping bag at night, it was so hot, but I had to sit around the camp stove in my long underwear! After dinner, we went back down the the water for a beautiful night swim. The moon lit up the whole lake and we could see little fish swimming around that would nibble at us a little bit. It was a great way to cool down after a hot day of hiking and before a hot night in our tents.

At this campsite, there were no water taps and we were worried that the lake water might not be clean (especially after we had been swimming in it with sunscreen, bugspray and sweat...) so we had to boil all our drinking water. Which takes a long time, for 8 people. We had to boil enough water to drink that night (and we were parched from our walk), and enough to last us until lunch the next day. It took so long to cool, we ended up drinking hot water with dinner, which was pretty gross. I could tell I was dehydrated because my head was throbbing when I touched it down on my pillow that night.

On Thursday, we had a theme day: Frock Day. Meaning we all had to hike in dresses. Which was mostly just hilarious for the boys:



But we quickly got too hot and took them off after getting some photos! We hiked for a couple of hours in the morning until we reached Central Station, where we suddenly were surrounded by lots of other people for the first time. They were mostly day trippers looking all fresh and clean off the tour bus. We were like little ragamuffins though... all dirty and drinking the clean water like we hadn't drank for days. I never realized how hard it is to hike when you are dehydrated! But I have never been so happy to drink clean, cool(ish) water!

We hiked on for another hour until we got to Basin Lake for our lunch break. The lakes were just getting more and more beautiful as we continued our journey and it felt awesome to jump in.

Audra, Margaret, and Bennett in Basin Lake!

Audra, Piper, and I even swam across to the other side (like we weren't getting enough exercise... haha). It was hard to swim because of my blisters... the water really stung where they had popped and then they filled with sand as soon as I got out of the water. I also got bitten by a red ant while sitting on the ground eating lunch, which feels like a bee sting and stings intensely for about 5 minutes, then goes away with no trace of a bite or anything. Again we were reminded how innocuous NZ was! On the other hand, this amazing little lizard decided to come over and hang out by us, eating ants and eventually discovering our open cans of tuna. He was super friendly and totally pigged out!

Scott, Jordan, and I were eager to get to our final campsite (I just wanted to get off my poor feet and clean up my blisters), so we left Basin Lake and seriously booked it to Lake McKenzie. We were on a mission. We managed to walk 4Km in just an hour, which was really good time when wearing packs!

Lake McKenzie was the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. The sand was really fine and bleached out and the water was crystal clear. For the first 10 feet or so, the water was this beautiful light blue, and then the lake bottom dropped off and the rest off the lake was a deep royal blue. Unfortunately, the beach was PACKED with tour bus crowds, so we didn't get to enjoy the solitude we had at the other lakes. But since they were day trippers, we ended up getting the beach to ourselves that night.

Beautiful Lake McKenzie!

After a long soak in the lake, Scott went to get some cookies for a snack. He grabbed an almost empty bag and another full bag and opened them on the beach. We were just getting out of the water to meet him, when a dingo slipped through the beach fence, ran over to Scott, grabbed the FULL bag of cookies and took off back into the woods. Scott and Bennett took off after it to try to rescue our snack, but they saw him devouring the whole bag and so they came back. Then, 5 minutes later, the little bugger had the nerve to trot back down onto the beach and getting a little sip of water after his sugary snack! Even though we were cookie-less for the rest of our trip, it was pretty exciting to see a dingo!

Okay, so clearly I didn't get a picture of the real life dingo. But I did take a picture of the stuffed one at the museum in Brisbane... so this is what it looked like! Only not so mean and a little furrier.

That night, we were out for another night swim when Scott came down to the water and said "Guess what's happened to Dom?" We all freaked out, guessing worse and worse things, from a dingo attack to broken limbs. Turns out he got stung by a SCORPION. Like I said before, we were definitely not in Kansas anymore. I don't even think I have ever seen a real life scorpion! We freaked out even more, asking Scott if it was poisonous, if Dom would be okay (the nearest place to call for help was Central Station, a solid 8Km away). Scott said he was 75% sure it wasn't too poisonous. That was NOT reassuring. But Dom seemed okay, and was asleep by the time we got back up to camp from our swim.

Getting ready for bed that night was much more terrifying. After the dingo and the scorpion... well we now REALLY knew that the woods were not always the safest place! Since Dom had gotten stung in the loo, we were nervous to go in there, especially since they were CRAWLING with cockroaches. It felt good to finally just get into our safe little tent and fall asleep.

Our final day of hiking was tough. Looking at our map, we had about 14Km to walk by 1:30 to catch the barge back to the mainland. I could hardly stand to put weight on my feet because my blisters were so bad (I was up to a total count of 5, each about the size of dimes). We set out and immediately had to walk on this really tough track of completely loose sand. Let's just say my normally positive attitude was not so great. I just was hot and tired and in pain and didn't think I could do it. Then we got to this sign that said we could either walk 13Km to Kingfisher Bay, or go the other way and only walk 8Km! We found a shortcut that was not yet on the map! This news worked magic on me. I took off, determined to get there in the shortest amount of time and never again have to walk on my stupid feet.

We did walk through some really amazing tall trees.

We did take a break at one point and noticed that Dom had fallen way behind. We were worried, so Audra and I went back to look for him. He was sitting on the path and said he just felt really weak and there was no way he could keep up. He said we should just go on, but we knew that it was probably something to do with the poison from his bite, so we made him drink some water, eat a snack and walk back to the group. We all took some weight from his pack and Scott strapped the pack to the top of his own and we set off for the final half hour of our walk. Maybe it was the added weight, maybe my endorphins had worn off during our snack break, but I have never felt so awful as in those last 30 minutes. We had to go up a HUGE hill, and I was in so much pain I felt like I was going to throw up. When we finally reached the top of the hill, we had to walk back down on concrete, which was actually worse than the sand because it didn't absorb any of the weight as we slapped our heavy boots down to the barge landing. When we got to the landing, we literally collapsed. Dom was doing much better, so we weren't worried about him being sick, thank goodness. But I don't think I have ever felt dirtier, sandier, sweatier, or in more pain. I peeled off my socks and my blisters had grown in size and number, and my legs were so dirty from the sand I looked like I was still wearing socks!

Soo dirty... also you can see a nice duct-taped blister and the outlines of my allergic reaction to sports tape...

Check out the pink toe. It practically grew another toe.

Because of our shortcut, we were two hours early for the barge. I don't know how we would have made it going the long way! Poor Scott must have been just dying under the weight of his own pack, already really heavy with the camp stove, and Dom's pack. At the barge landing though, we bought ice cream and cold Powerade and ate lunch, swam in the ocean, and napped. It felt so good to know we had completed our trip and had a few weeks of relaxing beach time ahead.

There were a ton of funny birds all around our picnic tables at the barge landing!

Bennett had mentioned to me while hiking how cool it was to start our trip in Australia by jumping right into the wild and really seeing the creatures and plant life. Most people start in cities and get to know a culture that way, but I think it was the perfect way for us to be introduced to Australia. Even though I sometimes my feet just felt like solid blocks of pain, and we were all dehydrated, and we had some scary encounters with wildlife, we got to see some really amazing nature, including these stunning lakes and sand dunes. In retrospect, especially now that my feet are healing, I think it was a really awesome trip! Australia is certainly hot, and full of little dangers, but I think we can all handle it just fine!

After arriving back on the mainland, we drove half an hour to a hostel in Hervey Bay (pronounced Harvey, don't ask me why!). It was a SUPER cute little hostel called The Friendly Hostel. We had a whole apartment to ourselves with comfy couches, a tv, a kitchen, the works. I didn't even leave the apartment the entire time we were there, just parked myself on the couch and drank a cold soda and wrote in my journal. We ordered pizza and watched a movie and just relished the simple comforts of the indoors. It was a little sad, though, to realize we had spent our last nights camping and our last days hiking together, for the rest of our lives.

On Sunday, it was Scott's birthday, so we had a little birthday breakfast pie for him and a card and sang Happy Birthday. Then we had to get in the car for a 6 hour drive to Byron Bay (not a fun thing for his birthday!) Along the way, we dropped off Dom in Brisbane (he was completely fine, by the way, after his sting). He was going to visit a friend there for a couple of days and catch up with us later. Then we made our way to our beautiful accomodation in Byron Bay. We had two beach cottages right on this beautiful beach all to ourselves.

Our picturesque accomodations:

We headed in to town to stock up for our surpise Mexican fiesta party we had planned for Scott. We set up this little scavenger hunt around the cottages and then had nachos and casadillas and margaritas. We decorated the apartment and made him a sombrero out of the plant life around our hostel. It was so much fun!

All those years of homemade halloween costumes came in handy for when we had to home make our sombrero, which are tough to come by in Australian beach towns for some reason...

On Monday morning, we got up early and drove to a different beach to go sea kayaking "with dolphins." Apparently there was one dolphin, but I was too busy puking over the side of my sea kayak to notice. I guess I haven't grown out of my sea sickness yet... as soon as our kayak got out to sea, rising and falling over these HUGE waves, I just started feeling totally sick. It was too bad because I think I really would have loved it if I hadn't felt so awful. I was partnered with Scott, so unfortunately he had to endure me little episode of sea sickness... Sorry Scott! But sickness aside, it was beautiful! We had to kayak right through all the crashing waves, and the water was crystal clear - even when we got way out to sea, we could see right down to the bottom! A few people said they saw one dolphin jump WAY out of the waves, but unfortunatley, it wasn't a good day for sea life and we didn't get to see much else. Riding the waves back in was really fun though, and Scott and I caught one that carried us all the way into the beach! The minute my feet touched the sand I felt completely better, and proceeded to eat some cookies :)

We spent the rest of the day lounging around and lying at the beach. It was one of those perfect days, in my book. The sun came out in patches, but it was just cloudy enough to lay out on the beach for a really long time, staying warm but not too hot. I already am getting a great tan, although I realized no one at home will get to see it after I am off in France and England for the tail end of their winter/beginning of spring. At night we cooked some mac and cheese and watched movies until we fell asleep.

Today is another loungy day. We slept in, and now we are in town for a bit. I did walk on the beach a bit and saw some scary sea life. NZ/Oz Difference #7: Jellyfish. Sooo scary.

This crab literally scuttled past me and paused just long enough for me to snap a pic before racing on its way. Weird!

This morning, the beach was covered in these blue bottle jellyfish, which is apparently the same thing as a Portuguese Man 'O War and reall poisionous, but these were pretty small. And Scott said we wouldn't die or anything if we got stung...

Another wonderfully colorful (i.e. terrifying) jellyfish that littered the beach this morning.

I plan to spend my afternoon reading and lying on the beach and trying to soak in every minute I have left here in Australia. We leave tomorrow for surf camp, and have 4 days of surfing before heading to Sydney and then flying out! I can't think about leaving yet though - I just want to live in the moment and enjoy every experience I have left!

This is where I plan to be in about... 2 hours.

Next time you hear from me, I will be an ace surfer babe!

Only not. I will probably have been eaten by a shark, stung by a box jellyfish, or just fallen on my face a whole lot of times while trying to stand up on my surfboard... some things never change :)

xoxo, Katie