Saturday 30th May: Return to mainland

And now to pick up my story again. Sorry it’s been a while, I’ve been fully engaged with life 🙂

Returning to mainland after two weeks off the grid calls for all the variations of celebration: (seriously good) pancakes for breakfast, a slap-up home cooked dinner courtesy of Jacqui, Chef Extraordinaire, followed by excessive consumption of alcohol in the name of young Billy’s birthday. (Who’s Billy? – Hana’s visiting younger brother.) I’m made up that Jacqui is taking a few days break off K’gari at the same time, not least so that I can spend a bit more time with this first class Geordie lass (who, in true Geordie form, is extremely dangerous to drink with and doesn’t take, “No, I haven’t finished this drink yet,” for an answer) but, prior to leaving K’gari, she encouraged me to ask Hana and Mark for permission to also stay at their Noosa apartment above Dropbear Adventures HQ, where Rachel (with the fantastic dreads) and Oli are also currently staying. It’s great to see Oli again and meet Rachel properly and, I can’t deny, have a cost-free secure base from which to plan my next moves.

Sunday 31st May and Monday 1st June: Agnes Water Part I

Another Greyhound journey on a full bus, sat up front with a view next to a petite English school teacher who passes my time with her tales of her trips to Japan with her karate school. It’s dark when we arrive in Agnes Water but, like in Byron Bay, there’s a hostel welcome committee for the new arrivals. For a change I’m part of the larger group and, as there are too many arrivals for the transport, our bags get the ride and we make our way by foot. As we walk our envoy lists off all the local activities we can get a discount for by quoting our hostel at a certain local travel agency that she also happens to work for: Scooteroo, surfing lessons, etc.- all the things I’m here for.

Final thoughts

London. Moscow. Ekaterinburg. Harbin. Beijing. Hong Kong. Sydney. Katoomba. Kenthurst. Port Stephens. Byron Bay. Alstonville. Murwillumbah. Eumundi. K’gari (Fraser Island). Agnes Waters. Airley Beach. Cairns. Cape Tribulation. Townsville. Magnetic Island. Nelia. Mount Isa. Alice Springs. Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Kings Canyon. The MacDonald Ranges. Alice Springs again. Mataranka. Katherine. Adelaide River. Darwin. Katherine again.  Darwin again. Katherine again, again. Kununurra. Purnululu National Park and the Bungle Bungles. Kununurra again. Tunnel Creek. Broome. Port Hedland. Karajini National Park. Tom Price. Exmouth. Cape Range National Park. Coral Bay. Carnarvon. Shell Beach. Denham. Monkey Mia. Francois Peron National Park. Kalbarri National Park. Geraldton. Grey Village. Desert Pinnacles. Yanchep National Park. Perth. Freemantle. Bunbury. Bussleton. Dunsborough. Cape Naturaliste. Margaret River. Diamond Tree. Tudor Forest. Sandy Beach. Giant Tingle Trees. Conspicuous Bay. Elephant Rocks. Albany. Fitzgerald National Park. Esperance. Cape LeGrand National Park. Hyden. Perth again. Ballingup. Aukland. Rotorua. Hobbiton, Matamata. Lake Taupo. Napier. Wellington. Nelson. Greymouth. Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki. Franz Joseph. Fox Glacier. Lake Wanaka. Queenstown. Arrowtown. Te Anau. Milford Sound. Invercargill. Bluff. Dunedin. Oamaru. Christchurch. Melbourne. Hobart. Buckland. Mayfield Beach. Swansea. Freycinet National Park. St Mary’s. St Helens. Humbug Point. The Gardens, Bay of Fires. Launceston. Mole Creek. Sheffield. Cradle Mountain. Brighton. Port Arthur. Melbourne again. Yarra Junction. Rocklyn. Phillip Island. Blempied. Melbourne again, again. Honolulu. North Shore. Honolulu again. Phoenix. Flagstaff. Tucson. Oro Valley. El Monte. Monrovia. Hollywood. San Louis Obispo. Carmel-by-the-Sea. Monterey. Larkspur, San Francisco. Vina. Redding. Mount Shasta. Weed. Happy Valley, Portland. Bellingham. Seattle. London.

Fraser Island (Part IV): Getting to know K’gari

It’s the lunch of a new Retreat group arriving and Jacqui appears beside me, “Do you want to go on the tour today?”. No-brainer: Yes! “Ok, quick, get your stuff together, be ready in 5 minutes.” As it happens, there is some confusion as to whether there is room in the cars for extras, so Nelly and I help finish cleaning up lunch and then take the UTE to catch up with the group.

Saturday 16th to Friday 29th May – Fraser Island (Part III): Close encounter

(If you’re having a sense of deja vu with this post, I apologise, I revisited the last one and separated this one away. So, go read the previous one for the ton of pictures I’ve added there!)

Whether by design or not, it works out that I work mostly with Nelly at Beachcamp Retreat and Cat works mostly with Will at the campsite, and Jacqui oversees us all; an arrangement which suits us all. Cat and I compare notes and observe that both are a different kind of demanding work and once used to working one it can be challenging to switch to the other. Not least because each one has its own rhythm, but also because of the adjustment to the change in amenities: running water versus managed water supply, ensuite bathrooms versus camping toilet and showers, beds versus two-person tents and sleeping bags. ‘Pristine’ at the campsite is quite different from ‘pristine’ at the retreat.

Saturday 16th to Friday 29th May – Fraser Island (Part II): Hard work and special adventures

I’m awake early to enough wander beyond the electric fence to the beach to catch the rising sun illuminating the underneath of today’s clouds over the crashing waves: beautiful. I’m a big believer in starting as I mean to go on (which in practice means I’m reasonable at starting and not always as good at ‘going on’) and decide I have time to improvise a sun salutation back at Beachcamp before meeting Jacqui and Olly for breakfast. It’s probably not an accurate sun salutation in terms of sequence of poses but it feels nice to just connect some movements together with my breath in a manner that I have learned at Krishna Village and have a sense of confidence in what I’m doing; thank you to my teachers at Krishna Village, that’s exactly what I hoped to take away from that experience.

Friday 15th May – Fraser Island (Part I): Hello Fraser!

It begins with an early start, there’s frost on the ground and Nick is planning to go for an early morning surf. “The ocean will be warmer than the air temperature”, he says. Still: brrrrrr! His plan is thwarted though because the car won’t start. On the plus side, I get to eat my egg sandwich Jodie has made for me. On the down side, I am the late arrival at Dropbear Adventures Headquarters in Noosa so it’s a quick, “Cheerio and thank you very much” to Jodie before sneaking in. I present to a petite Rachel with fantastic dreads after the long safety videos about driving on Fraser Island and pile my bags and myself into the trailer and beast of a car respectively.

Monday 4th to Friday 15th May – Eumundi (Part III): A little work and a little play

The WWOOFing agreement is that I work four hours a day, Monday to Friday. The guys before me started at 7:00am so were done by 11:00am, meaning they got their work done before the heat of the day and they had the rest of the day to themselves, but they also had a car to go exploring, which I do not. I’m accustomed to waking around 5:00am from Krishna Village, so I can’t see that being a problem for me and I have all the good intentions of keeping my morning yoga practice alive. However, without the demand to be up and present for a 5:15am class, I quickly lose the routine of very early rising and, ultimately, find that an 8:00-12:00 routine works better for me. I really like how clear Jodie is about working four hours a day and also that it is four hours a day. This means that I still I have time to do things that I want to do – read, write my blog, process photos and exercise. Each of my WWOOFing experiences have been wonderful in their unique ways, however, this freedom, the accommodation, the food!, definitely sets this one ‘up there’ as one of the best.

Pre-dawn full moon magic

Monday 4th to Friday 15th May – Eumundi (Part II): “You’re a farm girl now!”

Horses, chickens and working dogs, it’s not real farm life without wild animals too. I mention one evening that I’m surprised and sad that I haven’t seen many kangaroos on my trip yet. Nick is surprised because, according to him, there are often some in the field next door, the one my kitchenette window looks out on, in fact. No points to Jen out of 10 for observation, they are there frequently! My first proper kangaroo sighting! I can’t believe it has taken so long! I probably could have passed my stay and never noticed if Nick hadn’t told me where to look out for them.

Monday 4th to Friday 15th May – Eumundi (Part I): 5* WWOOFing

Why must I leave something at every place?! As I survey my baggage after I’ve been deposited at the bus stop I realise that I don’t have my hat. Oh, all the swear words! It’s not as though I go about leaving things that don’t matter too much either – a hat is pretty necessary in Australia! And I got this one that I like quite a lot for only $10! I’d put it on the hook on the wall by the door because I didn’t want to crush it into a bag and as I did a last sweeping look of the room, including under the beds and drawers etc., I missed looking up the wall to my left. It gets me musing on whether this is a cognitive (i.e. mental) capacity issue and that maybe the number of items I’m trying to keep track of individually is exceeding my cognitive capacity to actually keep track of them. I need to come up with a strategy…