THE BLOG
Travelling will make you homesick...
Sometimes you are lying in the cold of a damp tent, wide awake itching with bed-bugs (not confirmed but my god my sleeping bag is itchy) absolutely longing for your bed back home.
Travelling will make you homesick...
Southampton, England is my home. It's where I was born, where I went to school, made friends, went on holidays, experienced heartbreak, and moments of pure happiness. Its where I lead my life and its where my lovely family lived alongside me.
I now live in a totally different country, actualizing a totally different life, one I worked toward and dreamed of.
My surroundings change constantly, my mind is now filled with new images of sun-soaked beaches, breathtaking rainforests and wondrous animal life. Sounds quite pleasant right? Correct.
So you'd be surprised to know I have considered packing it all in and going home more than once.
Why? Because home is not just where my family is (I could murder for a mum hug) but its also where I felt comfortable, safe and created my own relaxed and predictable environment. There was consistency and ease.
I miss my bed, in my bedroom with its vaulted ceilings, and the cosy feeling I created in there. Tidy, clean, overly organized, that was how I liked my environment to be. Travelling is often anything but tidy, organized, or comfortable.
Sometimes you are lying in the cold of a damp tent, wide awake itching with bed-bugs (not confirmed but my god my sleeping bag is itchy) absolutely longing for your bed back home.
Now and then you get hit by a low mood, and feel challenged by your surroundings, and find yourself crying, wanting to just sit and talk with your family, have a cup of tea and revel in normality. Its the little things, the simplest of pleasures of home, that haunt you in the difficult moments.
You know that you will get to do them again one day, and slot back into routine, and you weigh up logically how much more you might appreciate even the monotony of regular life once you've had endless days of unpredictability.
But then a part of you also chastises your negativity and ungratefulness, how can you possibly dislike the beautiful and exciting life travel affords you?
Because its natural. Its natural to want to be comfortable, to want a good nights sleep, to crave a good meal, to miss the company of those who know you the best. It's human-nature to miss the nice parts of your previous life even if you actively chose to take a holiday from it.
But sometimes when you travel you get to experience the simple yet luxurious feel of home again, and create brief spaces that take you away from the ramshackle life on the road.
Today I am sat writing this in a villa that Taran and I get to live in for a fortnight, having the use of the pool, local beach, and being fed breakfast and dinner each day, for free (well for 4.5 hours work!).
Obviously your style of travel will no doubt influence how home-sick you get, and how often you are plagued by memories of all that was so beautiful about home that you didn't even think about at the time. But you will be thinking of home in a very positive, maybe overly rose-tinted light.
You will momentarily forget all the reasons that made you want to temporarily take leave of that life and that world, and so its important not to to languish in that homesick feeling, because you risk missing out on the very adventures you spent hours back then daydreaming of.
Travel might make you homesick, sometimes briefly, occasionally unexpectedly, but more often, not at all. But it is mostly a completely fair price of getting to see the world and embrace all it has to teach you.
I have grown and changed already, in 3 short months, and would not exchange any part of that growth to have been at home instead. Of course I wouldn't. I also wouldn't forego all the memories I am yet to make, all the beauty I am yet to witness, the people I am going to meet, the things I might possibly do....
So I say, feel the homesickness and do it anyway!
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended Reads:
A Taste of Urban Life: Our Favourite Major City Aussie So Far.
Brisbane was meant to be a two-three day stopover, because it would just be another concrete jungle right? Yes and No.
A Taste of Urban Life: Our Favourite Major City Aussie So Far.
Brisbane was meant to be a two-three day stopover, because it would just be another concrete jungle right? Yes and No.
Smaller than Sydney, more spread out than Melbourne and warmer than both, we felt relaxed and interested here, with the variety in stuff to see, from the fake beach, the upmarket South Bank, the shopping mecca of the CBD, and then the eclectic street markets of the west end neighbourhood.
To be fair to Sid and Mel, we gave Brissy a lot more time and attention, thanks to the awesome local residents we stayed with.
We first couch-surfed with a guy called Lam and his several friendly house mates. They had a big airy open house, with a projector in the garden where we played some games and chilled with some beers!
After a few days there we stayed nearer the CBD at the Aussie Way hostel; clean, quiet and refreshingly old-fashioned in its architecture, near a local cinema and shops, we went to see Mad Max (we liked) and bumped into a guy we met two months previously. Make sure you check out HotelsCombined for great accommodation choices in Brisbane.
It's crazy how we will just be walking through a shopping centre or down the street and will just happen upon someone we once knew along the backpacking trail. Its fun to see what directions these peoples experience takes, this guy was now looking for a job in the city and had gotten a girlfriend, separating from the other guys he'd been travelling with.
Plus it makes Australia feel a lot smaller than it is, although its more the case we are all just following the same well-trodden east-coast route!
Buts its nice to think that goodbye isn't always goodbye, being that the nature of friendships over here are that they are short-lived and hard to maintain on the road. But we also made a new friend in Brisbane who we will be coming back to visit without a doubt!
Rachel picked us up when we were hitch-hiking into town, 5 minutes after we had been dropped at the service station by my cousin from Surfers Paradise. She drove us into the outskirts, told us all about Brisbane, got us to the train station, and then we parted ways thinking we might see each other again, we might not, then a few days later we cheekily asked if she'd might let us couch-surf, which she'd never took part in before. But she took a chance on us, gave us a nicely made bed, and basically made her home, our home.
We had the best week thanks to this friendly and interesting person, who took us out and about, to experience the massive and awesome market at West End, made sure we could feed ourselves with some trips to the shops, treated us to dinner, hung out with us, and was just generally a brilliant host!
But it was eventually time to leave, to begin a work exchange at a beach resort in Bargara, some 4 hours north outside Bargara. We had truly bonded with Rach at this point, and it was actually quite a big wrench to say goodbye, back at a service station, the same scenario as when she originally saved the day for us. She made Brisbane much more memorable and we left happy, relaxed and even more content with how friendly and helpful everyone is towards us here in Australia.
On our final day with Rachel she drove us up the coast to Noosa Heads, along the way we stopped at a little mountain called Mt Coolum for a short 2 hour return hike to the top and back. It was an awesome little mountain with views over the town below and far down the coast! But then the weather started to turn and we watched as a massive rain cloud came along the coast and towards the mountain.. Then we ran for cover under the few small trees we could find as it started to pour down on top of us!
Next up we had the task of reaching Bundaberg, thinking we wouldn't likely reach it that day, we spent two hours on a curb edge, clouds rolling overhead threatening to spill at any second, our brows furrowed in boredom.
Amazingly, moments before we considered putting our bags back on our backs, and stomping off down the road-side, in the vain attempt at reaching the next town, a young couple pulled up in a ute. They were going to Bundaberg too! And it turned out they had just returned from 16 months travelling Europe and Canada!
That's another beauty associated with the community of international travelling, seeing how the more people become part of it, the more empathy and altruism develops, meaning all travellers have a bigger pool of helpful and open-minded people to be looked after by.
Getting us all the way to a camp-site in Bargara, as well as stopping via the supermarket, they made our potentially crap Sunday so much better than we imagined it would be!
Now we begin a two week programme of help exchange, where we live in at a beach resort, provide 4.5 hours per day in return for our bed and meals. This isn't the first time we've done work for accommodation but it already seems more attractive a prospect than what we did back in Byron (toilets and maintenance for the cost of pitching our tent).
Wish us luck!
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
Travel Blogging is Hard
If we aren't tired from a day of exploring, we're relaxing in the hostel, combining chores, cooking, socializing and skype-ing our families. We are in a constant battle with that beautiful beast called the Internet, as most of the time here its crap, due to the amount of people trying to use it.
Travel Blogging is Hard
Travel can be hard. Blogging is sometimes hard. The result of these two activities being combined is, you guessed it, hard.
I have a new found respect for all the travel blogger's who seem to have a constant but authentic presence, across social media, but also on their websites, producing great content regularly.
Because bloody hell, how do you manage it?
If we aren't tired from a day of exploring, we're relaxing in the hostel, combining chores, cooking, socializing and skype-ing our families. We are in a constant battle with that beautiful beast called the Internet, as most of the time here its crap, due to the amount of people trying to use it. And anyway, when you do find time to blog, hostels can be loud and uncomfortable places, sometimes not conducive to blogging at all.
Where, amongst all of this, is the time and space to be creative?
And I don't mean just shoehorning in brief moments in which to keep up with the blogging world. Nobody wants to read a hastily written diary blog post, and I don't want to write it! I used to spend hours in England compiling a blog idea and meticulously producing it, because I had the time and the right environment in which to do so.
Here, well, you need to be enjoying and exploring your surroundings to obviously then have stuff to report that people will find interesting. So I suppose the issue is time. We are suddenly abundant with free time, yet our lives are also busier, and more varied. Which is great. But where does blogging fit in with this?
I am writing this post on the laptop, lounging on our blow-up camp bed, whilst Taran organizes his backpack. Neither of us had to work today, we had a long-drawn out breakfast with some friends, and soon we will be off to buy cheese; its been a particularly exciting day. And I have a head-cold that has made me want to sleep constantly, but I found a brief hour where I felt like I wanted to punch out some posts, so here I am doing it, and it feels good.
I suppose that's why Travel blogging is hard, because it's all a big balancing act; fitting in actual living, the fun, as well as the boring stuff and still having the mental energy to blog.
But we could give it up tomorrow, if we wanted to. Yet we don't and we won't, because we love it. We love being part of this friendly, vibrant and passionate world where fascinating stories and beautiful photography meets personal journeys of adventure.
We want to read about others experiences and we want to inspire people with our own, and document our memories, for the distant future where we will want to re-live this phase of our life.
So whilst it remains difficult, it's only because we actually care; care enough to find the time to write amongst illness and tiredness and the immediate need to for cheese.
And maybe in time it will get easier, and we will find ourselves with better internet, a more relaxed setting and exciting things will be happening which feed our fervour for sharing our stories.
Who knows, that's the unpredictability of travel, but blogging will always be a safe haven of creativity that we will find our way back to no matter where we end up.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended Reads:
Leaving Byron Bay: Surfers To Brisbane
Off to Brisbane via Surfers Paradise we went. Hitch-hiking our way out of town, we spent a good hour, the warmest of the day, holding our weary arms out. We instinctively knew it would only be a matter of time, but that doesn't stop you sweating in the midday sun.
Leaving Byron Bay: Surfers To Brisbane
The time finally came for us to leave Byron Bay. We were doing what many had not yet managed, breaking away from the clutches of the beautiful beaches, laid-back vibe and it's small-town charm.
We had to keep moving on up North, in the quest for farm work, and to keep with our desire to see new things and experience different sights. The people living in Byron seemed in a permanent ground-hog day, albeit a pleasant one, entrenched in routine, one which was no longer working for us.
Off to Brisbane via Surfers Paradise we went. Hitch-hiking our way out of town, we spent a good hour, the warmest of the day, holding our weary arms out. We instinctively knew it would only be a matter of time, but that doesn't stop you sweating in the midday sun.
Finally a big 4-by-4 pulled up, full to the brim with passengers and baggage. Surely we wouldn't fit too?
But we squeezed ourselves in, to be greeted with three young guys with varied accents, telling us of how they had just acquired a ton of free bread from some supermarket bins. We envy their freegan ways! We haven't yet got to dumpster-dive, but it's on our to-do list!
An Irish man, a Canadian, an American, and us, plus a whole load of rescued bread, on our way along the breezy highway.
We got to know them a little bit, sharing our tales of past hitching successes and even got onto to discussing what we'd want to be if we were famous. I said I'd want to be something people respected, as opposed to someone who was endlessly chased by the paparazzi, he who asked the question wanted to be a comedian. But the funniest thing we found was how the Irish guy was taking the term nomad to the extreme, with nothing but 20-cents to his name!
Dropped on the dusty side of a busy roundabout, we had a little way to go before reaching Surfer's.
Waddling along a dual carriageway for 10 minutes, we then saw a car pull over, and beckon us over. A young guy introduced himself as Sascha,who took pity on our tired, hunched frames and he loaded our things into his little vehicle. He didn't just drive in some of the way though, he took us on a tour of Surfers, then dropping us at our hostel.
Down Under Hostel on Appel street would be our first proper bed in a month, and it was so welcome! Free wifi, imac's, laundry and a modern hostel, made this a really luxurious break from tent-life.
We explored the beach and the local shopping area, marvelling at the sky-line dotted with tall glinting structures, right next to a beautiful beach.
Walking to a local shopping centre the next day, Sascha got hold of us again, and took us even further afield to his home area of Currumbin, stopping at Burleigh Heads, an awesome place to see the imposing glamour of the Surfers coast-line.
Taking us around until sunset then off to view an amazing panorama of the whole coast-line after dark, he went above and beyond to make us feel welcome, and wanted us to witness the best and most beautiful parts of his home-town, meaning we got to see more than what many just passing through will ever see.
The next night was a really special one for me.
I got to meet family who I had only ever seen in photos or on facebook. A night of chatting about anything and everything, the odd tear, some excited little boys and really kind, generous people, it was so worth the visit to this affluent (sometimes described as tacky) place.
With some help from my new-found family, we began our next step the following morning, of heading to Brisbane, which was supposed to be a short stay... We got our hitch-hike within 10 minutes, from a local Brisbanite Rachel, who helped us get to the city (and is currently hosting us in her home). Yet more super friendly and helpful Australians making our nomadic life just that much easier!
1 week later and we remain ensconced in the relatively interesting and bustling Brisbane, seeking work further north, but in the mean-time just living day-to-day, taking in as much as we can, soaking up all that this varied country is throwing our way!
Top 5 Things to Do in and around Surfers:
- Theme parks: sea-world (avoid, cause, it's sea-world) Wet'n'Wild, Dream-world and Movie-World.
- Hanlan Street: Food, shops, a general buzz near the beach, people playing volleyball and chilling out!
- Burleigh Heads: A bit further out, but worth a visit for the view of the Surfer's sky-line.
- Currumbin: Home to a beautiful and safe cordoned lake, rock-pools and more amazing views.
- The Q1 Building: One of the world's tallest residential buildings, this thing dominates the Surfer's coast-line.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended Reads:
Living A Minimalistic Life on the Road
We aren't above material things, or spending money, or ever acquiring ANYTHING. Of course we do. I like clothes, although I have got pretty used to my tiny travel wardrobe. Taran likes gadgets (albeit not the latest mobile phone). We both like stuff, we're only human.
Living A Minimalistic Life on the Road
If you read this, then you will be well aware of how Taran and I have set about creating simpler lives, centred around travelling, living with less possessions and little to no clutter.
We aren't above material things, or spending money, or ever acquiring ANYTHING. Of course we do. I like clothes, although I have got pretty used to my tiny travel wardrobe. Taran likes gadgets (albeit not the latest mobile phone). We both like stuff, we're only human.
But in the past year we decided to eliminate all the extraneous things that weren't bringing anything to our daily life or adding satisfaction. It made sense to do this because we were leaving home for a long time and it felt like a cleansing part of the mental preparation, off-loading years of accumulated bits and bobs.
Taking a hard look at our buying habits or tendency toward hoarding things, and changing our approach to 'stuff', we have saved ourselves money, time and energy. We haven't got the stress attached to having a home full of things, or the emotional linkage towards lots of things we can live without but have turned into items of symbolism; items that are ultimately irrelevant to your overall contentment and fulfilment and simply create clutter.
Now we live in a tent, out of two backpacks. Our most important things e.g. wallet, passport, phone, stay on us almost all the time. Our life has become a whole lot more simplistic and yet travel brings new complications.
We don't have a proper bed, or quilt, or pillows. We have one hoody each, neither very warm. Taran's shoes are falling apart. My cheap sandals are ruined by mud. So we are going to slowly lose even more possessions through sheer over-use. But it's teaching us a valid lesson, a new and fresh take on minimalism.
Yes the dress I'm wearing has approximately 3 holes in, and yes I do view the other girls at the hostel like a constant cat-walk of all the fashionable clothes I would buy if I had the dollar. But most of the time I just get on with it, and remind myself how my money is better spent elsewhere, or at least put toward functional things!
When you need to, you really can get by with a very small selection of belongings, and not feel any less happy whilst doing it.
The proof is in the pudding, the pudding being that we have been backpacking for 8-weeks with just a bag on each our backs and we are no more miserable because of it. Obviously buying new or random stuff would literally not fit into our nomadic life. But also, money spent on stuff would be money not then available for nice food or excursions. It would be wasted money and limiting to our overall travel experience.
So maybe in non-nomadic life, this reality also exists, whereby material gains become overall losses.
I have found that whilst travelling and currently not working (only 6 hours every two days for accommodation) you have plenty of free time, in which you could easily over-spend. But I have found myself developing an interest in things I never did before, back when our work/life balance was geared towards consumerism.
Now we can choose how to use our time more flexibly, and develop hobbies that allow creativity, entertainment and don't cost a whole lot.
The people around us spend their days writing music and practising playing instruments, making jewellery, knitting, writing poetry, doing yoga or meditation, all stuff that seems to keep them busy and satisfied.
I have loved spending time just reading, planning places to visit, people-watching, and enjoying the sunset over the Byron coast. Taran has loved drawing and listening to his music, meeting new people and we both love waking up whenever we want!
Lucky me, lucky us. We are leading a charmed life, one which we chose, one which is sometimes hard, when you miss home or worry over your dwindling bank account, but we are using this experience to gain even more separation from the financial ties that bound us in our previous lives. And that doesn't feel like a bad thing, at all.
We are living our own version of a nomadic lifestyle, where some travellers live out of a van, packed to the rafters with kit, whilst others travel with the tiniest of tents and are never seen out of the same outfit. And both appear quite happy with their choices.
For us, travel has helped us become even bigger devotees to minimalistic living, and we hope to take these newly learnt behaviours with us whatever our future shapes into.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended Reads:
Nimbin Mardigrass Festival
This was more than just a pot-fest, this was a sensical display highlighting just how non-sensical the laws around cannabis are; its hopefully something that won't be debated in the future, once it becomes legal and common-place across the world, not in just some places.
Nimbin Mardigrass Festival
Our first impression of Nimbin was that it was wet, and dark, as we turned up to our camp-site, the Rainbow Retreat, in the pouring rain at 8pm at night. Spartacus navigated some precarious roads, and we were lucky that the river hadn't yet blocked the drive into the camp. It did later that night, and we though we might be trapped in this boggy place for the whole weekend!
We paid for our pitch, and then gravely made our way over to a gazebo where we decided to unfurl our still-damp tent and try to put it up without the rain getting inside. Rain is a pain in the arse for a traveller, when all your belongings are in one backpack, and your home is essentially a sheet and two fabric walls, not much to protect you against the elements.
Hungry but with little supplies left, we made some noodles in the 'kitchen'. It had most of the facilities that you need to cook but it was basically just a shack with electricity. Damp and tired, but still buzzing about resucing a baby Koala, we hung out with our friend Innis who had took a weekend detour from his route on the coast to come hang out again.
Sunshine woke us the next morning, although we hadn't slept a whole lot, thanks to the hard ground and the two guys having a bizzarre drunken argument around 4am. Weary but now warm, we headed into town. It was really hot by the time we reached the Mardi-Grass festivities, so we ambled around just taking in the vibe and checking out the stands being set-up.
A day-pass was $30 which was quite a lot considering the paid entry areas were not the most interesting, and we spent most of our time just walking up and down the main street, people-watching, checking out the awesome shops and food stalls.
We did go to one seminar, where people whom were pro-medicinal-cannabis were talking about how cannabis oil had radically helped them or their children; we didn't expect to get emotional, but one woman's tale had us both in tears, telling of how her son had gone from a horrible existence of countless life-threating seizures to now leading a happy daily life since beginning on the oil. This was more than just a pot-fest, this was a sensical display highlighting just how non-sensical the laws around cannabis are; its hopefully something that won't be debated in the future, once it becomes legal and common-place across the world, not in just some places.
That night we had a little chill (and maybe a cheeky smoke...) and then headed back in to check out the bands for the evening. Repetitive thumpy club music was pumping out one place, but there was various bands performing in different places, with one band's lead singers sounding kinda tone-deaf...but that was so fun about it all, everyone who wanted to be creative and express themselves, could be.
The next day was much of the same, but it was also time for the march. Hundreds of people lined the streets anticipating the hoard of people and the oncoming mass light-up of doobies. Then it began... Dancers dressed with sequin marijuana leaves on their heads, moving gracefully. Lots of flags waving, people smoking, a man tending to a pile of burning weed, a topless lady shaking everybody's hands, roller-skating women dressed in green, a man dressed as a woman pushing another grown man in a buggy, the giant inflatable spliff, and then finally, we joined the end of the march. We probably ended up in lots of people's photos as they all took pictures of us and the more interesting people in front.
Mardi-Grass was not a crazy weekend per-se, because weed generally makes you relaxed and laid back, so everyone at the festival was too, and we saw no trouble all weekend. The only people who didn't have fun were the police, faced with the task of hundred's of people, many obviously high. But it was super surreal and we are glad we went, it felt like we were part of something important, and we left feeling more pro-reform than ever. But we couldn't wait to leave the boggy camp-site and its ramshackle buildings. A relaxing weekend with awesome street-food, friendly and happy people, and a great atmosphere of positivity, Mardi-Grass was radical dude...
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
Byron Bay Day's: The Place That Backpacker's Never Leave
The hostel is home to water lizards, greedy birds, lots of pesky bush turkeys and many mosquito's! The guy who does the entertainment has a cockatoo who says "Let me out!. It's quite a cool setting, with a pond, lots of bush-land and some lazy hammocks to relax in.
Byron Bay Day's: The Place That Backpacker's Never Leave
Byron Bay, a place we didn't have any expectations or knowledge of before arriving. We got there via a hitch-hike from Nimbin, from a french guy in a 4x4, who took us directly to our hostel, the infamous Arts Factory Lodge, which featured in British comedy film 'The Inbetweener's 2'. So we knew a little something about Byron, and had heard that it compared to Bondi in terms of the eclectic people and awesome surf.
Nimbin had been a super intense weekend in terms of camping discomfort; setting up our tent in the pouring rain, negotiating the most basic showers and toilets ever, and having two cold and painful sleepless nights. So I was a tad emotional that afternoon when we got to the hostel. It seemed hectic and bustling, with friendly staff, all good signs, but when we headed to the camp-ground, nicknamed 'Tent city' I had a mini break-down of sorts... There was just tents, tents everywhere! Many had clearly been there a long time. And we couldn't find a pitch for our small but perfectly formed 3-person palace.
Two people said 'Welcome to the Jungle', which felt like a grave prison greeting for me in that moment (dramatic I know). I put it down to the tiredness, because by the next day we had decided to stay in the camp-site and in Byron for the foreseeable future!
The hostel is home to water lizards, greedy birds, lots of pesky bush turkeys and many mosquito's! The guy who does the entertainment has a cockatoo who says "Let me out!" It's quite a cool setting, with a pond, lots of bush-land and some lazy hammocks to relax in.
We saw a sign for 'Work for Accommodation' and the next morning signed up to begin working to cover the cost of our tent pitch and use of all the hostel facilities, saving us each $120 a week! I was assigned to toilet cleaning and Taran to maintenance. On our first working day I spent 1 and half hours longer working than I was supposed to, cleaning 6 well-used bathrooms in such a busy hostel is no easy task! Taran had a slightly easier time, raking and sweeping around the site. But it felt good to be useful people once again, and made our relaxation time even more deserved!
Work for accommodation is kind of what you make of it, you either accept the challenge and try your best or you throw in the towel at the first sign of hard-work. By the next day I had got my work time down to the 3 hours, even if when I finished I was exhausted from the sheer pace and intensity of my efforts.
There were some blocked toilets to plunge, many a wad of wet hair to dispose of and many people treating the 'Closed for cleaning' sign as a hurdle, only to find sweaty and wild-haired me sending them on there way to another loo. I will be Scary Cleaner Lady within a week, I hope.
People got on my nerves to varying degrees over the next few days, due to large amount of guests at Arts Factory, I found it hard to find a peaceful space to just chill and not be bothered by the incessant noise of the place. And then there was a drunken incident involving a guy who decided to step onto the table I was working at, sending my mug flying and shattering, spilling drink over our laptop bag, also bashing the table into my knee. A pretty horrid experience followed by the guys friends laughing and me sat there, on the brink of tears.
Homesickness had set in that day... I wanted quiet, peace, my bed and my family, and then some idiot decides to get up in my grill and brake my precious stripey cup.
After that fun incident, I wanted to leave this place before the first week of work was even finished, but we had committed ourselves to it, and thankfully, the place started to feel more comfortable and actually quite nice in the coming days.
There's hammocks for lazing in the sun, some cool nights like Talent-Show Tuesday, and plenty of places to people-watch as you a sip a hot coco, plus its only a short walk from town and the best bit about Byron, it's coast-line.
This fortnight hasn't been the best we've had in Australia. Any week where you've had to plunge a toilet full to the brim with 'stuff' or dealt with insensitive travellers whilst feeling sad, is always going to take a bit of positivity to push through, to try and find some joy where possible.
I've found that instead of feeling insular and self-contained due to the amount of people, many whom I now hold a grudge against after they broke my mug and nearly my knee, I have actually felt a sense of affection for some other travellers.
Seeing people eating alone or recognizing that familiar look in the eyes of someone who's tired, a little bit lost and seeking something that all us travellers are (and not looking for it at the bottom of a bottle). We've made some good friends too, with really kind people, from all over the world.
And this week was also good because we caught a sighting of dolphins, bouncing among the waves, glinting in the sun, exuding pure happiness at being in the beautiful Aussie sea.
The Byron Bay to Lighthouse walk, whilst a tad tough in the heat, has to be done, if not for the Dolphins then for the potential Whale sightings, and the stunning panorama's across the bay.
Byron might be over-run with backpackers and thus bound to have a few idiots, but even in such a traveller mecca, you are bound to want to stick around and if you want to just pass through, there's always a beautiful beach and a really good shop in town selling yummy brownies for 5-bucks. Oh and an awesome Gelato shop selling the best 9-dollar Gourmet Milkshakes. So there's that.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
The Hippy Trail: Bellingen to Nimbin
Word of the Mardi-Grass festival in the hippy-town Nimbin had reached our ears..
The Hippy Trail: Bellingen to Nimbin
Arriving in Bellingen, thanks to a nice easy bus ride (had a break from hitch-hiking for the day) we walked to our next hostel. No, we weren't breaking entirely from our cheap ways and getting a dorm, we were staying in 'The Palace' again (our tent). The YHA in Bello (the only hostel in town) had a small selection of gravel camp spots, on a sloped hill overhanging with trees, looking down to a river.
A beautifully shaded site with a canopy over-top, I was initially dubious thanks to an eight-legged dude perching on a post in the entrance-way to our plot.
The hostel itself was comfortable, sociable and clean, which is always a blessing when your only base is your tent. An eclectic mix of older and younger people made up the other guests, and yet again they had a hostel cat, spending its days languishing beside you on the sofa, occasionally placing its bum on your lap whilst you have your laptop on it... classic cat antics.
We had a relaxing few days in the heat, visiting Dorrigo National Park, a rainforest with waterfalls and beautiful views all the way back out the New South Wales coast-line.
Then, the rain came. The rain has followed us for the last two weeks, flooding our tent in Port Stephens (read about it here), and now making us all wet and cold again. Taran likes the rain, and of course I do too, from the comfort of a bed, under a blanket, with a hot chocolate... But it did make for some mystical views of the rolling green hills outside the hostel veranda.
After 4 days it was time to head to Nimbin. Word of the Mardi-Grass festival in the hippy-town Nimbin had reached our ears and our friend Spartacus (fellow Englishman, now expat, adorable 3-year old son called Apollo) offered us a free ride in the back of his camper. So we figured we could move forward on our planned route and take a little detour to the place where people openly smoke pot in the streets. And guess what, it isn't a lawless pit of hell!
Still raining, barely letting up for a second, we embarked on the road to Nimbin, relaxing in the back of the van. A while into the journey we got sent on a detour, off down a narrow road much like an english country-lane.
Bombing along bumpily, we drove past what we first thought was a cat, but no, this is Australia guys, so it wasn't a humble kitty, it was a baby koala!! Sitting alone in the pouring rain, either accidentally separated from it's Mumma, or wounded. Spart ran over to it, bundling it in his jacket. I then cradled the little thing all the way to the next town, in absolute awe and love with this tiny, docile little creature. We thought maybe we'd see a koala in a zoo, they spend most their time high up trees out of sight, but this was the kind of closeness we could never have imagined having. Spart has been in Oz several times in the last 13 years and has never seen one!
The little guy/girl sat comfortably in my arms, as we made our way along wet and windy roads. He made some small winny-noises and only showed minor aggression when we unravelled him from his warm cocoon of blankets to hand him over to someone in town who could help him out. But it was impossible to be scared of him, despite his long nails and sharp-looking teeth. We all surrounded it for more photos and just to marvel at it up-close, as it then fell dozed off a bit in Tarans arms.
Nimbin was still wet, and we had the task of setting up The Palace in amidst the mud and already sodden ground. Once set up we spent the evening trying to dry indoors the hut where the kitchen and lounge were. This camp-site was make-shift to say the least, the most basic and ramshackle of any place we had yet stayed.
The next day it was time to immerse ourselves in the self-professed hippy town of Nimbin, with its one short street of hippy-shops. But this town was geared up for its annual pot-fest, and we had quite a lot of interesting stuff still to experience on our little hippy-trail....
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
Couples Travel 1 Month In: Do We Still Like Each Other?
Travelling is the only consistent thing shaping each day now, having left behind work and our friends/family. Now days are spent in movement, be it sitting on a train, walking places (mostly walking places), hitch-hiking, or planning our next journey.
Couples Travel 1 Month In: Do We Still Like Each Other?
So here we are, 1 month of continuously being together, having left the safety of family, of regular income and the buffer of living apart. Thrust into an alien country, surrounded by strangers and added to the maddeningly vast world of backpacker nomads.
Now life consists of negotiating maps, sticking to a budget, sometimes living in a two-man tent, exploring new sights and meeting new people. Well, life in England also consisted of those things, once in a while. But now, navigating new territory and watching every penny we spend has become our whole lifestyle.
Travelling is the only consistent thing shaping each day now, having left behind work and our friends/family. Now days are spent in movement, be it sitting on a train, walking places (mostly walking places), hitch-hiking, or planning our next journey. Our time is characterized by never staying anywhere too long, constantly embracing the next experience or destination.
That's not to say we haven't settled at all. We spent a cosy and tranquil 4 nights in the Blue Mountains, in the brilliant Flying Fox backpackers. We then spent 10 nights in Port Stephens, a place we nearly bypassed, but are so glad we didn't despite the crazy storm we got caught up in (read about it here).
But there always comes a point where the unpredictability of your next destination and the excitement of discovering it, overcomes your desire to settle, sit still and relax. Although most of the time, wherever we find ourselves in Australia, we spend a few days languishing indoors or outdoors, not doing much of anything, but simply taking in the sights and vibe.
Travel can be as action-packed or as sofa-and-cider-packed as you make it. You can spend a day tiring yourself exploring the local area out then spend the next slowly eating your body-weight in Dorito's.
That's the beauty of the open and flexible schedule which travel now affords us. We feel very little pressure (despite the obvious need to get an income soon). Maybe that's what makes our couples travel experience so smooth and rewarding so far.
Neither of us has really got homesick or lonely, but we both had occasional pangs, but being that we always have each other, its easier to move past negativity. Having your person there to cuddle when you feel a bit sad, or need reminding of how lucky you are to not only have this experience, but to get to share it with someone; you become a little team.
It hasn't been too difficult to get space from each other, which was what worried us most... Whether one of us sits and reads whilst the other goes for a walk, we have so far managed to have distance, not even when we might of needed it most, but it still does both of us good.
Very rarely, in the tenser moments, which I suppose you can call arguments, have we found ourselves wishing we weren't together 24/7. There are moments of epic eye-raising...like when two tired and clumsy people negotiate a tiny tent at bedtime, kicking and elbowing each other 5 times before getting cosy. Or when you find yourselves not wanting to do the same things, or you have totally different energy levels.
Taran is someone who jumps at the chance to go out in the worst of weather or walk down to the beach in the pitch black of a power-cut. I am sometimes scared and more reserved, more likely to want to be warm, dry and comfortable. These are aspects of our personalities we always knew about, and most of the time, Taran eases my adventurous side out, and I manage to surprise him. Sometimes he hits a brick-wall with me, and thanks to my stubborn nature, we can find ourselves in a stalemate...
I would be lying if I said we haven't clashed or had moments of difficulty. But its also been a very easy and surprisingly stress-free few weeks. Its hard to feel angry or stifled by one another when our days aren't defined by monotony or framed with petty arguments over trivial things. Yes petty disagreements will still happen, we are still the same people we were in England. Neither of us perfect, both very sure of ourselves and our likes/dislikes. But its been so much easier than I could have imagined. And that isn't because we are gritting our teeth and not being honest, its because we are having fun!
Looking out for each other, cooking together, holding hands walking along unfamiliar streets, making each other laugh whilst waiting on the side of a highway for a ride... all these new experiences that we are having together make this travelling lark worth it. And during the crap times or stressful moments, on the not so easy days, the promise of an evening at the beach or a lazy day slowly exploring with your best mate, makes up for it.
We hope it continues this way. And if it doesn't, then we will try to understand why and make it work for both of us. We both wanted this for so long, and we both feel free, happy and more at home than we did in England; our mutual passion for this is the thing which binds and feeds not simply our couples travel experience but our overall fulfilment with being nomads.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
Port Stephens: A Hidden Coastal Paradise
Arriving at Melaleuca we found it to be like a cross between Tarzan's house and the Swiss Family Robinson; palm trees, wooden decking passageways through the plant-life between buildings, and to top it off, a rescue Kangaroo called Josie!
Port Stephens: A Hidden Coastal Paradise
Okay so I don't know how well known Port Stephen's is. It would appear many travellers bypass it, and we only heard from it from a random magazine article. Then again maybe many already know about it's stunning beaches, laid-back atmosphere and the awesome hostel experience that is Melaleuca Surfside Backpackers.
Port Stephens is an hour from Newcastle, where we spent one night in a hostel that shall not be named. If you like being woken up at 1am, 4am and then 8am by loud obnoxious drunkards sitting outside your door, then gimme a shout and I'll tell you it's name...
Tired and simultaneously wired, we awaited our coach to Melaleuca, where we hoped to camp for a little bit, chill at the beach and just relax in warmer temperatures after an amazing but chilly time in the Blue Mountains. The journey cost next to nothing, thanks to the Opal card, kind of like an Oyster card, but it's used across New South Wales and ensures fair and cheap fares across the trains and buses. Australia might be generally expensive, but it's public transport is brilliant.
Arriving at Melaleuca we found it to be like a cross between Tarzan's house and the Swiss Family Robinson; palm trees, wooden decking passageways through the plant-life between buildings, and to top it off, a rescue Kangaroo called Josie! Speaking of kangaroos, we also met wild ones at sunset, it was a magical experience.
Pitching our tiny two man tent, our new 'Tiny House' for the time being, we then walked down to the local beach, literally across the road, One Mile. The sun was nearly gone out the sky and the sea had been warmed all day, and now gently lapped the shore, as the sky changed into a volcanic orange/red shade.
Check out some more awesome photos of Australia!
The next day we walked to Stockton Beach, home to the largest expanse of moving sand-dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. Sometimes things with such bold titles, don't always live up to them, but this was one of the most 'wow' moments we've had thus far in Oz.
Lush green-land in the distance, then rolling hills of the softest golden sands, followed by the rough coastal beach, waves crashing against the land. Such a landscape of contrasts, and all a half hour walk from Melaleuca.
We didn't fancy doing the camel ride that appeared to last all of 15 minutes so instead we went sand-boarding! Pretty fun!
The guy said Taran couldn't stand up for safety reasons but he let him anyway. I kept to what was safe for a clumsy person and did the sitting down boarding, which was not scary at all! I laughed like a demon all the way down.
The next days were a blur of beautiful beaches, beginning with snorkelling at Nelson Bay. Our friend Innes who we met in the Blue Mountains joined us at Melaleuca, and came out for his first taste of Port Stephen's warm weather and not so warm sea. We stayed quite shallow and only swam for about an hour, but spotted a seahorse, a small puffer and schools of tiny dancing fish.
Being here feels like our beach-side camping in Cornwall, sun-soaked days of doing nothing too taxing, but slightly more tropical sights and warmer weather. After another relaxing afternoon of paddling at One Mile beach, we relaxed with pizza and card games with Innes. A tour group called 'Ultimate Oz' were now staying at Melaleuca too, and there drinking game of 'I have never' provided a little bit of entertainment, and too much information...
The next day came shark-spotting at Fingal Bay. We did our second day of hitch-hiking to get to Fingal, a nice guy who'd once lived in England took us all the way to beach. We would of got the bus but the times are really scant here, and the locals are super friendly so it made sense to gain more hitching confidence.
Once at Fingal, a pretty and sheltered cove, Taran and I walked the the Spit, across knee-deep crystal waters to reach a small island home to a white light-house. Making it back across the rising tides we relaxed and looked out onto the stunning Shoal Bay and Zenith beach across the gentle sea. The ocean was rough on one side of the spit and gentle on the other, which was also dotted with small green mountainous islands. It felt like like we'd landed in Thailand, or maybe the island out of 'Lost'! Oh yeah, whilst walking back along the beach we only saw a shark didn't we!
A fisherman pointed out its shiny white tummy darting through the waves catching all the jumping mullet fish. It wasn't the clearest view, not like an aquarium, but to be honest, it was much better. Seeing this giant scary but harmless creature doing its thing happily in the open sea... well 10 ft from the edge and miles from the open sea, a tad close for comfort when we had only been paddling an hour earlier!
The next few days were taken up with the terrible storm that hit the coast. Held hostage by the battering winds and torrential downpour, we had an interesting experience (read about it here!).
But the crazy weather didn't mar our time in what was a relaxed and unexpectedly beautiful seaside town. We definitely recommend it as a stop on your East-Coast travels!
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
The Storm - Part 2
One particular sound is so loud we were sure something was going to plummet through the ceiling...
The Storm - Part 2
Then all of sudden the lights come back on. A small mercy as a result of this power-cut is that the radio, which is on 24/7 and out of reach to turn off, is now permanently mute, so that should help us sleep.
Once we have all got comfortable on the sofas, somewhat dry, our things less so, we turn off some lights and lock some doors. Then yet again, the electric cuts out. But this time, it doesn't return. We are plunged into total darkness, the shadows of the palm's tapping the window, loud thuds of tree hitting the high roof above us. One particular sound is so loud we were sure something was going to plummet through the ceiling. Now Innes and I both need a pee, but we've only just got dry and comfy.
Momentarily the rain stops. I walk out to the decking and relieve myself, because I bloody well need to. Back to bed I run escaping the wind and dark.
My thoughts race, wired, and at this point it's 2am and we wonder if the power will come back on and wake us all up. I cuddle up to Taran and something tickles my arm. It's too dark to know what, so I just bury myself back into my warm sleeping bag. Sleep alludes me. Innes has been quiet up to now, a deep depression having swallowed him up. 'Why did I choose the cheap tent!' he thinks repeatedly.
A light, creating shadows on the inner walls; someone is trying to get into the lounge. Eventually they make it in. Apparently a fire alarm is relentlessly ringing in the dorms. We can't offer much sanctuary to our fellow tired traveller, all of us taking up the sofas.
Innes is cold and can't sleep, so he goes and opens a bag of fresh bed-sheets, one from a large pile that were delivered hours before, thankfully.
Now cocooned on the sofa, we all attempt to rest again, no idea what tomorrow will bring, or what the night still has to unleash upon us. In the eye of the storm it feels like, all three of us slowly drift off at different times. I stay awake until sun-rise, and go to survey the damage out the window, the water appearing to have receded, our tent still stands amazingly.
I fall asleep in daylight. I hear the faint sounds of people coming in and out of the building but I don't open my eyes. Sleep has finally taken me and is holding me in a place of rest and comfort that is incredibly luxurious, nothing will stir me.
The sun is up higher now and so are we. Two German guys eat breakfast. A German lady, the one whom sought refuge last night having been kept up by the alarm, has now joined us. This small band of weary and wet travellers have nothing but the relatively safe confines of this building, and a few meagre supplies of food to get us through. The weather seems to have settled a bit, but the power is still not back on. I wonder how far-reaching the power-outage is. Maybe we can order pizza for tea.
Then Innes goes to find the hostel owner, now absent for over 24-hours. We wonder if if they wonder about us and our tents. She informs him that yes indeed the power is out and she has no idea when it will return.
A while later a dejected Innes returns to us and shares the news. Still I assume the light will come on some time soon. In England I've never experienced a power-cut which lasted longer than a few hours, and that was years and years ago. Australia is a bit bigger and whole lot more wild though.
Soon the hostel owner comes through with the cleaner, who relays what she heard on her car radio...75,000 homes without power. Tree's blocking roads. Trains and buses sat still at their platforms. We are on the central coast, and this is the worst affected area. The scale of the problem is large and the chances of electricity being restored in the next the 24-hours is slim-to-none, especially as the rain and winds continue. There is more damage yet to be wreaked...
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
The Storm..
The sound of thunder fills our ears, adrenaline surges through us, as we scramble our things into our backpacks, ready to run...
The Storm..
Port Stephens, Melaleuca Backpackers, the place which has been soaked in heat and sunshine for the last week, the birds and the baking sun waking us at 8am most days.
Now it is 12.30am on a Monday night. A storm rages, not yet tired having lasted all day, steadily worsening.
We (Taran, me and our Scottish friend Innes) are sat indoors a wood cabin that houses the hostel kitchen and lounge area, which has become our little bolt-hole for most of the day, as we bury ourselves in our phones and laptops, comforted and simultaneously quiet against the rattling and thumping coming from the bushland surrounding us.
Hours before, Taran and I had gone to swim in the sea, finding it like a warm blanket against the relentless chilly rainfall. Taran's cheeks turned a little bit blue but it was the most fun we've ever had in such horrid weather.
Finally, at this late and still loud hour, we decide to brave the winds that have battered the hostel and the rains that have drowned the camp-site, and walk to our tents. Wading through puddles that have deepened to over 4ft in the past hour, we get whipped with rainwater. Reaching our little make-shift homes, Josie the kangaroo cowers at the back of our friend Innes's tent. Her tail is poking into the outer sheet. Her whole body is soaked but god forbid her tail gets wet.
Innes goes into his tent, a $32 3-man from K-mart, to find the tent was moving quite a lot, as to be expected in the winds that are at this point, Wizard of Oz-blowing-dorothy-away levels.
Yes it felt a bit wet inside but that must of been from opening the door right? No. Touching all his belongings he realizes, water has penetrated his tent and soaked all his stuff, including tickets, mementos, his electricals and his thermals. A little piece inside Innes dies. Even as I write this Innes writhes in discomfort on the sofa at the memory of finding everything he owns soggy and useless, including the thermals he'd not long before thought about putting on to keep warm.
The sound of thunder fills our ears, adrenaline surges through us, as we scramble our things into our backpacks, ready to run back to the relative safety of the lounge; a building surrounded by trees, perched on stilts, frequented by greedy mice and cheeky possums...
I find myself panicking as I collect my stuff, also thinking how dry the tent still is inside. Until I touch below my bed-roller, to find the floor damp; the water is coming in from underneath.
I run through the newly-formed lakes, negotiate the slippery platform, and make it into the dry of the building, dropping my bag which is already soaked, putting my sleeping bag down on my new bed, the sofa. I know I have to go back out there, to where Taran is securing the tent and Innes is slowly and sadly gathering his stuff together. I wonder why he's taking so long.
I cautiously walk through the lake again, to pack up Taran's things.
A part of me thinks the water will have crocodiles and snakes in it now, so I make a child-like whinny as I walk. I load Taran's bag onto my back and then ask him how I can help, as he fiddles with the tent. There is a rising tide of fear inside me as the extremes pound down on us, tents falling around us, chair cushions floating, a sad wet kangaroo now nowhere to be seen.
I race back indoors. Standing at the open door, yelling for them to come in, annoying myself with how shrill I sound. I see torch lights, so know they are not yet not struck down by a tree or lightning. I sit down on my phone next to the heater to inform Facebook of the situation, of course. Soon comes the slow down-cast figure of Innes. He has to make several trips to bring his things in.
Taran meanwhile chooses to stand outside amidst the elements, because, that's what Taran does. I have had my share of excitement already, and am quite happy to be in the warm and dry, even if tree debris is hitting the roof every other minute. Eventually we are all inside, stood like scarecrow's in our wet clothing.
Innes slowly sorts his things into wet piles and dry piles. I make a bed on the sofa. Taran fidgets and looks out the window a lot. Then as we are all stood up, out goes the lights.
Pitch black...
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
The Blue Mountains: There Are No Words
This was the first time both Taran and I felt like we were really experiencing the beauty of Australia, not simply looking out a window, or mindlessly wandering through busy cities past shops and cafe's, but actually seeing something special and unique to this country.
The Blue Mountains: There Are No Words
When you are stood a-top a mountain-side, the wind whipping through you, and you look out upon something so utterly stunning, you simply can't do anything but gaze upon it and grin.
That was the scene when we first reached Echo Point, in Katoomba, the main town in the Blue Mountains, and the real gateway to some of the best (and most challenging) bush-walks.
We arrived in Katoomba that lunch-time, had a quick introduction to our Hostel from Ross the owner, then having chatted to a couple fellow travellers, we all decided to embark together on our first hike. I suppose I expected an easy one, to guide me lightly into a few days of hiking-type exercise, but no...
Marching enthusiastically to the Three Sisters, our first mountain look-out point, we were rained on, which made for a pretty spectacular rainbow, pouring down into the canyon of tree's. Japanese tourists ran excitedly to the edge to take photo's, and I found myself breaking into a jog too...
This was the first time both Taran and I felt like we were really experiencing the beauty of Australia, not simply looking out a window, or mindlessly wandering through busy cities past shops and café's, but actually seeing something special and unique to this country.
We decided to walk to Katoomba Falls, which was a mostly easy descent across several look-outs, down past the cascades, eventually finding the four of us stood at the foot of a waterfall, and at the precipice of a deathly drop into the rocks below. The wind blew the falls over us, cooling us down, as we looked out on the blue skies and landscape of green hills stretching as far as we could see. Carefully negotiating the rocks we had all climbed over the low and utterly pointless barrier to go near the edge of the falls, but we kept well back, knowing one false step and it would not be good...
Up to now it had been a pleasant walk, full of 'Ooh's and Aah's', then came time to head back. We were going to be losing daylight soon, and our proposed route back, the Federal Pass, was around 1 hour 30 minutes long. Oh, and then we had some steps to walk up. Didn't sound too taxing at that point, but some steps doesn't really accurately describe what we soon found...
We made our way deeper down passing over-hanging rock caves, passing further into the rainforest, amongst the squawking birds and failing sunlight. A brisk slog turned into a slower walk, and then it seemed like we had to pick up pace before it got dark and dangerous.
The thing about fear and caution, is you might be facing a perilous situation but a part of you always assumes everything will be just fine. Yes there are all manner of deadly animals and arachnids surrounding me for miles, and there are muddy, steep steps to be climbed, but you only really focus on each foot movement, on your sweat, your breath, and your desire to reach the end of the path.
There were no tears but plenty of sweat and borderline collapsing, but we kept going, via the light off one of our mobile phones. Soon it was just Taran and I at the rear, the other guys having conquered their climb. Taran tried to motivate me, but I shut him down pretty swiftly. I was trying to get into my head and just tell myself 'You can do it!', mostly because I had no choice! We couldn't stay lost in a tropical forest.
A light, and this time it wasn't just the stars, it was a street-lamp! We'd made it!
Hugs of success and it was time to get the beers! Delirious we walked along, tired and a bit wobbly, but ecstatic. It was such a physical and mental feat for all of us, some of us struggled more than others...
Cider never tasted so good. Pasta with cheese never tasted so deserved. A tired but triumphant game of cards and then bed. Such an amazing first day in the Blue Mountains, one of those days we will never forget, for the beauty, the pain and the beers.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommend reads:
Sydney: Bugs, Friends and Bondi
Rain, Sunshine, Cockroaches, Hammocks, Friends and A few famous landmarks in Sydney.
Sydney: Bugs, Friends and Bondi
Sydney, Wednesday the 1st April at 7pm, a muggy evening, and these two sweaty, tired travellers reach our next destination, lug our packs to the train station, then struggle to find our first accommodation, a couch-surf with a guy called Nurman, in a Sydney suburb called Hornsby.
We are so happy to finally arrive at Nurman's lovely apartment, to have some hot showers and then amazingly, a healthy home-cooked meal. Nurman was super welcoming and warm, making us feel instantly at home. It was crazy to think that this exchange of kindness and hospitality involved no money, just a mutual interest in each others lives and good conversation, as well as the gift of some yummy muffins from us.
Our first day of exploring Sydney began at a bank. Boring admin to open our Australia accounts, ticked off our to-do-list of 'Grown-up Responsible Stuff'.
Then after losing each other in Woolworth's, thanks to the mad crowds of lunch-seekers, we made it to the calm and peace of Hyde Park, where the local pest birds, the White Ibis, invited themselves to our picnic. We nicknamed them Pecky's. They were much more novel than your humble English pigeon, thanks to their bizarrely long beaks and skittish but brave manner. Like the tourists that we are, we fed them tid-bits, encouraging their pesty ways.
A walk around the Anzac Memorial and peaceful reflection pool, we then explored the rest of the park, as well as the Cathedral, dipping our feet in a fountain. It was around 23-degrees but very humid, so we were missing the beaches of Melbourne at this point.
Approaching the harbour via the Botanical Gardens we were able to see some huge spiders, hear some squawking tropical birds and feel like we were even more further afield than Australia.
Then we went into the New South Wales art gallery, mostly to escape the heat, but actually found it quite relaxing to look at some famous paintings from Australian and British artists of the 18-1900's.
Then strolling along the rough water's edge, we came up on the famous Opera-House. Taran looked at me, and smiled, having one of those 'We are actually here!' moments.
Sadly this was our last night at Nurman's in our lovely bed, the next day came our first Australian hostel, Tokyo Village, in central sydney. We met up with our friend from England, Ashleigh, who made the next two rainy days awesome, all of us holed up in the stuffy somewhat dirty hostel we had booked at the last minute.
Our first night Taran spotted some kind of small cock-roach bug crawling across his laptop, and then our friend slept-talked, saying "'I've just seen a ghost', so an interesting first night to say the least...
Despite the shower-room that was more like a swimming-pool, and the toenails we found sitting on our dorm floor, we had a fun time watching a random horror movie, drinking ciders and playing cards.
Then came our third Hostel in the backpacker location Kings Cross, Eva's Backpackers, a totally different experience to Tokyo Village. Clean, tidy and welcoming, with an awesome roof-top to look out over Sydney, this place was a breath of fresh (clean) air. And clean showers!
The next day started hot and sunny so we finally made the backpacker pilgrimage to Bondi Beach. The water was surprisingly warm, and it was pretty awesome having our first proper play in the Australia ocean. Then the storm clouds rolled in, and we went for a coastal walk, taking refuge under some cliff-rocks, whilst Taran braved a mini-waterfall.
Sydney was all about making new friends, seeing old ones, exploring all that was typically touristy, making us quite relieved to escape into the Blue Mountains next...
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
RoadTrip to Sydney: Kangaroo's, Blue Skies and Good Music
...We found ourselves keen to move onto the next place, and we had planned to go to Canberra, but we then settled on going straight to Sydney, as we found a cheap ride there via Co-seats.
RoadTrip to Sydney: Kangaroo's, Blue Skies and Good Music
Melbourne was a great place to begin our trip, with the beach in walking distance to our little Air'B'n'B house, which gave us a few relaxing days to get over our jet-lag.
Bye bye Melbourne!
But we found ourselves keen to move onto the next place, and we had planned to go toCanberra, but we then settled on going straight to Sydney, as we found a cheap ride there via Co-seats.
We knew we weren't city people before we arrived in Oz, but our short time in Melbourne only confirmed this. We longed for wide open spaces, wildlife, and really experiencing the beauty of this country...not that Sydney would provide this, but it would take us that bit further up the East Coast, to where we really want to be.
5am Wednesday morning, alarm clock goes off, and it's time to head to the train into central, where our lift would be meeting us.
A few minutes of waiting on a street corner at 7am, and a guy suddenly came and stood next to us. I instinctively leaped back, slightly dramatically, wondering what the hell was going on, it was too early for weirdo's, or in fact the best time to be mugged.. and so a few seconds later the guy said my name, turns out our ride's boyfriend was just messing with us...
Into the car with who we knew then was Tumi and his girlfriend Gabby, a really laid-back pair with great music taste. So the ride began with some Sigur Ros, and the sun rising to begun another hot day in paradise.
It wasn't long before we saw a kangaroo, albeit a dead one of the side of the road... but then, on the brow of a sun-bleached hill, in the distance, a pouncing animal, we got a live one! Our first Roo, and it was miles away, but it was still a surreal sight.
Cruising down a long and quiet road, sun blasting through the car, the music changed to the 'Into The Wild' film soundtrack, which was also surreal for us, it having been a major inspiration for us, the music of Eddie Vedder playing out for months in the build up to Oz.
Taran took a turn at driving to give gabby a break. He was a bit freaked out by the automatic gearbox at first, and kept reaching to change gears. I had been too nervy to drive, but once he settled into it, it was just us in the front, taking in all the beauty of the open road.
We made a few pit-stops including one in Goulbourn, which had not only a Subway, but also a bloody enormous sheep! It made no sense to us at the time, but was something to do with the big sheep industry over here...no idea.
As we neared Sydney, Gabby drove again, we weren't quite ready for the busy over-zealous city-centre drivers! We had spent a peaceful 8 hours on near-empty roads, bar the vintage classic cars occasionally overtaking us on their way to an event.
Hitting traffic as we came in, we slowly made it through, passing down the main street in Newtown, an eclectic suburb, home to another branch of the 'Lentil as Anything' restaurant.
We came across some other cool sights, including a building that looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic world...
Arriving into the centre of this super famous Australian city, and as expected, we had traded one humid and over-crowded tourist Mecca for another. But there was definitely some awesome and interesting experiences to come, even if we felt a bit sceptical at first...
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommend reads:
10 Realities of Your First Month of Backpacking.
The pitfalls perils and perfection of your first week's of backpacking...
Our First Fortnight in Australia...
1> You have permanently dirty/blistered feet. Trainers are your friend some of the time but in hotter weather, flip-flops are all you feel like wearing. So the result is a mixture of usually blackened soles and sore heels.
2> You more often than not look at fellow travellers in a hostel with the gaze of a scared animal. Especially if they also look back at you with the eyes of an assassin/frightened puppy. And ignore your meagre attempt at a hello that came out like a squeak.
3> You look like a scared child much of the time due to the sudden MASSIVE LIFE CHANGE of leaving everything comfortable behind, not knowing where you will be sleeping in two day's time, carrying your whole life on a backpack/front-pack, always wondering if you will ever again have pretty feet.
4> Not yet experiencing the panic of realizing your money is only depleting, not growing. But knowing, that feeling is coming.
5> Writing down every single transaction you make in a little notepad, not that it will stop you having that burger at a restaurant or that box of cider, but just because it seems the responsible thing to do. All in all only serving to make you acutely aware of how expensive travelling is.
6> Realizing all your usual phone apps and website escapes were dull and mindless all along, you just needed something more interesting to do, see and experience to divert you away from endless scrolling.
7> Instagram is still addictive though. And Facebook. In fact you and most other travellers scavenge and steal WIFI exclusively for updating those platforms.
8> Being a mixture of tired and not yet settled in, so that you aren't sure if you are having the best time of your life, or just going through the motions. Then realizing you can't enjoy every town and city you find yourself in, because the beauty of travel is not that day or moment or particular hostel, but the people you meet and the possibilities and adventure you are opening yourself up to.
9> You'll never get used to budget meals, and you are already sick of pasta. But you feel strangely fine and OK with the bland food, and the occasional treats your budget allows feels all the more special, tasting so much better than it did back home.
10> Finding yourself feeling actually pretty happy, amongst the tiredness, the hungry belly and the occasional yearnings for home, as it dawns on you that you are living out your passion and your curiosity. Feeling like your life just got a whole lot more exciting.
Yo!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers.
Recommended reads:
Eating Well on a Backpacker's Budget
Arriving in Australia, we had been told that food was expensive out here, but it still doesn't prepare you for when you see the price tags on the shelf edges..
Eating Well on a Backpacker's Budget
Arriving in Australia, we had been told that food was expensive out here, but it still doesn't prepare you for when you see the price tags on the shelf edges, at first forgetting to account for the currency differences, then still, thinking, 'bloody hell that's dear!'.
We always intended to self-cater wherever possible, we aren't fancy eaters, and we rarely ate out in England, because money wasn't abundant and we always enjoyed cheaper options and eating in. So we knew we would cautiously buy our food here, and that's what we did, fairly successfully.
The first day here we made the mistake of buying food from a local shop (vegemite, weetbix, bread, milk, spaghetti, other basics, totalling $28), then realizing days later after a trip to Woolworth's (an inexpensive supermarket in Australia), that we had been a tad ripped off, through our own fault of not researching where was cheapest to shop locally.
In Woolworth's we managed to get cheap noodles, pasta sauce concentrate mixes, Nutino (a nutella dupe), parmesan for not much over $10, and we shopped around for alcohol, getting a 6-pack of cider for $12 as opposed to $20. Then on another day we located an even cheaper and more local supermarket, Coles. We spent about $20 in Coles on pasta, broccoli, onions, apples, a pasta sauce, orange juice, bread, milk, cheese, and cookies (not having snacks was getting us down!). We definitely bought the cheapest versions of what we needed and it resulted in a decent saving.
Our top tips from our first grocery shopping experience in Melbourne...
1> Go further (walk/bus/train) to larger chain stores to avoid paying inflated local small food-store prices.
2> Research the cheapest priced supermarkets in the region/area, instead of marching around all the different stores comparing.
3> Buy enough food for all your meals for however long you intend to stay in your location. We made our breakfast foods last the week and only topped up on perishables once.
4> If you want to eat out, plan ahead. We found a small place called 'Lentil As Anything' in St. Kilda where you pay what you feel your meal is worth, but realistically you will spend around $12 at most. We could of meandered for ages and ended up so hungry we spent more than we wanted to, but we found out about this place before we left the house that day, so it was a goal to visit it as opposed to turn up starving to somewhere overpriced.
5> Buy key meal ingredients in bulk sizes. We like toast for breakfast, and pasta for dinner, which we eat a lot but both can be bland meals, so we bought larger versions of chocolate spread and parmesan, which will last us a good while.
6> Make food you will enjoy. If you think you are saving money by making basic and non-nutritious meals you may find yourself so bored and unsatisfied that you raid the local fish and chip shop. Make variety part of your cooking, it isn't luxurious, its preventing extra food spending!
7> In Melbourne there are water fountains and filtered water taps in lots of places, a great way to keep your water bottle full, and yourself hydrated, staving off cravings for a quick duck into a cafe or coffee-shop.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended Reads:
Melbourne: 4 Seasons In One Day
24 hours of plane travel, two movies, several hours of broken sleep, 4 meals, 1 stop in Singapore, 1 long bus ride and we made it into Melbourne Australia!
Melbourne: 4 Seasons In One Day.
UPDATED JUNE 2016: We have now been in Australia over 16 months, catch up with our latest adventure.
24 hours of plane travel, two movie's, several hours of broken sleep, 4 meals, 1 stop in Singapore, 1 long bus ride and we made it into Melbourne! Check out our first Travel Film!
Our first days here have seen us fall asleep by 7pm, wake at 5am, and spend much of our day slowly walking and exploring.
Jet-lag is real, and annoying! But we are enjoying what time we have spent out and about in Elwood (the neighbourhood we are staying in) St. Kilda, and the CBD.
On our first day, having got a bus into central from the airport, we kind of wanted to escape the bustle and the traffic, so off we trekked through the centre down to the beach.
Much of our walk was looking at the characterful little homes and wide, tree-lined streets. Marvelling at everything mixed with tiredness, we still were a bit dazed at this point.
So it really was something to behold the first moment we stepped onto the Australian sands.
At the end of the streets and across a busy road, there sat the deserted and pretty coastline.
Out came the flip-flops, brand new and ready to be worn to absolute death.
And so we continued walking on to our first accommodation, a little house in the suburb of Elwood.
After a brief stop for Hannah to be sick (yes, actually throw up onto our first Australian beach), we had a little rest on the warm sands, as the breeze shocked us a tad. Australia was not quite delivering on endless summer weather, but many people had told us that Melbourne has a temperamental climate and we were visiting it in Autumn.
Eventually making it to our Air b'n'b stay, what greeted us was another characterful little house, a cosy mattress to pile onto and a very chilled out vibe. Alternatively, if you prefer a hotel, check out HotelsCombined for some great deals.
Dragging ourselves back up off the bed was a task, but food was needed desperately at this point.
That night we fell asleep at about 6.30pm, utterly failing at preventing jet-lag...
Awesome tasty vegan food at 'Lentil As Anything'
The next morning after a 5am wake-up, we both relaxed and eventually set-off for a walk around the local area, off towards St. Kilda, where we had lunch at 'Lentil As Anything', where you decide how much to pay based on what you feel your meal was worth... interesting concept, probably drawing many a cheeky person. But they discourage low donations with a sign, so in the end lunch was a decent $12 each.
We then went into the St. Kilda botanical gardens, a really relaxed little corner of paradise set amongst concrete suburbia.
Once home we fell asleep early again!
The next day saw us get the train into the centre, giving our feet a bit of a rest, where we meandered around the local hot-spots such as Federation Square and Hosier lane, stopping for lunch, choosing a very exotic local cuisine, Subway...
We then found a Woolworth's, which in Aus is a big cheaply priced supermarket, where we bought some random food stuff to keep us going.
Yes, food is seemingly more expensive out here, but when you make the effort to shop around and not go to convenience stores, making sure you stock up on the basics for breakfast and dinner, you definitely can save some pennies.
That evening we managed a respectable bed-time of 9.30pm...there's not a whole lot to do in the evenings which doesn't involve spending money, and we've found that staying in an Air b'n'b as opposed to a hostel, whilst a cheaper option, means you have much less socializing to stave off the late-evening boredom of being a stingy backpacker.
Today we stayed local and decided to walk along the coastal path, and we definitely found the best view of Melbourne.
It was also pretty hot, so it was shorts out, hoodie's off and sun-lotion on, the absolute perfect day for a beach stroll.
We happened across a part of the beach where tons of dogs were lolloping around happily in the water, which made me giddy and excited like the dog-obsessive that I am.
Later on, sitting on some rocks, sipping ciders looking across the water to the city, it was probably the best moment in Melbourne thus far, and the end to a beautiful day..
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Latest Posts:
Our Last Week At Home: Bare Bedrooms, To-Do Lists, and Health Scares...
Despite being relatively organized and on top of things, life still looks a little unprepared and messy the week before you go travelling.
Our Last Week At Home: Bare Bedrooms, To-Do Lists, and Health Scares...
So this is what life looks like the week before you leave it all behind and go off gallivanting in Australia...
A to-do list that I am already behind on to be honest, but it helps to be reminded daily what jobs I have to still do. Just need to tick them off!!
Taran is clearly sorted and ready to go...to the insane asylum.
I am doing my last week of walking doggies, having already said goodbye to some of my favourite furry friends :(.
Taran has taken down all his beautiful space paintings and posters, donated more clutter and sold his beloved PC.
My spare bedroom still looks like it has for weeks, like H&M and Amazon threw up all over it.
So despite being relatively organized and on top of things, life still looks a little unprepared and messy the week before you go travelling. Not only does it look messy, sometimes it literally is.
In the last month I've been poked and prodded, injected and sucked of my blood, not for fun, but to get to the bottom of an ongoing health problem I was having. It wasn't until today that the picture looked a bit clearer, and I can finally relax a bit, feeling like I am mostly, okay. I can finally be excited and not overwhelmed by what has bothered me for a long time. But it's been stressful, upsetting, worrying and has, a little bit, ruined the build-up to the trip. But it hasn't totally ruined it.
We have had so much fun with our amazing friends in recent weeks, especially at our leaving party, a recent night out at the pub and a boozy night in.
It made us realize just how much we will miss our simple but fun life here in England, mostly because of the people we get to share it with. That's the great thing about this blog, no matter who reads it or is inspired or informed by something we produce, the people who we really want to take with us on our journey, can feel a bit closer to us, thanks to the good ole' internet.
So what's next?
Some final packing, getting some dollars, cancelling things like car insurance and netflix, sorting travel insurance, and gradually saying goodbye to family with numerous dinner's. I predict lots of tears...
Then, a week from today, we will be heading to the airport... and that's when this adventure truly begins!
Check out our 1 year mark in Australia, 12 months, 12 awesome photos!
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Latest Reads:
Say Hello To The Broke Backpacker!
Recently we got the chance to talk to the awesome Will Hatton, otherwise known as The Broke Backpacker!
Say Hello To The Broke Backpacker!
Recently we got the chance to talk to the awesome Will Hatton, otherwise known as The Broke Backpacker! He is currently in Colombia living the life we are just about to start.. So lets get an insight into what life on the road is like when you are a broke backpacker..
* So Broke Backpacker, how broke are you really?
I stick to my budget of $100 a week wherever possible but I do have some money saved up from my various jobs over the last few years; I tend to only dip into it when I need to buy flights. Wherever possible I aim to save money simply because I feel it makes for more of an adventure! People are incredibly generous but I don’t like to have others pay my way so its important to get the balance right; I like hitch-hiking for example but I wouldn’t let people pay for my meals unless they insisted, I would rather dumpster-dive or eat cheap and delicious street food!
* How does you financial situation affect your style of travelling?
Because I don’t have much money I aim to make everything count by going away for very long periods of time; the flights after all are the most expensive part of any trip so you may as well go for at least 6 months on every trip. When actually on the road I hitch, camp, sleep rough, couchsurf and busk for crusts of bread (not really, I suck at everything musical). I find travelling on an extreme budget means you meet really cool people and tend to see a side of a country many other traveller may miss out on. I have been invited in for tea by locals who have picked me up hitching more times than I can count!
* When you set out to go travelling, what was your plan, and when did you start?
I didn’t really have a plan, I just wanted to get out of Europe and do something different to what everyone else was doing, i.e. I didn’t want to get a soul-crushing job. I first travelled to Africa when I was 18 but my earliest real adventure was when I was around twenty and I wandered around South East Asia for a few months. Later, I spent 14 months exploring India and then headed to Nepal and eventually back into South East Asia. I’m not exactly sure how many countries I’ve been too although I had to replace my passport (sadly) very recently, despite the fact that it had seven years left on it, as it was full.
* What was the changing point in your life that made you realise travel was the way forward?
When I’m travelling, I can be who I want to be, I don’t have anyone telling me what to do and, besides good manners, I don’t owe anybody anything. I like working for myself online and I like getting to grips with a new culture by speaking to the local people! I suppose, for me, travel represents ultimate freedom. If I like somewhere, I stick around. If I like the people I am with, I stay with them; If not, I leave - no worries, everyone is happy!
* What are your plans for the future? Do you have any, or do you prefer to live in the moment completely?
Currently I am in Colombia but I am just about to cross into Venezuela overland (despite literally everybody I do and don’t know telling me not to) for a month long trip exploring this very rarely visited part of the world. I do love to live in the moment but since the cheapest plane tickets are often booked way in advance, I do tend to have a six month plan in the works most of the time. I’m heading to the Philippines in April and I intend on being in Bangkok for the TBEX conference in October (and to hopefully catch the Chiang Mai lantern festival!), besides that - who knows where the road (and my blog!) shall take me. Right now, I’m doing pretty well online so I feel like I should keep channelling my energy and time into that; it’s hard getting the balance right, travel writing and the actual travelling! I certainly have had some amazing adventures over the years, and I have many planned for the next couple of years… When I run out of countries to explore, which is unlikely, I intend on building a boat and taking to the sea…
Writer and photographer. Adventurer and vagabond. Master of the handstand pushup. Conqueror of mountains, survivor of deserts and crusader for cheap escapades. Will is an avid hitch-hiker, couch-surfer and bargain-seeker. He is a devout follower of the High Temple of Backpackistan and the proud inventor of the man-hug. Will blogs over at www.thebrokebackpacker.com about his adventures around the world, you can follow him on Facebook and on twitter or, if your really friendly, hunt him down on the road for a cheeky pint.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Recommended reads:
Taran & Makoto here, together we form Nomader How Far photography.
Check out my photo journals