on the road again...

hello my friends! it's been a while since i've dusted off the ol' blogger login and written a post. i've been home for about 4.5 months now, working at a cafe, coming home and looking up random flights on skyscanner to see where i should go next. and finally, the research has paid off. my itchy feet are finally gonna get scratched! i'm off to central america! 

the first little while i was home, i was super bummed, not knowing what my next move was. i couldn't find a job, i had no money, and the mean visa man kept saying i owed them my first born child. so i finally got my current job, where i learned to make delicious lattes (today i had an eggnog latte and it seriously changed my life and appreciation for christmas :P) and i decided that when i had enough money saved up, i was going to go to new zealand for a year. 

hmmm... have you looked at the price of a flight to nz?! not cheap man. so i decided maybe not. meanwhile, my good pal sarah, you may remember her as one of my trailer park sistas from margs, was cooking up a plan to go do her divemaster training in utila, an island off the coast of honduras. i never really thought about travelling in central america before, but one google image search of utila, a mention of the massive whale shark population, and i was in. 

so i booked my flight! leaving ottawa on february 7th for san pedro sula, honduras. i will stay one night in this *ahem* ...fairly dangerous town from what i've read, and then take a bus to la ceiba and then a ferry to utila, which will be my island home for a month! i'm stoked to get my dive ticket, work on freediving, see wicked sea creatures, and obvssss to be reunited with my lovely mermaid! after that month, no plan really, but i definitely am going to head to the pacific side for some surfing. no return ticket yet, but upon googling, we found that it is around $200 to fly home from cancun, mexico.. so i'm thinking i will try to head up that way :)

if anyone has travelled in central before, hit me up with some suggestions. i am excited to have a really open plan, basically i'm just going to come home when i run out of money lol. so ya i'd love to hear anyone's advice, what they liked, what they didn't etc. etc. and maybe some tips on where i can buy pepper spray bahaha 

anyways, that's it for now! looking forward to updating my blog while on the road again :) 
¡Hasta luego!

soph xx

he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

hello my beautiful people! a lot has happened since my last post. i wasn't in the best wifi zone ever because hmm... i was in the middle of the desert! haha basically the rest of my trip included a side road to uluru kata tjuta national park, back on the stuart highway to adelaide, and then the great ocean road all the way to melbourne. i had the most amazing time, met awesome people and learned a whole lot about the aboriginal cultures of the area. i spent a few days solo in melbourne, getting reacquainted with city life (aka shopping and eating a lot lol) and before i knew it, it was time to get on a plane and begin the long long journey back to canada. i flew to manila, then san fran and finally landed in toronto. i spent the weekend there with my sista jenn, her bf and their cat babies and got to see lots of friends from college. it was an all around great weekend and good adjustment back to canada :) sunday night i took the train to ottawa and headed home! it is definitely strange to be back, but it's only been a few days so i'm still loving it. my bed has never been more comfortable lol 

this past year has been such a wonderful, life changing experience for me. i feel pretty stoked that i had this dream of travelling and worked my tail off to make it happen. i couldn't have done it without the serious support of my family, friends and my travel guru bryanna ;) everyone has been so awesome, always encouraging me to try new things and make the most of every experience. from commenting on my photos, sending me christmas parcels in the mail, and good vibes through the universe. also, knowing that people are actually reading this dang thing instead of me just writing for kicks is really cool. i'm not going to go into all of the details of how i'm this totally new and improved version of myself. you will see that soon enough when we hang out, my smile tells it all.

as for right now, i'm back living at home in good old carp, enjoying some time with my fam and slowly but surely starting the job hunt once again. hoping to continue on with some travels in the new year, thinking about new zealand :) that is still a long ways away so we will see what happens! in the meantime, i'm going to be taking a break from the blog because, let's be honest, my real life is not even half as exciting as my aussie life :P 

thank you again to everyone who supported me on this journey, and to everyone who i met on my travels it has been so great to meet you all. my trip wouldn't have been what it was without all of you! loads of love to all family and friends old and new!

see ya later mate ;) signing off until the next adventure

soph xx 

Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park

Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road

                            

                                          

                                         

that time i licked a green ant's bum

i've started my journey down to melbs! this trip is made up of a few smaller trips combined, so it won't be the same group the whole time like my trip in jan was. monday morning i headed out around 645 and was the second on the bus. we are travelling on a 4 wheel drive bus thingie that is similar to what we used on our fraser island tour, and believe me, we definitely needed that 4WD :) 

our group is 10 people, a driver and a guide, sean and john haha there is  a really nice couple from the isle of wight named rosie and julien who have become like our british parents over the last few days lol there is a girl clair who is also from the uk and travelling solo, a girl teja from slovenia, a girl named tomo from japan, and a family from singapore with a mom,dad and two daughters. pretty cool family vacay if you ask me! 

we headed out to litchfield which is fairly close to darwin.we first went to the buley rockpools which are little pools going down a slope with water running from one to another. seriously so beautiful! one was so deep you could jump in no problem and even dive down and have to swim so far to reach the bottom. the water was so refreshing and clear.

then we went to see some termite mounds. there are two different types, cathedral termites, who's nests look like spires on a cathedral. the one we saw was over 5m tall! it takes about 10 years to build 1m, so we can guess that particular termite mound is 50+ years old! the other type is called magnetic termite mound. they are built facing north, always within 10 degrees. they are wide but very thin, which is so they are ableto use the sun in the morning to warm up the home, and then move to the other side when it is too hot. our guide sean is so knowledgeable about NT and everything, he gave us so much info on the drive. NT has a population of only 250,000 people! its so crazy. i decided to ask him about the weird ants i saw in darwin . they had green bums, for lack of a better word haha. he's like oh ya green ants, you can touch the end to your tongue and it takes like lemon! at first i thought he was just pulling my leg, but he was serious. so we found a nest and he did it first but then i grabbed an ant by the body and touched its backside to my tongue. it was very bitter and like sour sort of, definitely comparable to a lemon. he said that aboriginal people would boil those ants including their nests in water and drink the tea when they had a cold... bush tucker cold medicine! bush tucker is an aboriginal word meaning food from nature. it is so fascinating to see how the aboriginal people use the land for everything they need. 


after the termite mounds we headed to florence falls. after climbing down 135 stairs, we went swimming in this most beautiful waterfall! the water was so refreshing and we went under the waterfall and i was just in heaven! it was so great. then we headed back up the stairs and had lunch.

we headed into kakadu national park and went to an aboriginal cultural centre where we got an aboriginal welcome to the land, and learned about some of their traditions, basket weaving, painting, spearthrowing and heard lots of stories about daily life and some dream time legends. after that, we headed to coroboree billabong for a sunset wildlife cruise. this was soooo amazing! we saw a bunch of freshwater crocodiles which are smaller and have pointy noses, and we saw a massive saltwater croc! it was sitting on the bank and when we got close it got up and jumped quickly into the water. that was the first time ive seen a croc in the wild and it was absolutely amazing. we also boated through an area called lily alley, which was full of beautiful lotus plants with gorgeous pink blooms.there were so many cool birds and the sunset was spectacular. our guide really knew her stuff so she gave us lots of info about crocodiles and was really good at spotting them! she also said a really thoughtful quote that billabongs (watering holes) are the essence of australia, beauty and terror all in one place. its so true and i think that really captures the spirit of australia because there are seriously some of the most breathtaking sights ive ever seen in my life, but you always know that there could be something dangerous and deadly right around the corner, whether that be a snake, shark or croc. thats why it is such a fascinating place to me :) after that, we went to our camp for the night and had dinner and went to bed, i was pooped!

early morning the next day,we headed to the south area of the park to another waterfall called maguk. it was magical, just as you'd expect swimming in a pool at the bottom of a waterfall to be. i was so blissed out. we spent some time there and then headed to our next camp and had lunch. somehow on this tour, i got put into a room upgrade. i really dont remember paying for it, but it basically means that ive been glamping for the last few days haha i get a real bed and sheets and everything! last night i had a double bed muahahahaaaa i slept like a starfish :P i dont know how that happened, but ill take it ;) then we headed north to ubirr to see some aboriginal rock art. this was one part of the trip i was really stoked about! we learned alot about the stories behind the rock art, and the different styles etc. it is just so amazing to be looking at something that could be 20,000 years old. i remember watching a program on tv a few years ago about rock art and being like man i hope i get to see that one day.. and yesterday i saw it! i was especially excited to see the one where they put their hand on the wall and then spit the paint around to make an imprint of their hand. i saw many big ones and on one ledge at the bottom it looked like a lot of small handprints, just like how kids today do handprints in paint. it was so cool! we headed to the top of the escarpment to watch the sunset as welooked out at kakadu, and to the left is arnhem land. arnhem land is an area 5x bigger than kakadu's 20,000 square km. it is protected land owned by the aboriginal people and you need apermit to be able to go on the land. there are tribes living there following the old traditions and living off the land. it is really amazing to see the cooperation between the traditional aboriginal landowners of kakadu national park and the australian people. after the aborigiinal people got that land back, they could have just kept it for themselves but instead opened it up to the world to come and learn about their culture and traditions. since they had no written language or books, many of their stories and traditions are only passed on through the iconic rock art and through the elders and word of mouth. sitting up there on top of the world watching this amazing sunset, i felt so connected to the land and so much respect for the people who have been living on it for thousands of years. it was such a zen peaceful place and i am so lucky to have been able to see it. 

i slept like a little baby child that night in my blankets :) got up for brekkie at 6 and by 7 we were packed up and ready to head to jim jim falls. these falls are the piece de resistance of kakadu. the journey to get there is not for the feint of heart and sean did an amazing job at getting us there in one piece! first there is about 30km of dirt road. no biggie. then you go down a rocky, sandy, water crossing four wheel drivin' 8 km of road. to say it was bumpy would be an understatement! it was quite the ride. when you get to the carpark you can already tell its going to be epic. on one side is this beautiful rockwall thats so high and has tons of different layers and colours of rock. the trail starts off  with some small ish rocks you have to climb over. and then they get bigger. and bigger! there are trail markers but its basically a climbing free for all. i felt like a mountain goat in vibrams, and i was so glad to have them! i was a bit slow at climbing and everyone went ahead but john stayed behind so i wouldnt break my leg and die lol. we ended up going waaaay off the normal trail by mistake and literally had to climb these fricken massive boulders! my legs were a bit shaky haha and we ended up on the other side of the waterfall pool than everyone else lol so we had to find our way over which we eventually did. i was SO ready for a swim by then. luckily i had my bathers on already so i jumped into the water. definitely the coldest one so far but it was absolutely amazing. the waterfall was so tall, probably about 300 feet and the pool at the bottom was so big and deep. the rock wall curved around, so that when you yell it echoed off the walls. we swam all the way across to the waterfall and climbed up to stand under it. man oh man it was freezing! the water hit your back so hard because it fell from so high! once you jumped back into the water it felt so warm :) we swam our way back and climbed back to the trail. the way back was so much easier than our detour haha i felt like a real climber on the way back :P now we are on the way to a spot for lunch and then back to darwin for one night. tomorrow, im assuming bright and early, some of us who are continuing on to alice springs will be starting out on that tour :) so far everything has been so amazing and the sights have been stunning! 

loving liffffeeeee :D

update: in alice springs, freezing my ass off! free day tomorrow, then headed to uluru!! xx

life in the top end

i've been living in darwin for about 5 weeks now, and it isn't like any place i've ever visited in my life. it's known in Australia as the "top end" as it is in the northernmost part of the Northern Territory. you can't go in the ocean because deadly jellyfish and crocodiles inhabit the waters, so it is a littttle bit different than living in margaret river, where i was in the ocean pretty much every day. it's really weird for me and as i left indonesia, i realized that it would be my last time in the sea for a long time, which made me so sad! bry left about 2 weeks ago for a month in indonesia. it was sad saying bye to her since we've been together pretty much every day for the past 9 months, but i know she is having a wicked time there so i'm happy for her :) there isn't a whole heck of a lot to do in darwin, unless you like partying every night, which most backpackers do lol there isn't a night here that you go out and the main bar monsoons isn't full. it's crazy! i've been trying to get back into running, but it's about 35 degrees here and sunny every day. for the first 2 weeks we got here, it was still wet season so the humidity was 95% and it was 35 degrees. picture me running around town handing out 30 resumes and getting no where. it wasn't the best days of my life lol! now the humidity has dropped a TON, but its still scorching hot everyday. i'm going to remember the feeling for when i'm home this winter. ugh i don't want to think about it right now! there are also these really cool night markets twice a week which i went to on the opening night to see the fireworks. there is so much cool stuff to buy there which is why i've only been once haha trying to save money! i really want to buy a digeridoo, but there is no way i could bring that home in my backpack :P

i'm still working at the restaurant. i'm getting better at being a waitress and making way less mistakes then i was at the beginning haha. i moved into the ymca which is trying really hard to be a hostel, but it's basically low income housing which is fine with me because it is about $75 cheaper per week than the hostels in town so, i'll take it! i booked a glass blown bead making workshop at the local arts centre for the end of may, which i am extremely stoked about. i've been wanting to work with glass for a really long time and have never had the chance so i think this is going to be super cool. when bry was here and working at croc cove (a crocodile park in the middle of darwin city) i went there to check it out and it was amazing! i got to feed teenager crocodiles pieces of meat on a fishing rod and they jumped right out of the water! we also saw the adults getting fed, and the noise of their jaws clamping together is something i'll never forget. those are the 5-6m guys swimming in the waters around here... no swimming! 

i was pretty down here for a while because i'm not darwin's biggest fan, and i had nothing to work towards, i just had no idea what i was doing. i really wanted to go see uluru and all that, so one day i just walked into the adventure tours place to check out the 3-5 day tours. wellll... i ended up booking a 14 day tour through the centre of australia from darwin down to melbourne. it hits every major landmark, uluru, alice springs, devils marbles, adelaide, great ocean road etc etc. i leave on june 9th, and get into melbourne on the 22nd. i'm really looking forward to seeing melbourne as well. a lot of people have told me that they think i'll like it there, so it will be neat to do some exploring. i finished off the day by maxing out my credit card because i bought my flight home! i leave australia on june 25th. melbourne > manila philippines > san fransisco > TORONTO. i booked my flight to toronto as it was actually cheaper to fly there than right to ottawa. ill have a few days in TO with my college peeps (and massive amounts of sneaky dees nachos) and then take the train home. i have mixed feelings about leaving. i am so excited to leave darwin and do some more travelling but i'm sad about leaving australia. I have had the most amazing time here, met some awesome people, and learned so much about myself and this epic world we live in. i know that being home is going to be great for the first little while and i'm so excited to see my family and friends, but how do you go back to a place that has basically stayed the same when you have changed so much? all i know is that i'm not done travelling just yet, so hopefully it won't be long before i dust off the old backpack and whip out my visa card to start booking flights again. 

i still have a month in this beautiful country, which is plenty of time to drink lots of lemon lime bitters, check out the weird aussie fashions (furry sweaters and jelly sandals... so strange!) and hopefully see a few more precious kangies before i head back to canada. thank god it will be summer when i get home so i'll be able to slowly readjust to the canadian climate! although it's winter in the south of australia right now, so about 10ish degrees in melbourne....ICK! 

anyways mates, (aka mom) just wanted to post a quick update on what's new on my side of the globe! i'll be seeing you all in just over a month, can't wait! xx

we put the 'holiday' in working holiday visa

indddddoooooooo!!! these last few weeks have been so epic. i've finally gotten my first taste of asia, and let me tell you, it tastes damn good. besides all of the beautiful beaches, rolling waves, badass scooter rides and serious shopping, there was some of the best food i've ever eaten in my life, and cheap to boot. i will never look at rice the same way again after having eaten nasi goreng (indonesian veg fried rice) so many times. we ate amazing seafood and fish that was literally caught 3 hours ago in the bay right in front of us. indo is also a veggies best friend with so much tempeh and tofu on the menu. i am obsessed with tempeh, it is so good, and although its not a really popular food in western culture, i definitely encourage everyone to try it.. so tasty! we also ate this stuff called water spinach, im pretty sure its a distant cousin of regular spinach that was delish as well. standard dinner was rice, veggies and tempeh or fish. i could really eat like that all day everyday. then for dessert, it was either a coconut smoothie, or a pineapple cut so that you could literally just eat it like a popsicle just holding the stem! i was in heaven. all for 5 bucks or less depending on where you went! 

so typical of me to start off a story with a description of the food bahaha we left margs on march 23 and flew to denpasar, bali. we left the next day and flew to labuan bajo on the island of flores. bry did 4 or 5 days of some serious scuba diving, and i did 3 days of snorkelling. it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. the corals were massive and colourful, i literally felt like i was in finding nemo, especially when a family of clown fish (Marlin, Coral and Nemo) came out of the anemone right in front of me! i saw beautiful parrot fish, trigger fish, rainbow wrasse, about 8 or 9 turtles and a black tip reef shark! i had such a blast and there were many laughs to be had, especially by the second day when they gave me a snorkel guide who couldn't swim and could barely speak english lol we pretty much stayed in LBJ not really exploring that much, as you basically just go there to dive. One of the days we went to Rinca Island in Komodo National Marine Park and got to see komodo dragons! It was super cool and I'm so happy that we made it there :) 

Then we headed back to Bali to meet up with Emma and Christina and some of our other friends from Margs were there as well so we all went out for dinner and drinks and it was so fun! one of the days we were there it was Hindu new year called Nyepi. They had a ton of these really big floats shaped like different bad spirits in the streets the day before and we went to look at them.I took tons of pics on my phone but it broke so i lost them all booo! anyways the next day, they took all the floats down to the beach and burned them,which is supposed to ward off the bad spirits for the upcoming year. We didn't get to see any of that though, because another tradition of nyepi is that you aren't allowed out on the streets. we were all locked in the hotel and served one meal that day. at night, we had to turn off our lights and they brought us this one tiny little candle to use, so we all sat in bed and watched pretty woman lol it felt like a high school sleepover bahaha 

then we headed to lombok on the fast boat. i was pretty hungover for that journey, so it wasn't the most enjoyable, but i knew a bed was in my immidiate future so it was ok haha then we got a drive to kuta beach where we were staying and found a little guesthouse run by this cool dude named jerry. we rented scooters and drove them all around, to the surf breaks, random beaches, drives into the countryside. i was getting pretty good at driving, but then had a mishap going down a dirt road after a massive rainstorm. mud + scooters + potholes = not good. i wasn't super confident after that but i didn't let it stop me. my friends from toronto alex and britt who are travelling asia together met up with us for a few days too! it was so cool to see them again, and we had a really great time together. I tried surfing a few times, saw a dead seasnake, manouvered my scooter around herds of buffalo on the road, saw rice paddies and made friends with a cute little guy named tom who was selling bracelets to save money for school (so i'd like to believe) we were in lombok for 10 days and i absolutely loved it! definitely reccomend everyone who goes to indo for holiday to take the boat to lombok, it is awesome. especially if you're looking for a more exploring/off the beaten track type of holiday. 

emma flew out of lombok, while bry, christina and I headed back to Bali to fly out the next day. By coincidence, our friend from high school and Bry's long time next door neighbour Kail was in Bali with his friend. They changed their boat to the gilis for one more day so we could meet up. we got dinner and ended up having one more night at skygarden in kuta. this place is nuts, it's like 8 nightclubs in one building. they played really good music and we had so much fun dancing and getting caught up on the last few years. we got home at 5:30am and the guys had to get up at 6:45am for their boat to the gilis! i slept until the last possible minute and then we headed to the airport. they put christina on an earlier flight so we had to say bye to her right away which was sad. i'm so happy she came on the trip with us it was great to meet her :) 

now bry and i are in darwin, living at a hostel on the main street downtown. it's weird to get used to, but i'm liking it so far. i managed to get a job at a restaurant, making the drinks and i just had some waitress training today. it's pretty intense, hopefully i don't mess up too much! i really like darwin so far, it reminds me of halifax actually so that's pretty cool :) 

anyways that is my massive update on the last few weeks of life so far! everything's good, i'm stoked that i've been to asia, glad to be back in aus :) 

up, up and away!

hello all! i know it's been a long long while since i've written. i seriously haven't been doing anything except working. my tan is fading, i haven't dipped a toe in the ocean in probably about two weeks, and i'm living off rice crackers. but, all for good reason because we are going on HOLIDAYYYY!!!!! bry and i are heading to indonesia for three weeks on sunday. our friend emma is meeting us there and bry's friend from germany is coming as well. it's going to be an amazing time, we will be chilling in bali, komodo national park (aka i'm going to see real life komodo dragons!) and lombok for some epic surf. i couldn't be more excited! it's been quite the process getting ready to leave, and with working so much and everything, i managed to give myself a stress rash, went to the doctors twice in two weeks, was put on antibiotics etc etc but i'm all good now! i sold my car (steve foreverrrrrrr <3), am sending a massive box of stuff home today, and we are having a garage sale at our cabin, affectionately known as our "porch sale" since we don't actually have a garage hahaha. we are both wrapping up all of our loose ends here in margs, which is both an exciting prospect and a sad one. i've been here for about 6 months and have really grown to adore this beautiful place. i've made some awesome friends and seen many amazing things, but i feel ready to move on and see more of australia. after indo, we are headed to darwin where bryanna already has her job lined up, and i will be looking for a new job! NT is going to be such a different setting than western australia, so i'm seriously stoked to see that part!

last weekend, bry, myself and our friend hanna were invited up to narrogin to go gliding with a member of the district club where the girls work, humphrey. he is a really cool guy who has been flying and teaching people how to fly gliders for about 15 years now. a glider is essentially a plane without an engine, which uses thermal columns of hot air rising from the ground to fly on. i went first and honestly i was pretty scared! you get towed up on a string behind a power plane and once you are high enough the rope lets go and you are on your own! the plane drops you in a thermal, and then the pilot uses the rising hot air to go higher and higher! humphrey is such an amazing pilot, and as we were going he pointed things out to me and told me how everything worked. we got up to 5,300 feet and it was such a beautiful experience! the girls enjoyed their time in the sky as well, and after we took humphrey out for dinner and a few beers and then hung out at the gliding club, and stayed the night in one of the caravans they have set up there. we had so so much fun and you could tell that humphrey is so passionate about flying and loves to share his knowledge and experience with others. it was AMAZING! now, we are all hooked on flying and want to become pilots :) here are a few photos:

all in all it was actually the best couple of days ever! we all had so much fun and we are so lucky that humphrey shared his passion of flying with us!

anyways i am at the library now and my internet is about to run out, but just wanted to let everyone know i'm still alive and kickin'! i've just posted some new photos on facebook, and hopefully in indo we will have good wifi so i can keep everyone updated on the adventure!

loving and missing you all very much! hope spring has sprung... and a shoutout to my mom on her 50th birthday! love you lots momma xoxoxo <3

soph

Holy effin' brown snake!

Hello all! Everything is going so great over here in WA! I've been working so much and saving up for the next leg of our adventure... INDONESIA! We are headed to Bali end of march and then going to spend some time in Lombok and maybe some other random islands surfing, eating coconuts and chillinnnnn! I'm so excited! And our friend Emma is coming too, I know we are going to have a great time all together!

Bry and I have been going on some awesome adventures lately, including Hamelin bay to see stingrays and a random beach with some day time skinny dipping bahaha the beaches here are nuts because some are so remote and deserted you feel like you are on your own beach island! 

Today we headed to canal rocks which is this beautiful rock formation by the seaside that was formed millions of years ago when the super continent of Gondwanaland (I can't even make up a name that wicked lol) broke up and australia smashed into India and all this rock and lava was pushed up from kilometres down in the earths crust and made these sweet rocks! Then with the tides pushing against the rocks, it eventually carved these canals where the water flows through. It is soooo beautiful! It was great weather too, not a cloud in the sky and we were keen to do some exploring. 

We head off the beaten path, literally. Bry was walking ahead of me down a little hill in a rocky area. I look over to my right where the rocks meet the ocean and I see it. This snake head poking out of the rocks. I freeze and yell bryyyaaaannnnaaaaaaaaaa snaaaakkkeeee!!! At this, she turns around and I watch the snake slither out of its rocky hiding place. It just keeps going and going. It's about 1.5 metres long, and instantly I recognize it's species. It is an Australian brown snake, the second deadliest snake in Australia, and it was moving FAST. Bry starts running up the next little hill, while I stand there frozen to the ground and literally shaking im so scared. And the snake follows her! I turn around and start running away because literally all I can think about is getting back to the car. Talk about fight or flight response. Bry yells at me not to leave her there and I snap out of it! She stops at the top and the snake goes off into the bush on the left sort of blocking her path so she does a huge detour around, running through the bush where there is no path and as soon as I see she's out of its way I turn around and run towards the car park. 

I had some serious adrenaline going through me! I was shaking and couldn't really talk for a few minutes lol we ended up going to the beach right after, but I was seriously still so on edge I didn't want to go too deep in the water and was just looking around everywhere haha 

We googled the brown snake and it turns out they are active during the day, very aggressive and territorial, and when it's pissed, it moves with its head and top part of the body off the ground and mouth open. Check check and check! Greeeeat! Turns out canal rocks is pretty well known for snakes which we didn't know, so I think I'll be avoiding that area from now on! 

We ended our day with a beauty swim at smiths beach, amazing woodfired pizzas and yum desserts at samudra, and a visit to the sand bar at the beach in dunsborough! What a day! There is actually never a time that we do something and it doesn't turn into an epic adventure :) never a dull moment with us! 

So that's what's new with me! Doing lots more exploring now that we know we are leaving soon. Thinking of going to see some of the caves next weekend, but we all know that we will probably end up at another beautiful beach! Life's tough. 

Missing everyone at home! Sending lots of love :) xo

Two broke girls

Sooo if my life was a tv show, (sometimes I think it should be!) yesterday would have been a really funny episode. In the morning, we picked up a few of our friends and headed down to meelup beach to be a part of the rally against shark culling that's going on in WA. There were other rallies happening across the country on the same day and time and it was cool knowing you were part of something like that. There was a great turnout of people and some very interesting speakers as well. It was well organized and I'm so stoked that we went! We also were part of this huge group photo spelling out "no cull" on the beach. We brought down bryannas crazy surf board she painted as a shark as part of the event and it was a hit! 

On the way home from there, the plan was to stop by my car, abandoned on this sketchy dirt road with a flat tire, do a quick tire change that I had learned at the wrecking yard the day before, and I would be on my way. Did it happen like so? Nope. 

We got to the car, which I was surprised was still there to be honest, and got all our "tools" ready. I took out the new tire, the jack and the tire iron which to me, for some reason, I felt very gangster carrying around hahaa I went to go loosen the bolts a bit before putting the jack on the car, but it didn't fit! The bolts were too long! The solution was the tire iron that actually came with my car, that was currently in our friends car in town half an hour away! Curses! 

So we drove into town, dropped off our two friends and went to pick up the right tools. ROUND TWO! we drove the half an hour back to Steve, just me and bryanna this time, and got to work. Needless to say, after much huffing, puffing and ganstster poses with our tire irons, we successfully changed a tire in my abandoned car in the Australian bush lol I was so stoked! It's such a great feeling to know that you can figure out your own dilemmas and do things on your own without help from anyone (except a few good girlfriends!) #independantwomen 

After that adventure we went home and had food and got ready for work. I had my first day as a cleaner at the caravan park which went well, and my first day at the pizza shop the night before, but today was the first time we worked together. Hilarity ensued because we basically ended up running the shop ourselves towards the end of the night. Bry was a great pizza teacher, showing me stuff I had forgotten from the day before, and we totally had a great night! We laughed so much, listened to bob Marley and the black keys and made pizza sauce, crust and cut up lots of ingredients in the massive industrial chopper haha halfway through the night when I looked at us in our oversized sauce stained work tshirts, I had a good laugh when I realized our life was just like that tv show two broke girls. It's crazy, loud, poor and topsy-turvy, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) 

We are working together again tonight at the pizza shop, let's see what kind of shenanigans we get up to tonight! 

Broke and happy!

I've been home from my east coast adventure for about a week and a half now, and I've been in a bit of a post vacation slump. I had so much fun and met really cool people, so it was bittersweet to be back. 

.... Buuuuut then I came home to my crazy, broke, silly, loud life in the trailer park and I realized how happy I am here. I don't have a lot of money, I've been everywhere handing out tons of resumes with no luck, and my car tire popped today (not the spare) on a random dirt road with barely any cell reception. I basically freaked out and called Sarah and she dropped what she was doing to come save me. Now that is an amazing friend! When we were driving back I realized who the heck cares about the stupid car and my job situation and all that crap bringing me down, I have these amazing girls in my life, we have the best times together and I know that they'll do anything for me and I'd do anything for them. While I may not be living in a wicked cool apartment with lots of clothes and I eat rice and beans for breakfast lunch and dinner, I start my day off in the ocean almost every day, I feel the sun and I buy local veggies at the farmers market weekly. This life is definitely different than how I would be living if I had stayed in Toronto, but I love it so much and I'm the happiest I've ever been! To everyone here in Australia that has made my experience amazing so far, a big thank you! My life is so much better with you all in it :)

And... To make things better, I have a trial  as a cleaner at the caravan park on Friday! Don't need a car for that haha 

Lovin and livin life to the fullest xoxo

Soph 

P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way SYDNEY

Sydneeeeyyyy! What a beautiful place! We had so much fun livin it up in the big city. We stayed at holiday inn in kings cross and the red light district haha 

The first night, we got all dolled up and taxied over to the shangri-la hotel and headed up to the bar on the 36th floor for sunset. It was soooo fancy! The view of the harbour was stunning though, and worth the $21 drink which was so yummy haha! I felt like I was in gossip girl lollll

The next day we went to manly beach. It was so beautiful and there were people surfing but the waves were pretty intense and they actually closed the beach for swimming because the currents and rips were too strong booo :( it was still a fun day hanging out with everyone! I also jumped on this really cool bungee thing that I thought was only for kids but turns out it's not! I looked like I was 5 years old hahaha 

We headed back on the ferry and had epic views of the opera house and harbour bridge. Then we got ready for our last supper and it was pretty sad :( after dinner we headed to this cute little low key chilled out bar playing 50s music and it was so fun! We called it an early night because we were going to the blue mountains the next day.

The blue mountains are about two hours from Sydney so we had a good snooze on the way there. Once we got there we went on a beautiful hike up to a waterfall and through these rock passages. It was so mind blowing! The reason they are called the blue mountains is because of the gas the eucalyptus trees give off mixed with the fresh air makes a blue tinge to the air. Very cool! Then we headed to see the three sisters rock formation. I was really excited to see this because on the way to my aunt and uncles house in Carleton place, there are these three bumps in the road that everyone calls the three sisters so it kind of reminded me of home haha as usual, the scenery didn't disappoint! 

The bus ride back was pretty sad because it was our last time on the bus :( they played the day song again and we all rocked out one last time all together, and then they started playing sad songs all about saying goodbye. I may have shed one or two tears lol 

When we got back we said goodbye to mark our tour manager and gaz our bus driver. Most people were staying on in Sydney for a while so we all hung out for a bit. All the girls piled in to one hotel room and we got ready for our last night out on the town together! We went out to a few bars that night, but the most memorable was the one where the guy juggled vodka bottles that were on fire, and then he spit fire it was actually SO intense! 

Then we went to a bar with a live band and they were soooo good! They played black keys and white stripes and lots of old classics. I was so stoked but so ready for bed! I went to sleep at 330 so I got about 1 hour and 15 mins of sleep before I had to get up to catch the shuttle to the airport! At 515 I was in the hotel lobby and there were girls just coming in from the clubs! They are open til 5am in Sydney and some are 24 hours a day! 

Then I had a full day of travel and got home to Margs at 630 and went straight to bed haha it was so great to see Sarah and bryanna again! I missed my gals so much! Sunday I did laundry and puttered about and then we went to the fat Freddy's drop concert in dunsborough which was so awesome!! 

Today, back to real life hitting the pavement with my resumes. Reeeeally need a job! Got a ton of DVDs from the library so I'm having a movie night tonight. Ready to get working and back to the beach to work on my surfing :)

All in all I had an amazing time on my trip! I met the coolest people who I know I'll be friends with for a long time, saw beautiful things that just blew my mind, ate yummy food and drank yummy drinks and just chilled out and enjoyed the moment. For anyone considering a contiki tour, DO IT! it was fantastic! I can't recommend it enough! 

Missing my contiki family! Reunion contiki  2015 haha 

Love everyone and sorry for the rambling and bombarding of photos with various wildlife lol xxoo 

Hippie town

After surfers paradise, we headed to the currumbin wildlife sanctuary. It was about half an hour away and it's a not for profit wildlife centre. I was seriously so excited to see lots of cool animals like koalas and kangaroos! 

The first thing we did was hold a koala and get our photo taken with him!! I actually cried I was so happpppyyyyy! My pic is pretty cute and the girls got some photos of me on my camera as well which I'll post when I get home. There were trees full of koalas, they were seriously so cute and soft I wanted to cuddle them all!

After the koalas, we went to the kangaroo area. We got right up close to them and got to feed them right from our hands and pet them! There were really big ones and really small cute ones. Tere were also some emus which were kind of scary close up, I thought they were going to attack me hahaha there were even some mama ducks with their babies all in a row! It was so sweet. 

Then we went to see some crocodiles and man they were HUGE! there was a 5m one it was so scary! We also saw a cassowary, endangered tree kangaroos, a dingo, lots of lizards and an echidna! 

It was really cool because part of the sanctuary is an animal hospital where they help thousands of animals a year get better and you could walk through and see if they were working on any animals. They weren't at the time but it made me happy to know that the money I paid was going to a good cause! I love animals so much, so I'm happy to support a cause for them! 

After the wildlife sanctuary (I could have stayed there all day!) we headed to Byron bay! I've been waiting to go there for almost a year now and had it so built up in my head. It's a hippie surfing town and we were staying in nomads hostel there. I was a bit underwhelmed. It was very beautiful though! We stopped at the lighthouse before we checked into the hostel and saw the most easterly point of mainland australia, and just before we were leaving we saw a huge pod of dolphins!! It was amaaaazing! It was just the town itself that was kind of meh. There were tons of cool shops, even a tie dye shop! But they were so expensive! The food was really good though haha I had an epic wrap and some amazing Mexican food lol all in all, a beautiful place to visit but I don't think I'd want to live there. I did get to see spell which is a store I've been following online for a long time! The clothes are gorgeous but I can't spend that money right now!

(STEVE)

after Byron we headed to Coffs Harbour for surf camp!!! This place was unreal. We stayed in these shipping containers they had converted into rooms with two bunk beds and a tiny bathroom. It was like a chill little village with surfboards and sand everywhere right on the beach with a little fire pit and picnic tables. I was really in the zone haha I loved it! An hour after we got there it was time for our lesson. We used 8foot foam boards so a bit taller than the big pineapple which was good! 

I had so many epic wipeouts washing machine style haha at one point my bathing suit top came off under my tshirt that's how smashed I got haha! But then I got a really good wave! The guy helped me by giving me a little push and I stood up and rode the wave all the way into shore!!! Longest ride I've had so far and it felt friggin great! After lessons we showered and got ready for dinner. I was so tired and while everyone went to drink and play games after, me and the girls headed to the beach. We stargazed and chilled out. I ran around and danced and watched the tide come in. It was a full moon and the watching the reflection of the moon on the ocean was absolutely beautiful! We saw the southern cross which is the constellation on the Australian flag. One of the sweetest nights on this trip for me for sure! It was so chilled out :) then we went to bed as we were leaving at 630am the next day! 

Woke up, had some brekkie and hit the road to Sydney! We are about an hour out from the city now and I'm pretty excited to see it! Then I'm headed home to Margs on Saturday. Back to reality, but I think we are going to start a new adventure soon! Don't know all the details yet but I'll keep everyone updated! Lots of looovvvveeee xx

Happiest day of my life lol at currumbin wildlife sanctuary