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Hey all,
Firstly I just wanna clarify on the post I left the other day (and reassure my mum, stop worrying :-) ) cos I think it might have been read and interpreted slightly differently to how I intended it. What I was trying to say is that occasionaly (i.e. maybe a day or 2 in a month) you have a day where you get knackered and don't really want to have a busy day doing activities/sight seeing and at the same time you don't feel like doing the things you should be if you're not i.e. doing the washing thats built up, going and finding a supermarket, buying and cooking some dinner or spending a long day on a bus. You know just the same kinda lethargic feeling you sometimes get at home about stuff you know you have to/or should be doing but don't really feel like. All the travelers I know have said they feel exactly the same thing some days.
I think this is mostly down to the kind of life I'm used to, I'm always busy and feel like if I'm not spending a day doing activities or socialising then I should be sorting out or planning other stuff I have to do. I've come to realise that even though you're traveling you still need days to chill out and just do those other things that you feel like at the time, this is something I'm not normally very good at when I'm at home so its a positive thing that I can realise this, chill out and feel refreshed and excited all over again. I definately didn't mean that I in any way have a day where I think I wanna be at home and not traveling, I wouldn't change this for the world!
Thanks for your concern to those who interpreted it the other way but don't you worry, I'm still absolutely loving it and you should still be very jealous! :P hehe
Anyways with that over, here's some of the cool stuff I've been up to:
I've spent a week in Oz already: 5 days in sydney, mostly just chilling, relieving my climbing urges, reading in the botanical gardens and also went on a day trip to blue mountains. This day tour included a good amount of walking, some stunning views (as per usual :) ), tho to be honest I would say they don't look that blue to me (you can judge for yourselves!), we also saw a good amount of wildlife inc some massive spiders and wild kangaroos. What made it really fun was the guide, who was funny and full of interesting knowledge, as most guides I've met so far are but this one was a real joker :). The botanic gardens were also cool, had a lot of bird life inc hundreds of bats which I certainly didn't expect and some friendly cockatu's (see the pics for this one).
The other day we went to a surf camp, made a cool group of friends (tom, kerry, sabrina, will and dan) whom I've now been with for a few days. The night we got there we had a big beach party which was great fun and lots of laughs all round especially when it ended in a fair bit of beach wrestling (still finding sand in my pockets now). Woke up at 6am next morning for surf lessons, with admittedly a bit of a headache, thankfully this dissapeared once we got going in the water (and didn't reappear until my head and surf board decided to have a battle (the surf board won) .. I only have a small bump really :)). Although I found surfing a little tricky at first with a bail to surf ratio that didn't look to impressive after about 30 mins I got it figured more and was about to stand up and ride the waves most of the way to the beach. Apparently this is pretty good for my first time, though I suspect it probably had something to do with the massive and very stable surf boards they gave us and the ideal size of the waves. Its always nice learning new sports and having the time to do them a good amount, next time I go travelling (yeah I know I'm only half way thru this one) I def want to spend a good amount of time staying around a couple of places where I can just spend most days doing a set of sports (like climbing, diving or whatever) and intend to fill my oz journey with lots of surfing and diving.
Have been in byron bay since yesterday, me, will, dan and tom hired boards today and went again and had our suspicions confirmed on our surf skills as we weren't using learner boards and the waves here are a lot bigger, though we still managed to get up and ride a few of them. Surfed for a good part of the day and returned feeling fairly tired and all walking like John Wayne (surfing = chafing, mmm tasty) :). But still enjoying surfing and the challenge and makes it all the more satisfying when you succeed.
Thanks to everyone for all the messages there's been loads recently:
Jon: Glad you all liked the presents, just saw each and thought of each of you. Having been traveling I knew you'd understand what I mean about traveling especially that you have to step back from it and chill occasionaly to appreciate it more. Oh and Mt Cook is apparently an awesome but very technically challenging climb, I saw the memorial down the bottom with the long list of people who'd been not so succesful or fortunate in their attempt :s !
Mum: thx for the msg and concern but you don't need to worry I didn't mean I ever had feeling like "why am I doing this", I'm nowhere near that kind of thought :), hopefully this post explains. Thx for looking into my car insurance. X
Diedre/Pete: thx it's going great :). How's everything at home and with the boys? P.s. Pete I hope you're going to have our bathroom suite finished by the time I get back home, I'm looking forward to a good shower ;)
Katie: Australia is awesome thx, very chilled and a fair amount of unwinding (read: partying :) ). Glad you're still enjoying teaching and its going well, if you can still love it with all the work I've heard you're doing then thats a great sign and there's little better than finding a job you love doing in life! I'm really pleased and excited for you! Stops wise about 9 in Oz, then singapore, malaysia and thailand for a month.
Matteo: yeah no worries man, still loving it, just been pretty damn busy even by my standards! I already feel like its going to fast and know I'm going to want to be away soon after I get back at the end of may. P.s. tactics rules man!
Ben: Heh sounds great, I always hate to miss your crazy party's, sounds like it's gonna be a real good one! And missing a NUFAN gig is always a crime but its ok as I'm in Oz to serve my sentence out. Oz is cool and I've now got my advanced dive course booked in magnetic island which will inc 5 dives in total on the great barrier reef, doing a dive on a sunken wreck and a night dive as well. Diving is the top thing that I wish you could join me for as ur my exploring buddy and its like a whole new amazing world to explore. I know ur gonna love it when you go and do it!
Vicky: Yeah can be dizzy stuff hangliding but awesome feeling and not nearly as dizzying as the acrobatic stunt flight with all the loops!
Oh and one last thing, I know I said that i'd posted videos for my canyon swing but my blog is currently not letting me upload any videos at the moment, they all seem to fail so these will be coming once I can get them working.
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