I have been out of phone and internet service for a while now so there are many experiences to catch up on, so this may be a longer blog than normal. But wow it has been an amazing week! After my last blog we picked up our fifth road trip buddy, Evan. He flew over from my home town in the US to join in on this epic trip. After getting our new sweet 4 wheel drive we headed out to explore the top end of northern territory and Western Australia. Since my last blog we have gone through Kakadu, the Bungle Bungles, Kimberly region on the Gibb River Road, spent some time in Broome & are now sitting in Perth. For those that do not know Australian geography, we drove through the northern portion of Australia. From a about midway through the country to the west coast.

The northern portion of Australia is a lovely but a harsh environment. It is winter here, but in the north it has been getting above 35 degrees C most days (high 90s in Fahrenheit). It has been a little humid but thankfully not horrible. Here life is split into two parts, the dry season and the wet season. During the wet season it apparently downpours rain almost constantly. The whole country side fills with water rendering most of the roads impassable. The temperatures get up extremely high, you have to be a tough sort to get through the wet season here. The wet season shapes the landscape, it carves out huge impressive gorges and leaves wide open plains. The dry season is a time of basically no rain at all with the hot sun baking everything and everyone. Most of the rivers, creeks, gorges, and billagongs dry up exposing their beauty. So we have spent the last week in the dry season exploring the remains of the wet season.

As the wet season turns to dry it leaves saltwater crocodiles (the really bad crocs) in the small pools and creeks that remain, especially in Kakadu. It has been so tempting to go swimming in the crystal clear pools of water with it being so hot here, but we have been good where the saltwater crocodiles could potentially be at. There are a few areas the crocs do not go. We have enjoyed these areas by taking a swim & cooling off. Kakadu was full of stunning gorges & huge rock formations. There is a main road that loops through the park that is sealed (paved). Off this are dirt roads with a few creeks crossings, some good bumps, and some terrain to test the 4 wheel drive... ie Heeps of Fun!! After hiking through to Jim Jim falls & looking at the stunning Twin Falls and swimming in the drop pool there was a group there needing a tow to jump start their rig. Due to the circumstances at hand I had to tow them driving in reverse. Sadly there was a bit of an incident & I backed the rig into a rock bollard in the parking lot. This was my first time ever hitting something with a car that I did not intend to hit, so basically I got into my first accident that I caused. I suppose it is about time that I have something happen as I have been driving for about 10 years. Thankfully there was just some damage to the back indicator and bumper. So not so bad and we were able to help a few guys out, just sad my clean record is not as clean anymore.

After Kakadu we headed out to the Bungle Bungles. They are a series of beehive shaped hills with horizontal strips of red and dark brown colors. We got in a bit of trouble for setting up camp on the side of the road. It only meant a late night relocation of the campsite. While walking on some tracks we walked along the bottom of a deep chasm. At points it was just wide enough for one person to pass through. I have never been in anything like it before, it was awesome! The acoustics were great in the chasm, we were singing songs and sounding like a professional choir.

After the Bungle Bungles we set out to conquer the Gibb River Road. A 660km 4 wheel drive trek through the Kimberley National Park at northern parts of Western Australia. The Kimberley is amazing! There were a number of gorges, creeks & just stunning scenery! In the Kimberley there are primarily freshwater crocodiles, well at least in the parts we went through. With that being the case we were able to swim in a number of gorges and streams. We got to understand a bit more of how to act around crocodiles from talking and watching the locals. Some of the things you can do & not do surprised us. Towards the end of the week we got used to swimming in areas with freshwater crocodiles and watching out for signs of saltwater crocodiles potential presence. We went through this 500m long cave where we had to walk through waist deep water & climb over rocks with bats sleeping above. While there we knew there were at least 2 freshwater crocodiles in the cave from the people who saw them that morning. It seemed just to be normal. We were walking through with families that had little children and no one was too worried, but none of us ever thought in our life time we would walk through water where you knew crocodiles were & be calm about it. We did not see the 2 crocodiles in the cave, but we did see some crocodiles on the river shores & in some of the bodies of water as we drove through the Kimberley. There are so many awesome places in the Kimberley. It is just gorgeous. Our favorite gorge in the Kimberley was Bell Gorge, we set up camp near it Friday evening & spent all of Saturday relaxing in the Gorge. It was nice to just stop for a day & do no driving. Saturday night we stayed at the same place & had a few beers that were given to us from the neighboring campers. We set up a camp fire, turned up the music in the car and did some swing dancing. We taught a couple of the other guys in the camp ground how to swing & had a great night.

A bit tired of driving in the car on the Gibb River Road, Sally & I decided to ride on the top of the car luggage rake for a while. We just loved it & wished we could go everywhere like that. We had a few birds come and fly along near us, it was just stunning and gave us a different perspective to enjoy the scenery. Both Sally & I classify it as a huge highlight to our trip.

We got to Broome on Sunday evening with just enough time to drive through the town and get a quick snack before we had to sadly say goodbye to Natalie where she flew out to head back home. After Nat left we decided we wanted to enjoy a bit of the civilized life again, so dinner and a drink were in order. The problem was once again we were slightly gross. Since we were going to be camping again and did not have access to any showers, we headed into McDonalds and scrubbed up in their bathroom. We walked in dirty & smelly, then walked out completely different people, cleaned up & looking good! :) That night Vilma and I decided to sleep up on top of the car. We took all of the stuff off of the top and laid out our blow-up mattresses on top of the luggage rack & snuggled into bed. It was one of our best night sleeps, so nice and comfy but full of sand fly bites in the morning.

This past week we have driven 3264kms, along the way we have come up with a number of games to keep us entertained. At one point we played chicken with the on coming traffic. I don't think any of the other cars knew that we were playing the game, but we knew in our car! I also know that I won every time. :) Now before any of you reading this get too worried about my sanity let me explain. As we got closer to Derby the road had changed to a sealed (paved) road. Which was a nice change, but the problem was that this road was only wide enough for one vehicle. There were wide dirt shoulders, so in order for two cars to pass each other going in opposite directions both had to move halfway onto the dirt shoulder. So the road forced us to play a bit of chicken to see who would move off the road first. It kept us entertained while driving.

Another fun game was taking group photos. You know how you take a group photo & one guy has to run after hitting the button & try to get there on time & look cool & relaxed, while all the others have their perfect smiles worked out? Well we decided that was not fair for the one guy & decided that we all should have to run. So we set the camera up for 4 seconds. Then all ran from the camera to the photo spot & did whatever crazy thing we could imagine. A good way to keep your blood pumping & you get some unusual shots. Go ahead and try this game at home. :)

Ok, I am stopping here! I tried to not let this get to long, but we have done so much it is hard to tell what to leave in and take out. I have left out so much, but hopefully it gives you an idea. I am now sitting in Perth burnt from sitting on the beach in Broome & a bit tired. I have said goodbye to Sally & Evan now and will say goodbye to Vilma tonight. After that I am off to explore the Perth area & get a few things sorted for the next couple months.

~Laugh & Love Life~

Tonight as we drove into Darwin we searched out a dodgy, dark, dank, smelly pub to relax into the evening. We searched out the dodgy, dark, dank, smelly pub so that no one could see how disgusting we are and our smell will match in with the décor. So here we sit, drinking a good cold one relaxing and not being bothered by anyone... either because the smell is so bad or it is just the way it works at this dodgy, dark, dank, smelly pub. It has been 4 days since a proper shower, 2 days since we washed our hair in a random bathroom sink, and half a day since we went swimming. I am sure all of you can imagine how gross we feel, but we have had some amazing experiences!

For this leg of the trip we continued our Natalie – Vilma – Heather time zone, where we get up and on the road before sunrise & are pulling up and sleeping not too long after dark. There are a shortage of Maccas (McD's) with their free wifi through the centre of Oz. So we developed a slightly new morning routine. To start the mornings after we have driven a few hours after sunrise... normally around 9 or 10am we decide it is time to stop at a roadhouse. At the road house we get a beer & pie, an amazing Aussie tradition I will miss. We have gotten a few looks from the truckies that are eating breakfast. One morning we decided the beer and pie was so good we stopped in at the next pub 15 mins up the road and had another. There we had others willing to have a drink in the morning with us, where the barmaids informed me that they start serving at 7am and we were late. Apparently we fit in with the Northern Territory folk.

We even found the best meat pie in the world as judged by Natalie... I have come to call her the meat pie craver & expert! She seems to crave one every few hours, although I love the meat pies so I usually join in as well. A couple times I have had to pass, due to my stomach being so full I just sat and watched her eat another one. Yum! :0)

Driving up through the centre of Australia was a lot different then any of us thought it would be. There were a lot more trees and things than we thought there would be. North of Coober Pedy and around Uluru actually reminded me of Central Washington, USA in the Coulee where my grandma lives. We stopped in and visited the iconic Uluru (Ayres Rock). We were hoping to climb to the top, but it was too windy and a storm was on its way in, so sadly it was closed and we were not able to. Afterwards we went 35kms to the west & checked out some less well known, but just as cool rock formations the Olgas. Both the Olgas and Uluru are huge solid rocks about 350m high out in the middle of Australia.

After the Uluru & Olgas we ventured out to the stunning Kings Canyon. This was just stunning with huge shear cliff faces. You can see it on the photo here.... that is me sitting on the edge of the cliff!! I have a huge fear of heights, but I was just fine sitting there. Not sure what is wrong with me, when I am tied off in a harness and rock climbing or doing a high ropes course I really, really struggle, but sitting on that edge with absolutely no protection, I was just fine. Crazy, I say crazy! I really don't understand it.

We took a 4 wheel drive trek through the Litchfield National Park near Darwin. WOW! We drove through open areas, saw huge termite mounds that are long and skinny that are oriented north-south to limit their exposure to the sun. We went to a gorgeous waterfall diving into a clear pool at the bottom where we were able to swim without too much worry of crocodiles. We had the whole place to ourselves. To drive up this road we crossed about 8 streams, one where the water hit the bonnet (hood) of the car. It was so nice to drive through a good stream and a bit of a 4 wheel dive track again.

So as you can imagine we were slightly gross after all of this and no real showers along the way, only scrub ups near a sink, as we rolled into Darwin we did not want to be seen in a classy joint so we found the dodgy, dark, dank, smelly pub.

As I wrote everything above this on Friday and have not had a chance to send it out, I will update you on the weekend. We chilled all Saturday at Nat's cousin's place. Absolutely wonderful!!! Today we have walked around Darwin. I learned an interesting tid-bit today from Nat's cousin... that the Australian coat of arms has an emu & a kangaroo because neither are able to take a step backwards. We just picked up Sally our new addition to the road trip from the airport and are now sitting here enjoying the Northern Territory lifestyle having a beer and about to get some lunch.

Speak soon!!! :)

~Laugh & Love Life~

We are now sitting comfortably in Curtain Springs in the middle of the red centre of Australia... The Outback. Enjoying some wonderful & much needed red wine and chocolate.... oh life is good! :)

So it is time we sit back and reminisce our travels since our last blog. We sure enjoyed our relaxing in Adelaide. We had the mission to get a few things in order for the next bit of our trip & rest up. We thankfully achieved both! After getting our food and cars sorted, We took a day to explore bits of Adelaide. Our Adelaide host Owen took us chocolate and wine tasting, old building viewing (ie looked at some awesome heritage buildings), took us through the busy Adelaide markets, to lunch at a local pub & even showed us his bakery where the baker knows him by name. At the end of the day all of my friends in Adelaide came over to his place for some good home cooked dinner next to a burning fire.

The next day was another day to just sit back relax and chill. We caught up and said goodbye to my friends Adelaide at church. Afterwards we went back and got the last bits of our stuff packed and sorted. Owen was starving and itching to take us out to his pub. He took us out to an Indian restaurant where Natalie was able to have her first Indian food. Being with me Natalie has been experiencing a number of different culinary experiences, still on the list to get her to try is Sushi & Thai. We enjoyed Owen's pub & the lovely English ales it provided.

On Sunday we added an additional travel mate to this amazing road trip, a good friend of mine & an old flatmate from Brisbane, Vilma. We picked up Vilma from the airplane & started on our way after getting a few directions from Owen. As we headed up the highway the navigators started noting that they could find none of the towns on the map. Once we found the towns on the map we realized that we were almost back in Victoria! After flipping a U'iey and finding a new route we were very sad to discover that we were at least 3 hours off track.

We are currently traveling along the stuart highway that runs north-south through the centre of Australia, some of the harshest landscape on this earth. We stopped in a town, Cooper Pedy where most of the town is underground to shelter the town inhabitants from the 50 C (??F) heat. This town is surrounded by Opal mines where large holes are dug & men go down and dig out the opal. We stopped by a few of these holes in the ground along the road and dropped a rock down & it took at least 5 seconds for the rock to hit the bottom. These holes are deep! We did our best to avoid falling in...

After 2 solid days of driving with only a few quick stops we are currently 1 hour from Uluru (Ayers Rock). Tomorrow morning we are going to go watch the sunrise at Ayers Rock & hike around Kings Canyon.

I should probably get back to the lively discussion at our table that has developed since I started this blog here with a couple blocks here working on the roads painting all of the lines on the road. Funny enough we are sitting at the table that says (excuse the language please) “Beer & Bullshit Corner”. As we are discussing medicine, evolution, and politics, somehow it all fits here at this table... I am sure you only imagine how lively this discussion is! Talk to you all soon!

Natalie and I have made it to Adelaide this afternoon. We are throughly exhausted, but are veryexcited to stay in one place for a few days before continuing the trip. It is also a great opportunity for me to catch up with my mates in Adelaide before heading off. Tomorrow with our local host, Owen, we are going to do some lazy exploration around the area. Earlier today before arriving into Adelaide we did wine and cheese tasting in the Barossa Valley. Mmmmm so good!

We have seen so many great and amazing things and been on some many

adventures in the last few days it is hard to know where to start with all of it. I suppose that will probably be the case for most of my blogs, so here we go... We went to these amazing limestone caves in Buchan, Victoria. They had all sorts of shiny, shimmering, and wet limestone growths of all sorts of colors hanging from the ceiling and coming up from the ground. We toured through a cave that was 500 metres long called the Royal Cave, it was easy to see where it got its name. It was just stunning to walk through the little pathways & duck below the openings to get into the different caverns. It is really hard to describe how cool it was to be in these caves.Although, we did have a bit of trouble towards the end of the walk through the caves. In our true form we tried to get a jumping photo in the cave. This proved to be much more difficult than normal as the timing of the camera with the flash was hard to get right. I jumped so many times that I actually started feeling it in my calves. On one of the last big caverns we let everyone else walk ahead as we tried to get the best jumping shot, the only problem was that the tour guide did not notice we were with them and turned off all of the lights! So we were in an extremely dark cave where there are just small winding pathways to get out about to be locked in... needless to say we rushed on out of there by the light of our cameras. Thankfully we were able to catch up with the rest of the group in the nick of time. But it was all worth it to get the jumping photo in the cave.After going through the caves we continued to see stunning views of the ocean and hills through the south east of Australia.

We went through the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, saw the mouth of the Snowy River, drove over the first bridge to span the Murray River, and have been hiking through different ecosystems all along the way. We stopped in Melbourne over night and a group of 9 of my friends met us on Lygon street (a trendy street in Melbourne) for dinner. We had some good laughs and some good catch ups and said goodbye again to some more of my friends in Australia.... I can not tell if it is getting easier to say goodbye to all of my friends here or if it is getting harder.

We went to The Grampians in Victoria, which is a spectacular mountain range. Unfortunately we arrived ready to do some serious hiking just as a huge storm was releasing it's wrath o

n the area. The entire area had a thick layer of fog covering it. We got

a few glimpses of how awesome the views would be on a clear day, at other spots we were greeted with just a white wall. As it was pouring down rain, cold and extremely windy we decided not to do any of the long walks, instead we drove through the range on a windy road and stopped at a few lookouts and did a 2km walk to a spectacular

waterfall. (See photo on left) With the rains and floods all around the waterfall was displaying it's best for us. As we were driving along I quite often had to dodge trees that had fell across the road, a couple times the two of us girls had to get out of the car and push the tree out of the way far enough for us the pass through. At another point we ended up driving close to 6kms up the wrong way on a windy one-way road. It all kept us on our toes and we truly appreciated the heater in the car.

After a late night in Melbourne, a late night last night trying to gain a few extra hours of driving after dark, and driving over 2500kms we are really looking forward to a very early sleep tonight, so good night to you all. :)

~Laugh & Love Life~

After my last blog I have left New Zealand and am now back in Australia. I said goodbye to Quentin and Shelley. I landed in the Sydney airport and met Natalie, my OZ travel partner from the country in Queensland. From there we carried my bag and hers onto the train and traveled north to my friends place in Hornsby, where we had 4 friends waiting for us to have a BBQ. We spent Saturday going to church with me saying goodbye to a bunch of my Sydney mates and Natalie meeting a whole stack of new ones. She is now keen to get back to Sydney to visit them again and to see the rest of the sights there. This was Natalie's first time to see the Opera house and the harbour bridge.

Saturday night a big group took us out to dinner at a labanese resturant, the left-overs lasted through lunch and dinner the next day! We do not want to smell or look at labanese for a while! We topped Sydney off with a few drinks on the town and sociallizing we said goodbye to Natalies new friends and my old friends.

To start the road trip we had to deal with the car hire company which mucked up a few of our plans. After spending close to 2 hours getting the car we ended up with a super sweet deal! We have a camper van that we sleep in and has a stove, fridge and water for a week for the price of $50. On top of that we have a voucher for $250 free fuel, so bascially we have a sweet home on wheels for just the petrol and it doesn't eat up much more petrol than a car. It is nice, we have a whole system now. Early in the night We start by finding a safe place to park for the night, than crawl into the back and snuggle into our beds without getting out into the cold, than we get up before sunrise to make sure we get the most out of the daylight hours. We than proceed to the nearest McDonalds as they have free wi-fi, finalize the plans for the days journey, check the email. etc & avoid eating any McDonalds food (just buy something for their services). As the sun comes up we are on our way heading off on our adventures our the day! :) We are now on the Natalie & Heather time-zone, which means we purely go by the time time rises and sets. We are both certian this waking up early thing will end as soon as this trip ends and we go back to our normal ways.

At the beginning of the road trip we headed to the Blue Mountians and explored some of thier majasty. They are a stunning sight to behold. From there we headed to the ocean! It is winter here, so no chance of us getting into the freezing water, but we are taking in some stunning sights and amazing walks (or should I say steep scrambles to some awesome views) as we head south down the NSW coast on our way towards Melbourne. We even got some Bega cheese in Bega.

This road trip has been going way too smooth so today the campervan decided to give us a bit of drama to make it all interesting :) Thankfully Nat & I are not afraid to get a bit dirty. As we drove into one of the small towns we heard a really nasty squelling from the front tire. After jacking the car up, taking off the tire and having a look around we figured out there was a rock in the brakes. Thankfully we were able to get the rock out and than put the tire back on and head on our way. Hopefully that is the only real drama we have to encounter, that would be nice! :)

~Laugh & Love Life~

I have spent the last week resting and relaxing in Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. I am feeling very rested and have caught up on my sleep, which will come in handy for the next few months of go-go-go. :)

It has been great to catch up with my good friends Quentin & Shelley here. I have been able to help them with bits and pieces as they are trying to build a multi-million dollar house on the lake to sell, run a mechanic shop, split a bunch of land, and finish the planning and permits to build thier house, all while living in a small cottage near-by & getting ready to have a baby in the middle of it all. Lets just say they are a bit busy at the moment :)

It has been very chilly here in New Zealand.... ok, so compared to where I am from it is not too bad, but I am used to the warm weather in Brisbane! I don't know what I am going to do when I get back to the northwest in the US, I might just freeze!!!

Yesterday was an interesting day. It started out with Shelley & I deciding to have a baby - themed day to figure out how she was going to fit a baby in her cottage while Quentin was finishing the house on the lake and thier new home. After looking at lots of little baby shoes & having a flash lunch on the town we drove home and got a little shocked when we drove up to find one of the builders relieving himself right in the driveway... we barely avoided an accident trying to not look at him, but still drive through the driveway! After that we went for a bit of walk so Shelley could show me the extents of thier property & one of the builder's dogs came with us, the only problem was that he started chasing rabbits through the hills & we did not know his name. So we went running about chasing a dog yelling out come here dog, hey there little buddy, really anything we could think of... it was so sad and funny at the same time! Finally he got trapped in some bushes & we were able to scoop him up and carry him home, although my arms were tired by the time we got home. Lots of interesting events yesterday!

Tonight we are going to celebrate my leaving and hopefully some good deals made by Quentin today with home made cheesecake & drinks while watching Man vs Wild! :)

We are heading off to go swimming now and than tomorrow I am heading off to Sydney to say goodbye to my Sydney mates and start the road trip around Oz! Should be grand!

Until next time

~Laugh & Love Life~

The beginning of a Long Jump Home

Over the next 5 months I will be visiting 16 different countries, traveling with 40 different friends, will be visiting countless others, will take at least 19 flights, and will take a photo jumping in every location possible. And this is my blog to record it all.

I will be exploring the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Germany, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Brazil, and the US. To start my trip off I am currently on a plane heading towards the south island of New Zealand to say goodbye to this great island and to some of my close friends. After my time here I will be flying back to Australia so I can drive from Sydney around Australia, through the outback, and to spend some time 4 wheel driving through the Kimberleys.

I had my last day of work last Friday, where I closed up my projects and started finalizing everything in Australia for my departure. Followed by a weekend full of festivities celebrating my departure. (Thanks everyone that joined in, they were awesome!!) It has been sad to say goodbye to Brisbane, where I have been living for the past three years. I had made quite a good life there with some wonderful friends and lots of good times. But, it is time to come back to the US for a while and catch up with old friends and family, well once I get there that is. I should be arriving back in the US around December and will return to the great Northwest in Janurary.
I will post pictures on Facebook as I travel and try to announce on Facebook everytime I update this blog. My consistancy will depend on my internet access as I travel around.

I am currently in New Zealand. There is such a peace that the snow topped mountians give me. It really just reminds me of home. I love breathing in the cool crisp air and driving through the georgeous mountians. I have been treated like royalty by my close friends here. We traveled to the east coast of the South Island to Q's dad'd farm near Palmstown on the south island. It has been great to spend the weekend among the sheep, cows, turkeys, chickens, etc and live the country life for a bit. We are going to explored a bit of the east coast a bit yesterday. We went to this cool shore that had these round perfectly round rocks.

Can't wait to see what else we get up to in New Zealand! :)

~Laugh & Love Life~