January 7th, 2017

January 7th, 2017


Affirmation:  “If the grass looks greener on the other side, it’s just life’s way of reminding me to water the grass I’m standing on.”



Word of the Day: maelstrom (n):

1. a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius.

2. something resembling a maelstrom in turbulence.

Don’t Let Your Throat Tighten

Don’t let your throat tighten

with fear. Take sips of breath

all day and night, before death

closes your mouth.

____

I will write posts from the past 2 days (January 5th and January 6th) retroactively (because there are some great experiences and eats/ pictures and passion that I want to share). But I figured that I would post today’s entry while things are still relatively fresher in my mind.

Overall, my time here has been incredible. Australia is everything I had hoped it would be and more. I am in so much awe. I love traveling alone, but I want to be able to share some of these experiences with others, too, so this blog is helping with that!

Despite waking up at 6 am this morning, I didn’t start my drive to Thredbo until 8 am (long story…). The drive from ACT (Australian Capital Territory/ Canberra) into the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales was breathtaking. And yes, there are literally signs to watch out for kangaroos and other things you wouldn’t seriously expect to find in Australia.

Driving on the left side of the road was challenging and took a while to get used to. I wasn’t able to listen to my audiobook because I really needed to focus on the road. I ended up overshooting and driving into Mount Kosciuszko National Park, so by the time I got to Thredbo, paid the National Park Fee, and parked, it was close to 11 am. I had to park quite a ways from the chairlift up to the base of the hike, so by the time I bought tickets, had a snack, hydrated, and took the lift up, I didn’t start the hike until 11:40 am.

I asked around and I was told several times that the hike would take about 4 hours round trip (2 hours each way). I was supposed to start at 10 am to barely make my flight back in Canberra, so I decided to hustle… and I ended up completing the entire thing (including 5-10 minutes for food/ water/ pictures at the summit) in 2 hours flat… round trip! (I guess I really did hustle ;-) One of the guys who said that he had worked in Thredbo for a while said that it was a record by quite a bit as far as he knew… I don’t know about that, but it was cool and exhilarating nonetheless).

I definitely have “Seven Summits” fever now! I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to climb Everest, but I certainly want to do the next five! The exhilaration and sense of accomplishment and adrenaline and efficacy I felt were in a league of their own. And the day was perfect. Save the swarms of mosquitoes (and I refused to wear the DEET saturated repellant mom had packed me), it was sunny, bright, and warm with a cool breeze all the way to the top and back. It was wonderful.

After a hearty lunch at the base, refilling my water, and getting gas, I drove back to Canberra airport, got more gas, and checked in very early for my 7:15 pm flight to Sydney. I’m eating some Australian ginger cookies and leftover chocolate as I’m typing this post at the gate. Unfortunately, there’s no wifi at the airport, so I’ll try to post tonight when I get to Sydney (I land at about 8:30pm, and my dad’s cousin is picking me up). I’ll stay at his place tonight and he’s driving me back for an early flight to Uluru/ Ayers Rock tomorrow morning! I’m sure I’ll get a very good night’s sleep tonight!

Update: my dad's cousins pick me up and took me to their small beautiful home on the outskirts of Sydney complete with mango, tangerine, and other fruit trees in the backyard and jasmine flower bushes that smelled like Joe Malone perfume in nature.

 We set up talking and they fed me Australian Tim Tam cookies, vanilla ice cream ( which tastes very different from the ice cream in the United States and is reminiscent of ice cream truck vanilla ice cream), Australian cheese, and homemade carrot pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting). I ended up lot getting to bed until midnight, but I slept well!