the quiet revolution

I'm counting down the months until I can go travelling again. I didn't intend to go back to South America again any time soon (North Western Australia, Turkey, Jordan and Morocco were up the top of the list), but I seem to have changed my mind.

Is this really my life? It´s beautiful, wonderful & amazing.

Why did it take me so long to start living it?

Trekking starts tomorrow!

The good: we made it to Peru and are having a great time here in Arequipa. Today we did a cooking class that was a lot of fun. Peru is more chaotic than Chile and getting to Arequipa was quite a mission. It's cleaner and prettier though! We got in too late to take the Colca Canyon tour we wanted but there's still plenty to see and do here.

The not so good: dropping into SKY airlines to confirm my flights (bought through Expedia) to find they have no record of my booking. Hmm... I'll go back in the morning armed with my confirmation email and see if I can find a way to get back to Santiago to get myself home again. At worst I'm $700 out of pocket. Could be worse. Won't be booking anything through Expedia again!

So tomorrow I try to sort out my flights, and we organise the bus up to Cusco & Machu Picchu.

So, this week work took me to Flinders Island. It was the last major deadline leading up to my holiday and the point where I finally started to relax, knowing I'd done everything I really needed to and had plenty of time left to pack.

The trip went really well and Flinders Island is truly beautiful: I'd like to go back for a few days to explore and to climb Mt. Strzelecki. It was, however, a long trip, with the drive to Launceston Tuesday night then up early for a dawn flight to the island and a dusk return to Launnie, followed by the 2 drive back to Hobart. The plane was a little twin-prop 18-seater, which was much fun to fly in.

Unfortunately on the return flight I was sat in front of a cougher. There's a horrid respiratory infection that's been doing the rounds in Tas that I'd thus far avoided. No longer. I am sick. Flinders Island Flu.

Do not pass Go, do no collect $200, SICK. I'm running a fever and want to do nothing more than collapse in bed for a few days. It's not to be, however, as tomorrow I fly to Sydney, then Monday morning I'm off to Santiago. Today, instead of sleeping, I'm dragging myself through the packing process (it's going exceedingly slowly) and doing my best to keep moving. I've jumped on antibiotics and am filling myself with garlic, lemon, ginger, chilli and honey. All I can do now is hope I feel a little better in the morning.

Meanwhile, here's a little Flinders Island magic from my flying visit. I'll catch you all when I'm back in August.

xoxo

It's another of those stunningly beautiful Hobart mornings, the sunlight slanting across the Derwent making the waters sparkle like sapphires, the Mountain wearing a cape low, fluffy clouds, pockets of sunlight and shadow dappled across the slopes.

A perfect morning, warm and rich with possibilities, and yet, walking to the office from the bus, one discordant thought echoed: I need to get off the island again. It's time.

Time to reconnect with the rest of the world, to dip my toes back into the rushing tide of humanity for a few days, long enough to refresh my perspective lest I become another parochial Tasmanian, staring at the big city highrises in slack-jawed wonder.

Good thing I'm off to Melbourne next weekend. It's been almost six months: most definitely time.

xoxo

On a rainy day road trip up the Tassie east coast with playdoe_man. Planning a lovely hike through Freycinet National Park in the morning, so hopefully the weather lifts. For now we're holed up in Swansea for an evening of relaxing, watching the rain sweep across the bay.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Blah, the change to Summer Time always throws my routine out. The clocks go forward but my body clock does not budge and I find myself unable to sleep before midnight.

I have been doing some pen & paper writing, so my poor journal is getting a little neglected. My apologies. I haven't been doing anything particularly exciting though. A very quiet weekend at home was had, catching up on much-needed sleep. Saturday was wintery, with snow up on the mountain. I stayed inside in my thermals all day. Sunday brought the promise of summer and I sat outside in the bright sunshine for three hours, reading a book.

I haven't been for a proper walk in the forest in far too long. Five weeks since I've been on the mountain. I'll make an effort to get out this weekend; hopefully the weather will cooperate (I was going to be poisoning gorse on an island in the Franklin River, but that's been cancelled now, so I'm a free agent yet again).



I really should write a post or three about my Victorian adventures. I've been back for 5 weeks now and am still yet to write anything. Let's see...

* Saturday August 20th - flew to Melbourne, recovering from the 'flu. Lovely dinner out with K, wonderloey, trissemeister, wilso & AJ

* Sunday 21st - Hello larangytis. Day 1 of 6 with no/limited voice. Slept, lazed around and generally did very little until I lost it and cleaned K & WL's kitchen

* Monday 22nd - K and I drove down the Mornington Peninsular, exploring Portsea, Sorrento & the old quarantine station & army base right out at the end of the peninsular. In the rain. Lost voice entirely on the way home, enjoying the experience of a proper Melbourne traffic jam (not moving anywhere for a good hour)



* Tuesday 23rd - off to Daylesford with K and nurseysarah for a totally mute day of pottering about in 2nd hand-bookshops, crafty shops and foody places with a lovely stroll around the lake. Lots of driving and a very late night, capped off by a personal relevation, clearing an emotional blockage. Benfits of laringytis: nobody can hear you cry.



* Wednesday 24th - sleeping in and running errands in Melbourne city. Caught up with L and talked/mimed through a recent misunderstanding that looked like costing us our friendship. Investigated interesting-looking places and bought a hiking backpack to take my camera gear as well as some decent-sized memory cards. Failed to buy a set of Cokin filters due to no customer service and insufficient knowledge of what I was looking at.

* Thursday 25th - K and I set off to explore Gippsland. Meandering drive down to Inverloch, exploring the coast road, a walk along the inlet and sunset at Cape Liptrap lighthouse. An evening of wine, port & local cheeses, cozy in our hired cabin.



* Friday 26th - up and on the road by day-break, headed to Winsons Promontory National Park. Arrived to find most of the park still inaccessible following summer floods, but made the most of the parts we could get to. Lovely walk up Vereker Outlook. Very long drive home via Dumbalk & Mirboo North, thinking I could make a life somewhere like that. Exhausting day, voice returning.



* Saturday 27th - up before the sun again to take K & WL out for their surprise: a sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the Yarra Valley. At least that was the plan. Due to morning fog it was past 10 am when we finally got into the air after several hours of waiting around. The operation was run by cowboys but fun was had (although it turns out balooning is a little too sedate for me). Home for an afternoon of doing laundry and packing.



* Sunday 28th - home again, home again and realising how glad I was to be so. There's nothing like leaving to make you realise what you've got. Utterly exhausted, back aching and off to work again in the morning.



Boo to not being able to access the mosaic maker I've been using from werk. You'll have to deal with odd-sized photos instead (if I wait until I get home this post will never happen).

Right, on with the day then. There is much work to do and many new adventures to plot. Well, just as soon an I finally catch up on sleep...

Ok, I am most definitely insane. I have just booked myself in to spend 7 days over New Years in the middle of the Tasmanian wilderness. I'm going on a rafting trip down the Frankin River, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

If the river itself doesn't kill me^[1], the portages and day-hike up Frenchman's Cap will come close!

The Franklin's a part of this island I've been keen to see for a while. It's apparently stunningly beautiful and is also an interesting part of Tasmania's history. The modern green movement was born here when the Hydro Electric Commission moved to dam the Franklin in the 1980s. Protestors successfully prevented the dam from being built, bringing down a government in the process. This makes the trip particularly interesting to me, being an ecologist, environmentalist and supporter of the green movement, and also a current employee of the descendant of the old HEC. Poignant, no?

Meanwhile I'm off to Launceston this evening, spending the weekend "up north" for a soccer tournament in my role of team manager for the southern girls under-16 squad. I've got plenty of time between games so I'm hoping to get out exploring and photographing, providing the weather cooperates and I can drag myself out of bed for the early morning light. A visit to the Ninth Island winery would go down nicely as well. I'm yet to even pack and am not looking forward to driving up in the dark, dodging the wildlife (both human and marsupial).

May your weekend be what you need it to be, I'll catch you when I get back.

xoxo



[1] Refer to Richard Flannagan's debut novel set on the Franklin River: "Death of a River Guide"...