Dover - Absolutely Fabulous!

The countdown continues - only seven more sleeps until I speed down to the Snowy Mountains.

I dragged out a neglected Bertha the backpack from under my bed last night. I dusted her off, pulled off the old stickers from my last flight home to Sydney, and briefed her on our next adventure - Thredbo.

Inside, I found a brochure from a recent trip to Dover with my partner in crime and UK room mate, Shannon, aka Shaggy Dulu.

Dover is in South East England and is a stones throw (OK, short boat ride) across the Channel to France. It is known for its white, chalk cliffs. In fact, this was the last sight of her beloved England that my great-grandmother saw as she sailed to Australia to start a new life. Over 80 years later, Shannon and I decided to go hiking across these iconic cliffs - in the peak of winter.

Wearing my newly purchased ski gear Shannon and I braved the cold and took in the majestic views. However, we were the only crazy kids to go hiking and as soon as the wind blew up we were forced to crawl, Patsy and Eddie-style, across the cliffs in our brand spanking new outfits.

If only we were crawling due to an over indulgence of Bolli! Alas, this was purely for survival reasons to avoid being blown off the cliffs and floating to over to Normandy.

After walking three hours in one direction and then what felt like six hours back, we headed straight for a hot shower at our gorgeous b&b. Much to our hosts horror we were now water-logged, muddy versions of our former selves.

When in Dover, aside from taking in the white cliffs, visit the charming Dover Castle and Secret Wartime Tunnels from an interesting history lesson in to Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of Dunkirk.

One of the best tips I can give to any traveller in the UK is to visit the National Express website for diret cheap coach/bus rides across the country. It is much cheaper than the trains with this weekend expedition costing 5 pounds each way - 'tell 'em they're dreaming'!

So, at least my ski gear has been well and truly broken in.

Until my next adventure....

Kenya - my last backpacking adventure

I have 18 days left before I pack up my life, again, and move down to Thredbo to kick off the 2007 ski season as... drum roll please... a snow reporter.

Just think Bridget Jones on two skis.

To say I am excited is a huge understatement. So, before i jet off again leaving Sydney's gorgeous beaches, fabulous bars and restaurants, and tempting shopping in my wake I thought I would take time out to relive my last adventure with Bertha the backpack when in February of this year I headed to Mombasa Kenya to work as volunteer.

For those of you thinking of partaking in this type of adventure, just do it. Going to Africa is an unbelievable experience in itself but working and becoming part of a community is even more memorable and rewarding. I was expecting to be impressed my the African wildlife but it was the people that won me over.

A typical day for me involved walking 2km to the local school, making ouji (a sweet type of porridge) for breakfast for the 80+ kindie kids, washing up with little more than a bar of soap and a bucket of water, planting and pruning casurina trees, builiding desks, painting the school buildings and helping the teachers in the classrooms. There was just so much to be done.

Whilst in Kenya, Shannon (my fellow adventurer and partner in all bizarre travel expeditions) and I were given nick-names by the locals. Her name was Shaggy Dulu which is Swahili for sexy and hard working (naturally two adjectives that belong together - just think Naomi Campbell on community service, ha ha), and my nickname was Kadzo which is Swahili for small and cute, so I was told. It could have meant sweaty and smelly for all I cared, I was just honoured to have a Swahili name.

I have never left a holiday before with my backpack weighing less than when I arrived - I just couldn't help but give away my belongings to those who needed them more. Bertha the backpack was in shock.

If my experiences in Kenya interest you, please check out the Camps International website for more information on how to go on a working holiday as a volunteer in Africa. They offer all sorts of packages catering to different age groups and interests. www.campsinternational.com I went on the Community Life 2 Project and cannot reccommend it enough foe first timers to Africa who are looking to do a mix of volunteer work and sight-seeing.

Happy travels.

Sim/Kadzo xx

Taking the backpack on a trial run

Welcome to my blog.

I am hoping that I will be able to look back on this blog one day and say to myself 'ah, I remember that' and that along the way to being able to say that, I hope to keep a few of you entertained with 'what not to do' rather than 'what to do' when traveling. Someone has to learn from my mistakes!

So I am going to treat this first posting as a type of NY resolutions list for a first time blogger. Here goes...

1. I hope to make regular entries
2. I hope not to bore anyone being polite enough to read this
3. I hope to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (embarrassing as few people as possible)
4. I hope to never look back and cringe (a possible reconsideration of point 3 required)
5. I hope to post as many pictures as possible to keep this site interesting
6. I hope to provide as much travel information and links to other potentially more informative and interesting blogs as possible, without ruling out point 2
7. I hope to stop starting sentences with I hope

Let's see what happens.

In the meantime, I look forward to continue bonding with my backpack who I have lugged through Europe and Africa in the past 12 months. Bertha has served me well, so far.

At the end of this month I will be loading up Bertha to tackle Thredbo over the 2007 ski season. Let's see how she (OK, I really mean me) handles the cold.

Stay tuned for more from me, 'I hope'.

Simone x