Oh Noes

I can't believe I finally did it but I sold my house, sold my car, sold or got rid of most of my possessions and am now left with not much stuff but plenty of cash.

I want to spend the next few years backbacking around the world. Life is too short to be working the 9 to 5, working for someone else and never seeing any rewards.

While you might think it's crazy to sell my house, it's not as crazy as it seems. I have a plan. I have a few properties in my home town and I only sold one of them. I'm going to buy a small apartment in the middle of Europe somewhere to use as a base. From there I'll travel around Europe and the Middle East.

Before I do that though, I'm going to spend 6 months touring around South America. I've never been to that part of the world so it's going to be interesting, to say the least. First off is Brazil where I want to take some time to relax on the wonderful beaches and then maybe I'll head off to explore the Amazon where there are undiscovered peoples and the delicious acai berry. Yeah!

Then it's off to Argentina where I'm going to get serious and start to learn Spanish which should help me out on the rest of my travels in Spanish speaking countries.

To be continued...

Fresh Food

I've been a little slack with my eating habits over the last couple of months. I haven't bothered cooking properly and would just eat bread and cheese with some tomatoes and olives, that kind of thing. Tasty food but not varied and therefore not providing me with enough nutrients on a daily basis.

I know that's not good enough so am trying to change. I'm starting to add a wide variety of fruit to my diet. For example, along with eating apples, bananas, and oranges, I'm also eating pomegranates, acai berries, goji berries, persimmon, kiwi, and pineapple. I'm trying other fruits as I come across them too.

As for my vege intake, I'm trying to eat a wide variety of vegetables. I love to bake veges like potato, sweet potato, carrots, and butternut pumpkin. Salads are great too as I can throw in whatever I have in the fridge - tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, corn, asparagus, mushrooms, olives etc.

Hopefully all this fresh food will help me feel and look better over the coming months.

Sicky

I've been a little unwell over the last few months, coming down a cold a couple of times and generally feeling lethargic. I've been researching detoxing and colon cleansing to see if that might be able to help me out a bit.

I've found loads of sights providing information about colon cleansing which include these:

here
and here

I don't know if any of the information is useful or even accurate but that's what I'm looking at, at the moment.

Working

Even though I have permission to work in France, I have decided to work from home instead. I used to think all the work from home stuff and make quick cash websites were rubbish and scam and while many of them are, you can in fact make money working from home.

The thing is, you need to stay away from all those scammy products and ebooks and whatever else sounds too good to be true. The easiest way to make money is by creating a blog about a topic or product and write about that product. You can then put advertising on your blog and you can make money.

If you try to advertise super competitive products it can be difficult although obviously that is where the money is. But if you advertise products which are so popular you can easily rank in the search engines but naturally you won't have that much traffic because not so many people are interested in it. I balance of being popular and not having too much competition is great but not necessary.

Still Alive

Yes, it has been ages since my last post and yes, I'm still alive!

To be honest, I completed forgot I had this blog but now I'm going to get back to updating it on a regular basis.

Currently, I'm living in Paris and although I love it here I feel like it's time to move on. I'm not sure where I want to go though. I'd love to stay in Europe but maybe move somewhere east. I'm thinking Prague, Budapest or maybe Munich or Vienna. I just can't decide.

Fairly soon I plan to do a bit of a tour of the Baltic region and a few other countries. I'm thinking of flying to Helsinki and then travelling to Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, head over to Poland, then the Czech Republic before heading back to France via Germany. Who knows if it will happen though because it's starting to get very cold.

Speaking of cold, I've been as sick as a dog lately. I've been taking acai berry supplements to give me a boost of antioxidants as well as some resveratrol which is also big on the antioxidants. I think this is why I need to get out of Paris, the pollution is killing me.

Western Australia - Esperance

I grew up and lived most of my 32 years in Perth but only went to Esperance for the first time last year. What a shame! Esperance is extremely beautiful. Well, not the town but the surrounding beaches are like no other.

Esperance beaches are by far the most beautiful in the world. The sand is perfectly white and soft like flour. I'm not exaggerating, it is like flour. It's incredible. The water is turquoise in colour and crystal clear with no sign whatsoever of pollution. Before going to Esperance I read that you can see Kangaroos lying on the beach. I thought that was just a way to get the tourists in and maybe they turned up once in a while. To my surprise, and delight, there where 2 or 3 kangaroos on the beach the day I was there. There was a mother and her joey and they where very friendly. Obviously used to people you could get close enough to touch them. They weren't scared at all.

It's not surprising that there is no pollution because it is very remote. Esperance is 700km from Perth and there is not much to see on the way there. When I went I drove to Albany first then to Esperance. To get back to Perth I stopped off at Kalgoorlie making a nice round trip of the South West. I did that in about 10 days but looking back I would have preferred to go straight to Esperance and spent 10 visiting the various amazing beaches.

Western Australia - Albany

Albany is a large country town about 400km south of Perth. It's one of the nicer towns in the region with nice beaches and great whale watching. The drive from Perth isn't too much trouble and you can stop and visit the Karri forests on the way which are beautiful.

For me the only reason to go to Albany is for the whale watching. Whales are amazing, beautiful creatures and if you have an opportunity to go out on a boat to see them up close then don't hesitate to do it. There are other places to see whales in Western Australia but Albany is probably the most well known as it used to be a commercially whaling centre. Obviously this is no longer the case and you can go to the whaling museum while you are there if that is of interest.

Other places of interest in Albany are along the rugged coastline. Albany itself is situated on a calm bay but if you head to the other side of that you can see the wild ocean crashing into the coastline. You can see blowholes and the natural bridge which goes out over the water. I always get very nervous at these places but I love to be reminded just how wild Australia is. You can also see a wind farm up close. Some people consider these massive windmills to be an eyesore but I love them. I think they're a great initiative.

I'm generally not interested in visiting country towns but Albany does make a nice weekend trip if you want to get away from Perth for a few days.

Western Australia - Margaret River

Margaret River is a very popular wine growing region in the south west of Western Australia. It's a popular tourist destination for people living in Perth as it is only around a 3 hour drive from Perth. People often visit on long weekends.

Margaret River itself is quite a small town and it's the wineries and arts and craft places which more of interest, if you like that kind of thing. The wineries often have world class restaurants attached to them which is another reason to visit. Other towns in the region include Busselton, Yallingup, Augusta, Pemberton, and all the way down to Albany.

Having grown up in Perth it was normal for people to go 'down south' for the weekend or for a couple of weeks holiday. I had friends who had holiday homes down there and would visit a few times a year. My brother loves it so much that he even got married there. Personally I never had any interest or attachment to the region. I don't drink so the wineries are of no interest. The Karri forests are beautiful but seen one seen them all really. There are some nice restaurant in the Margaret River region but it's not like there aren't any good restaurants in Perth. You might want to go there to get out of the city but I like the city. I'm not a country person at all.

I don't 'get' Margaret River and I never will. It's boring! It's a complete waste of time. I'd rather get a flight and go to Melbourne or Sydney for a bit of shopping and some GREAT restaurants. People from Perth go to Margaret River out of desperation more than anything. There's no where else to go because Perth is the most remote, boring city in the world. I'd rather slit my wrists than go back to that backwater.

Western Australia - Pinnacles - Wave Rock

The Pinnacles and Wave Rock in Western Australia are no where near each other but I'm mentioning them both in the same post because my views of them are the same. They are boring places to visit so don't waste your time going there.

Wave Rock is by far the most boring tourist attraction in Western Australia. It's too far from Perth to go just because it's a nice drive. It's a bloody long way, there's nothing to see along the way, and it's tiring. Once you get there you have to pay to see a rock. Yes that rock is in the shape of a wave but so what? So you drive for 3 hours and then spend 5 minutes looking at a rock shaped like a wave and then you can drive the 3 hours home. Fun.

The Pinnacles are slightly more interesting than Wave Rock but only slightly. The Pinnacles are about a 4 hour drive north of Perth. You pay around $20 per car to get in. Actually I can't remember how much it is so I just made that up. It's not cheap though and it always annoys me when you have to pay to visit a national park. Doesn't it belong to the people? Why should we have to pay to maintain it?

The Pinnacles are interesting in that they are strange. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's a sandy dessert with these mounds of sand which form the pinnacles. Before I went there I thought it was out in the dessert somewhere but was surprised to find that it is right next to the ocean. You can actually see the water while visiting the Pinnacles. It's a strange place with an eerie feel about it. It's very popular with tourists so watch out for buses. Again it's a case of if you are in the area then stop by and have a look but otherwise don't make a special trip, you'll be disappointed.

Western Australia - Monkey Mia - Shell Beach

Monkey Mia is about 1100 km north of Perth in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Monkey Mia is so small that it isn't even a town. The only thing there is a caravan park with a cafe. If you want to stay in a hotel then you'd need to stay in Denham about 10km away. Monkey Mia is most famous for the wild dolphins which come into shore a couple of times a day to be hand fed by curious tourists. I was there last year and it gets very busy in summer so it's packed along the beach at feeding time. Everyone stands along the beach and only the park rangers are allowed in the water so you don't exactly get to 'swim with the dolphins' as some tourist brochures might have you believe. Three or 4 people are chosen by the rangers to feed the dolphins and you aren't allowed to touch them for health reasons, their health that is. The beach is strictly protected for the well being of the dolphins and I'm not sure it is worth the 1100km drive just to look at them.

However, there are other things to do at Monkey Mia. The beach is beautiful with fine, white sand and crystal clear water. The area is very remote so you can easily find a beach where you won't be bothered by anyone else. I enjoyed going on a wildlife cruise and seeing the dugongs. Dugongs are 'mermaid' like creatures and are amazing to watch. Much more interesting than the dolphins if you ask me. They are very quiet grass eating mammals related to elephants and they are quite rare. There are also endangered turtles in the area but I wasn't lucky enough to see any.

A bit further away from Monkey Mia is Shell Beach. There is no sand at all on this beach, instead the beach is made up of millions of tiny shells, hence the name. It is quite an amazing place. The water is incredibly clear and warm. It's hot and sunny for more than 300 days. Again it is quite remote but there were quite a lot of people when I was there in the middle of summer. There were especially a lot of European backpackers.

Although it's true that Monkey Mia isn't all it's hyped up to be I still think it's worth visiting. It is a long drive but if you love the beach then you could easily spend a week or two there, soaking up the sun and the native wildlife. Don't miss Shell Beach!