Renew and Restore

This article was written for the blog Assortment run by the wonderful Sarah Lou.

As a means of introductions, I'll skip the formalities and just go straight for photos, as the saying goes - they're worth a thousand words...

Just hanging around

Just saying hello

I feel that these two pictures summarise me fairly well. The first picture is me abseiling down a 40m rock face upside down. The second is me hungering for brains in the new John Butler Trio music video "Only One". 

Now, what do these have to do with renew and restore you ask? Well, everyone has a different idea of what renews and restores their well-being. For me, these are two prime examples of what makes me feel awesome: being outdoors, climbing rocks and being up high, and putting on a costume and make-up and generally making a bit of a fool out of myself in front of thousands of people (this is not the first time). Some of you may think I'm crazy that these kind of things relax me, but at the same time I kind of think the same thing about people who sit in front of the TV for hours, or facebook or just go for a drink to relax. The more I sit still, the less I do and generally the more I end up sleeping regularly, the more worn out I feel and the more antsy I get to get up and go run around in a circle.

And so, I have recently quit my job as a geologist in Western Australia, so I can satisfy my itchy feet and go and explore the world. I wasn't feeling particularly happy or satisfied with my job and was travelling for short times fairly often. I got the opportunity to travel to Puerto Rico for 3 weeks where I was able to spend my time being restored to my former self by doing so many things I love doing: photography, cinematography, SCUBA diving, climbing, hiking, exploring, eating and caving. The last of which, I don't get to do very often, but always love when I do. Below is a video I put together of my caving adventure so you can also enjoy it (from the safety of your own home for some or as inspiration for others).

I can wholeheartedly recommend taking the chance to go to Puerto Rico if it ever comes up. Ticket prices are not outrageous, it's cheap once you're over there and it's an easy mix of westernised and Caribbean culture. And if you do make it there and fancy a bit of adventure, the Aventuras Tierra Adentro who took me caving were absolutely amazing.

During my time over there I travelled all over the country by car: Fajardo - San Juan - Ponce - Arroyo - Humacao - Arecibo - Isabela - Rincon, and many other smaller stops along the way. But I will leave those stories for another time. For now, I will leave you with a hello, an introduction and a good luck to renew and restore in this new year!

Until the next time.

Tom

Sending Out A (Samsung) SOS

At the end of September last year, I received an email from Samsung with tickets attached for flights to Puerto Rico and a chance to win my own private island.

Alright, now that I got your attention with a bit of excitement and disbelief, I'll take us back a bit. It was a cold, dark, winters morning in August and I was over 1000km (~2.4 million Babylonian Trade Cubits for those wondering) from civilisation, in the middle of the Pilbara Region of West Australia. It was about 530 in the morning and I was going through my normal routine of reading the news before work started When I came across an article stating something very similar to "Samsung is doing something ridiculous for the sake of advertising again", on the technology news site BGR. I click through the links, discovering a Survivor type deal, showing off new camera/mobile products with training from Survivorman Les Stroud, set on a desert island. I think - Hell, that sounds amazing and something I'd be great at, may as well apply. So I send off a quick application and a photo, not expecting to ever hear anything back again, but hey, it was a way to keep myself occupied for a few minutes.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. I'm back on site and I'm the only rig geologist there, along with my supervisor, after a rather brutal cut-back due to costs. Early morning again, checking my mail, a subject line with "Samsung" catches my eye. I open it up to find a message telling me that they found me interesting and would like me to fill in the second round of applications - follow this link. So I click on this link and it takes me to the longest, most in depth and detailed questionnaire that I have ever seen. I mean, I thought Rio Tinto's application process was long and intensive with multiple police checks... So there's no way I can do this in a few minutes, so I leave it for the moment and off I go to work. Being the only rig geo on site, it was fairly busy and tiring so this email sat there for a few days. Until I can't get to sleep one evening and have the chance to try and fit what seems like my life story into this application. I fill in a few questions thoroughly, but quickly grow jaded and pessimistic at the chance of getting a response and so end up filling in a fair few answers with a single sentence or sarcastically. I finish that up, attach a couple more pictures and send that off, thinking to myself, what a waste of time...

But, much to my surprise, a few days later I received another email saying that they really like me and could I send in a video entry. Well damn, I don`t particularly like being in front of a camera at all, let alone on video, I much prefer to be behind the lens. That, and I didn't exactly have much time to put together a video during my 12 hour shifts out in the desert with limited connectivity. I managed to find a few minutes to quickly record something during the day and then send it off that night straight from the camera with no editing. Phew, that was hard work being in front of the camera, but now I'm sure they will realise that I'm a terrible choice and I'll never hear from them again. 24 hours later... "We really liked your video, but we need you to record it again as there was too much wind in the soundtrack."

I heave a sigh of resignation, I'm going to have get on camera again... But even more difficult than that, is finding a place out of the wind in the Pilbara... At some point during the day, I managed to find a few minutes again, somehow, miraculously found a place a little bit sheltered from the wind, re-recorded my video and sent it off again that night. I wake up to an email saying thanks for the entry, we'll be in touch in the following weeks. To any of you interested, here it is:

Somehow, I've yet to figure that out, this video got me a place competing on Samsung SOS Island. The first thing I think when I get notified of this in September is - hopefully I can get the time off work. Luckily, due to a variety of circumstances and having already asked for two weeks off at the time, I was allowed an extra week to head over to Puerto Rico!

Here I spent a week doing live streaming shows, with some training by Les Stroud on various survival techniques such as building shelter, finding water, making a fire and survival food. You can check out the full story here.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it through to the actual island, but I reckon I got the best deal out of it, I got a free flight to Puerto Rico, free survival training, met some great people, and then had 2 weeks to travel around and explore Puerto Rico.

You can check out all the videos on my YouTube page and I've put a select few below for your enjoyment.

Until the next time!

Obstacle Course Extravaganza

This past year I ran various obstacle courses in Australia and the UK as both a personal challenge and to raise money for various charities. The lengths ranged from 5km to 20km but the minimum I ran at any one time was 10km (ran a 10km one and the 5km three times).

I'd like to thank everyone that donated to my effort! It was very much appreciated by both myself as a sign of support and the charities that received the funds!

Check out the video compilation below. It's been a long time coming I know!

Hello World!

Hello world! Привет мир! Hej världen! Olá, mundo! 你好世界! مرحبا العالم!

I thought that when it comes to beginning travelling and writing that it would be best to start simple. Unfortunately there's not a simple program for this "hello world" and I will just tell you a little bit about me and what I hope to do with this blog!

For the past two years I've been working as a geologist in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Before this I was studying in the UK as a Mining Geologist and Materials Engineer. I lived in the UK for 11 years in North Wales, London and Cornwall, but am originally from Buffalo, New York. I have been lucky enough to live, work and travel in various countries around the world, but this amounts to a metaphorical drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. So this year I decided to resign from my job and venture off into the epic vastness of the world that I have yet to see. And yes,I know that 'epic' is rather overused nowadays, but I honestly don't think that there is a more suitable adjective to describe what is possible to see around this planet.

So what do I hope to achieve with this blog? That's a question I'm still trying to figure out exactly as I'm pretty new to this. I'm going to aim to document my journey and share my adventures. This means that I will hopefully end up with a very nice journal of my travels to look back on, allow others to see what I've experienced if they're planning on going somewhere similar and to make sure my mum doesn't worry too much that I've dropped off the face of the planet. So I'll be producing videos of my exploits, posting photos of the incredible sites and sharing stories, anecdotes and my experiences. This will hopefully be wide ranging from reviews of specific places, general or specific advice or even recipes I've picked up along the way. If I'm very honest I also hope that I will be able to achieve something that grabs someones attention enough that they would like me to write, photograph, report, review or document for them so I can continue seeing this beautiful planet for a living (yes I know, another cliché - I'll try to minimise their use in future).

>Insert world into oyster here< - just kidding!

I'm going to start with a few back stories to get a bit of content rolling and to get used to this whole blogging thing. But don't worry, I'll make sure it's all fairly recent exploits and I won't go back farther than 12 months. So keep an eye out for some (hopefully) exciting posts from the UK, Thailand, Australia and Puerto Rico. I'll finish off this first longish post now, and I'll hopefully see you back again soon.

Until the next time - wherever it may be!
Trekking Thomas