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

The New and Improved Family

And we're off!

This first week (and a bit) has gone rather quickly. We spent the first three days driving straight up the coast (with a day in Carnarvon - more on that later) to Exmouth, in order to meet a very good friend of mine and his girlfriend for a few days of sun, sand and shenanigans around the Ningaloo reef. 

The first day was rather short - setting off in the evening, picking up Zoe and then stopping by Kim's best friends place for a very civilised cheese and crackers and slightly less civilised game of cricket with a 5 year old and crawling around the floor with a 10 month old. After a slightly longer stop than planned, we high tailed it a whole 30 minutes to a camp site at Moore River. I did the obligatory group photo day 1 and had a little play with my camera which resulted in a picture I'm quite happy with:

Obligatory first day group shot - a "before" if you will permit me

Happy snappy night time shot

The next three days were rather uneventful with all the driving, so I will swiftly move on to the new introductions. First up, I will introduce you to Claire:

Yes, Claire is a car...

I've had this car for a little over a year now, but it was only on the drive up the coast last week that I finally named my trusty Rav 4. I decided to name my car Claire after a very good friend of mine for a multitude of reasons. I bought this car at about the same time the human Claire came into my life, they're both very strong and fully capable no matter what anyone else may say and despite their misleading demeanor and of course they're both gold (though my Rav 4 is slightly more on the beige/champagne side). So I've decided that Claire will help me get around Australia for the next couple months as human Claire has helped me this past year.

Next up, is George. Or George Aslan II to be precise:

A refined name for a slightly less than refined trailer

This little(ish) bugger is the reason we got stuck in Carnarvon for a day after only two hours of driving. We very quickly realised that we weren't going to have quite enough space in the car as Zoe was already cuddling a lot of the gear in the back and we were going to have a fourth permanent person on this trip when Sam joins us in a couple weeks, let alone two extra temporary family members for the next week or so when we meet up with Will and Sam (different Sam). So we hit the internet to find out the best option for extra storage space, between a roof rack and a trailer. We managed to pick up George here for a mere $100 (down from an advertised $800!), but then had the very fun job of getting him road worthy as he was currently unregistered - and so it begins... First up, poor old George has been sitting in a back garden unloved and unused for a few years - so he needs a new plug, so we head to the local garage who promise to call us back within an hour when it's done - 2.5 hours later, I give them a call - oh yes, it's been done for ages... Alrighty, so next up we go to the post office to try and organise a change of registration - they send us to the bigger Department of Transport office down the road. Drive on down there: yep, here's a form to fill out with all yours and the sellers details on, and by the way, you need to have it inspected, but not at the normal garage, at the registered Toyota dealership just out of town. Back to the previous owner's house for a bit of a sit down form filling session and then off to the Toyota dealer. 

"Yep, we can inspect it, have you got a weight certificate?"

"A what now?" - Apparently, trailers are registered and taxed by weight in WA, but this garage and the other one don't have a vehicle scales, the RAC a bit more out of town does... So down the road we go. Something else was on the scales and unmoveable at that time, so a couple hours and $35 later (yes, $35 to put a trailer on a scale and print out a piece of paper) - back we go to the Toyota dealer. Inspection takes about 10 minutes, for which my assistance was required and involved a couple tape measurements. 

"Great, come back tomorrow to pick up the documentation."

"What!?" Apparently the documents need to be faxed to Perth, checked and returned, and apparently, at 1530, the people required to make this happen have already left the office... But at least it should be done by 0900. So 1100 rolls around - no phone call. I call them up, and once again, apparently they've had the documents back for a couple hours... great. Another $40 down the drain for another bit of paper and 10 minutes of someone's time to take some measurements. Back to the DoT. Finally after about 24 hours, I finally drive away with a legally registered and slightly cleaner trailer. I'm pretty sure it would have been cheaper and easier to not do the right thing and just pay the fine for an unregistered trailer...

So we load up George and off we head for Exmouth, and 6.5 hours later we arrived in time to set up the tents, chilled out in the pool for a bit and had dinner with a cider that didn't feel quite as well deserved after the debacle with Goerge and then to bed to get up very early to head to the airport to pick up Will and Sam.

Which segues perfectly onto the introduction to the two new temporary family members:

The intrepid explorers

Will is a very good friend of mine back in the UK and Sam is his girlfriend. We spent a few days in the National Park on Ningaloo reef enjoying the amazing snorkelling and relaxing before they had to head back to Perth for Sam to get back to work. More on those few days in another post!

Which brings us to the final new member of the gang: John. He's a bit sensitive and is currently head deep in a tub of guacamole so I can't currently upload you a photo of him. But I will paint a picture - John is a lit bit twisted (literally), and a little bit hairy as he tends to catch a lot of fluff on his head, he's also a spoon (literally), and Zoe found him in the middle of a dirt track on one of her jogs. She felt inspired by her older brother to name it John.

There was one other very temporary family member:

I have no idea what it is, and it didn't survive long enough to name, but it looks like a giant flea. If anyone has any insight - do let me know!

And so that sums up the new editions to the travelling family. I'll close with a cheesy silhouette photo!

And so it begins

It's the first night of the adventure!

I finished at Fringe festival last night :( and have some wicked posts about that to come. And today I set off with Zoe and Kim a whole 90 minutes outside of Perth! This was planned however, as for the next 3 days, we'll be making a blitz all the way up the coast to Exmouth to meet some friends there, before slowly working our way back down the coast.

So I'm going to sign off here for the night, as need some sleep after only 3 hours last night and get some better posts and photos up soon!

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!

The Motley Crew

It's less than 2 weeks until the adventure begins! Today was the first day back in work after a few weeks off where I had to, rather suddenly, pack all my belongings, organise my life to be shipped back to the UK and then to move out of my flat, all this the week before I was to head back to the UK to surprise my family for Christmas day. My oldest brother knew I was turning up, and originally he was to pick me up on the Saturday, but circumstances changed and had to head back a few days earlier and so I was then going to turn up on my mum's doorstep on the evening of Christmas day. Between my older brother and I, we predicted precisely what the other three were going to say:

Mum screamed "Oh my god!" - but that was an easy one;

Oliver said: "What are you doing here?" - don't worry, not quite as unloving as it seems - there was intonation involved!;

and Nick said: "Look it's a hobo." - sarcastically commenting on my magnificent, man-tastique new beard (yes there was plenty of facial hair jealousy involved), but again, not quite as unloving as it seems.

So this was me Facebook-ed a few moments after arrival:

But after that initial excitement I spent a very nice couple weeks at home and occasional trip out to see other friends and family.

But, now onto my initial reason for this post - sorry got distracted reminiscing about my holidays already, the introduction to myself and my lovely travelling partners! *Pause for dramatic effect and time for gasping/applause* Here we go! Please excuse the descriptions - just trying to provide some context (and relative to myself as it is my blog).

Tom (portraying myself): I am a 26 year old technology, adventure and food enthusiast. My hobbies include climbing, cycling, hiking, SCUBA diving and baking to name a few, but when I'm not running around I love to sit and read fantasy, sci-fi and popular science books (not all inclusive). I'm always on the run and always looking to experience something new, but I am a caring, loyal geek at heart.

Kim (as the beautiful girlfriend): Kim is a 22 year old qualified physiotherapist (they say you're only as old as the girl you're dating) who born and raised in Perth WA, but grew up travelling all over the world. In her spare time, Kim loves to spend time playing basketball, boxing, generally running around and teaching aerial silks and trapeze - this coincidentally is where we met. Kim quit her job late in 2013 to start travelling the world as well, and I am lucky enough to have her agree to join me on my adventures! Check out her blog here: This is me: Nothing more, nothing less!

Sam (fulfilling the role of Kim's twin sister): Sam is the older of her and Kim by a few minutes. However, it is widely agreed that this was because Kim booted her out of the womb after stealing many of her nutrients in-utero (Sam is the slightly smaller of the twins). Sam is also a qualified physiotherapist and also teaches aerials silks and trapeze, and whilst these two are very close and similar in a scary number of ways - Sam is very much her own 'special' person (just kidding Sam!). 

and Zoe (the far more travelled friend and resident expert (hopefully anyway)): Zoe is a 25 year old qualified mathematician, who decided that she would (rather wisely some might say), go teach English in China for a year after graduating. Having finished that last July, she has since spent the past 5 months or so working her way across SE Asia down towards Australia to join us across the continent. I have known Zoe for many years as our mum's were very good friends when they were young. Outside of travelling all over the world and being generally pretty awesome, Zoe also loves dance hip-hop and break dance - ending up in some fairly contorted positions.

Clockwise, from top left - Tom, Kim, Sam, Zoe

So I guess that kind of connects all of us four, we all have hobbies that would make the general onlooker wince in pain.

and together we make the...

>INSERT NAME HERE<

Well that needs to be decided, seeing as we aren't all in the same country yet - but feel free to give suggestions and input!

Over the next 3 months or so, we will travel around Australia and New Zealand. The rough plan is to drive up the west coast of Australia to Exmouth and back over February, drive along the southern coast and up the east coast over March and then explore the north and south island of New Zealand over April - hopefully getting some motorcycles involved in there somewhere (particularly NZ).

Come May, Australia boots me out of the country and Kim, Sam and I will be heading back to the UK to start tackling that part of the globe (here motorcycles will definitely be involved!)

So stay tuned for more updates! I can't wait for it to begin!

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