Travels of Shepp

Big changes have come into my life recently. Two weeks ago I was taking the kids to the park in Brisbane, and a week before that I was in Cairns jumping out of a plane. But now, I've moved out west not far from Brisbane to complete my 88 days of farm work needed to qualify for my 2nd year visa. Transformation is definitely in the air, and with new environments and experiences comes new lessons. Getting down and dirty with some hard work is a far cry from the exciting days of road tripping across the country. I was so nervous to start as everyone says how hard it is. But it's not the work itself that's hard. It's the lifestyle. It's the culture of contractors picking you up and dropping you whenever they please. It's the not knowing if you are working tomorrow until 6 in the evening. And more importantly it's the guilt and fear that comes with losing a job or not being able to find work. So far I've been here not two weeks and I...

Without a doubt, road trippin is my favourite way to travel. It took me a little while to figure that out, but this trip has really proven it to me. With buses, I never enjoyed the actual travelling. It was always a chore to get on a bus by yourself even for just 2 hours, even worse when it was a 14 hour overnight journey. But with your own vehicle, it makes the actual journey part of the fun. Blasting our tunes, choosing how we set the mood to our trip, eating gummy snakes, and taking in the views of the country road. Chatting shit and giggling the whole way, playing games and getting to know each other better. Stopping anywhere we see fit, seeing new beaches everywhere we go, collecting sand in the van with every new adventure. I've always struggled with being an over-planner, wanting to micro-manage and control every single minute of my trip. I've been working on trying to be more spontaneous and just go with the flow when travelling. And v...

Ryley and I just finished our road trip along to East Coast from Brisbane to Cairns, and it was the best trip ever We went to loads of different places and learnt a lot, so I've got some tips and advice for each location that our past selves could have done with three weeks ago. Noosa: don't get a parking ticket 🙃 Yep, we got a $266 fine for overnight parking on a residential road... learnt that lesson the hard way. Fraser: bring warm clothes/ a sleeping bag!  Our glamping tent was great but FREEZING at night. Also, there's so much to see and do on Fraser, but it's definitely worth paying an extra $100 to go on the plane ride over the island! Bundaberg: only stay if you have friends here! Bundaberg can be a good stop over on your way through, but we only spent so long there as we were with Ryley's friends from the farm. Also if you do go through, stop by the big bottle of rum 1770 and Agnes Water: W...

Had to write a separate blog post for this because it was just so amazing... I still can't believe we did this! We jumped out of a plane at 15,000ft!! We had originally planned to do the skydive at Mission Beach, as this is where you get to actually land on the beach. But by the time we booked they had ran out of spots for two people, and there was no way in hell we were gonna do it individually. So we had to get to Cairns in time to do our skydive there. We were soo nervous beforehand; we couldn't even talk about it until a few days before! I'm usually quite good at steadying my nerves with adrenaline-inducing activities but this was something else, I really wasn't sure how I was going to handle it. The day of the skydive, Ryley and I both woke up and immediately laughed at each other in disbelief that we were even going to do this. Once I was up and getting ready, I was less nervous and more excited (so long as I didn't think about it too m...

As part of our road trip, we stayed on a boat for two nights in the Whitsunday Islands. The boat is called the Atlantic Clipper, and it's known for being the party boat that allows backpackers to drink their way around the islands. So we were pretty excited to start our trip! The boat would usually hold 54 people, but due to covid the capacity was down to 34. We arrived at the harbour in the afternoon, all checked onto the boat, and were given safety and information briefings. We started drinking pretty early (maybe too early?) at like 3pm. It felt so good to get to know everyone on the top deck with a drink in hand! The weather wasn't amazing from the start but we definitely made the most of it, and the Whitsundays are still beautiful whatever the weather! We were fed really well on the Clipper- dinner the first night was fish with mash and veggies, and the second night was spaghetti bolognese. Lunch was bread rolls and pasta salad, and breakfa...