I honestly hadn’t realized how much I did this week until I sat down and read through my notes… It’s always so interesting for me to write these posts each week and see everything I’ve done in such a short period of time.  To keep track of everything, I have a notes file on my phone where I put brief notes of what I do each day – so when Sunday/Monday comes, and it’s time for me to write, I can easily look back and just fill in the blanks and decide how much detail I actually want to share.  I often struggle to remember what I do in a day/week/month, and find myself feeling like I did nothing, so having these to refer back to and remind myself of all the things I’ve accomplished in just 7 days, is really eye-opening.

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Monday was a full day of work out on the Palm Valley Tour, which was actually a lot better than I expected!  I’ve been feeling a lot of confusion (and maybe some anxiety?) around this job and my decision to stay here in Alice Springs.  The Palm Valley Tour is a big day of 4x4 driving, and is honestly the tour I know the least about.  We ended up getting back 1.5 hours late because my co-worker likes to take his time… was a 13-hour day, so I found every last bit of energy I had and made dinner as quickly as I could, and went to the gym. I really wanted to continue reading the Colleen Hoover book I started yesterday, but also wanted to get a bit of a workout again… so I today was a “read on the treadmill” workout night.

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Tuesday started off with a trip to the MVR to see about my H-endorsement again.  I spent a bunch of time studying and feeling really good about the test this time around – but once I got there, I learned that my police check STILL hadn’t been sorted out.  After a bunch of back n forth with the MVR office and NT Safe, taking + passing the test, some phone calls, and some unexpected emotional responses, we were thankfully able to find a solution so I could get the certification and be able to finally do some actual driving of tours + transfers on my own this week!!

Work was just a quick afternoon town tour with a small group + two new trainees + Bluey, and I finally got to drive today (thanks to getting the certification this morning lol)!  I had a good chat with my manager and boss before my shift too about how I’ve been feeling, and just needing a bit more of an ease into the different tours, and got really good support from it, which makes me feel a lot better about some things moving forward.

There was this really sweet, older Belgium woman (been living in Aus for 10+ years) staying at the hostel after hiking parts of the Larapinta trail with a friend, and I had some really good chats with her at dinner about life, doing things for yourself, and not being afraid to step out of your comfort zones; it always feels so good to have interactions/conversations like these – especially with people who are older than me and have gone through similar experiences or are living their life so fully, no matter what their age.  It always leaves me feeling so inspired and excited for how much more life there is to live, and how limitless the possibilities are.

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Wednesday was fun, but took me OUT lol.  Tomorrow Takk, Jono, and myself have our Uluru Accreditation verbal exam, so we spent the whole day (+Cata, whose test is next week) studying and quizzing each other for the test.  Feel so much better for tomorrow, but brain was fried after 6+ hours of going through everything so many times… to the point where I accidentally took Takk’s study notes home with me and left a plate at their house… so had to drive all the way back.  Made a quick quesadilla dinner and then spent the rest of the evening getting last week’s blog post written + posted, scrolling Facebook, and studying some more.

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Started Thursday morning with a good study gym sesh – walking the stairs for half hour while I recited the stories for my test and read through the notes again.  The test went for 1.5 hours, but was really good and passed as well!  I lucked out with getting Meg as my tester, who’s a bit more open to chat with, so it didn’t really feel like I was being tested and made it feel so much less stressful.  Had a quick lunch break before going on a Simpson’s Gap tour with Miguel and a big charter group of 35+ people.  Got to drive the big coach this time and took them on 3 different walks around the gap!  Was super cruisy and felt nice to get out of town for a bit.  After work, I stopped at Takk + Jono’s to use their bathroom for cutting my hair – it felt like it’s been so long since I last cut it, and the ends were getting real sad… so took off a good chunk this time around.  Spent the rest of the evening finishing another book and too much time on my phone… it’s called balance lol.

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Friday was a BUSY day with back to back meetings/calls.  Started with the weekly Friday counselling session, a really great catch up call with friend Emily from back home, meeting with another tour company to potentially get some more hours for my Visa, a solid couple hour nap, follow-up meeting with the Sea Shepherd (SS) Remote Campaign Manager - Grahame, personal admin work, cooking my fav lemon kale pasta, long evening gym sesh, then hung out with Gian for a bit.

The SS meeting is what I’m most excited about and can finally share that I got accepted for the campaign (got the acceptance the next day but wasn’t allowed to share just yet…)!! The campaign is a two week, intense beach clean-up happening in a remote part on the northern coast of the NT.  A group of 12 people will be living on the beach, with no access to service, and the nearest town being a 3-hour drive on a 4WD access road.  We’ll be working with the local indigenous community, getting fed only vegan meals, and staying in tents the whole time. 

I had to apply as a general volunteer since the media position was filled by their volunteer who’s been working the campaigns the last couple years, BUT! What made today’s meeting so exciting was that Grahame wanted to see if I was interested in coming up a few days earlier and staying a couple days later to assist with pre-cleanup media documentation + interviews with the indigenous community, as well as doing some talks with the local schools about ocean pollution.  Normally the regular media volunteer takes part in this, but they aren’t available for the extra dates; because I had shown interest in the role and inquired about taking photos + videos for personal use (unfortunately not allowed), Grahame thought to reach out! So I’ll be gone for a total of 3 weeks starting Sept 27th and I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity!!  It’s going to be long days and super hard work, but so, SO rewarding.  I really can’t wait to see how it turns out and what will come of this experience.

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Saturday I had my first solo driving shift, which was super cruisy.  Just had two pick-ups with 8 girls all around my age hiking a section of the Larapinta trail!  The drop off location was just a 45minute drive out of town with the sunrise, and was so chill; Got to drive back on my own and just blast my own music.  Since I finished quite a bit earlier, I was able to get one of my bosses to teach me how to reverse with a trailer… boy is that not intuitive at all LOL.  Going to take some practice but I think it went pretty well for a first time.

Stopped in town on my way home to get some work gear + Larapinta trail maps so I can start proper planning a bit more.  Had a great nap after lunch and ended up going the Alice Spring’s Day Fair with Gian for a bit, and hung out/caught up with Troy.

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Sunday I finally got in a long overdue, big hiking day.  Gian and I left at 6am to hike Mount Sonders.  It’s a 2 hour drive, and the final section of the Larapinta trail.  I was a bit torn about the idea of hiking it, but it’s the largest elevation gain/loss of the trek (800m), and I wanted to see how my knees would fair.  Thankfully, they did pretty good – with the cold lately, my knees have been experiencing a bit of pain again, so knowing I was decently alright after the day without my knee brace, makes me feel better.  I still have a month for training + planning, and will have my knee brace for the trek, so I’m thinking I’ll be okay for the whole trail fingers crossed.  The 16km hike took us just under 5.5 hours, and had STUNNING views, especially at the top.  Was a long, and tiring drive back… I had so many things on my to-do list but just couldn’t bring myself to do hardly any… I managed to get to the grocery store, but spent 30min just sitting in the parking lot because I couldn’t get myself to drive LOL. Managed to get myself to shower, but rest of the evening was laying around and watching some Netflix.

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Writing out this week is putting into perspective how many good things there are happening for me in Alice Springs right now.  I have this weird lingering “stuck” feeling that I haven’t been able to shake or figure out all month; it’s holding me back and causing a lot of unnecessary stress, and not being able to identify its cause is creating a lot of frustration (and honestly more unnecessary stress lol).  Moving forward, I’m trying to find ways of re-grounding myself again, focusing less on the “next thing” and trying to get “there,” before I even know what “there” even means to me.

Stay passionate and curious – and be kind to yourself.
Hunter💛