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My backpacking journey has finally come to an end. Arriving in Montreal was a strange realization. In many ways my ending is bitter sweet. On the one hand you have everybody at home just waiting to catch up. On the other hand my heart is bleeding knowing that my travel experiences are over. There is no adventure waiting for me at my next destination just the real world.

So what have I learned from my trip?

Important Life Lessons Learned along the way:


1. There are good people in this world and there are shitty people. But overall, there are way more good people then bad people.

2. Traveling can make you appreciate exactly how spoiled we are in Canada. Simply having food to eat or being able to drink out of the tap is HUGE.

3. The world has absolutely stunning experiences, scenery's and cultures to offer that you will never EVER be able to appreciate from your own backyard.

Memorable experiences:

1. The annapurna circuit trek in Nepal wins my bet for the best scenery of anywhere I've ever been.

2. Biggest shock value is New Delhi, India. No way to describe it, definitely the place to be if you want to go somewhere completely different from any western country.

3. Best overall humbling experience would be the Camino de Santiago. 31 days with nothing but your thoughts, a backpack, and the wonderful people along the journey.

4. Best Beach: Fish Creek in South Western Australia

I have grown leaps and bounds from where I first began. I have learned some very important lessons along the way that will surely serve me well throughout my life.

Well I guess this concludes my trip and blog. Feel free to email me if I can help out in any way possible.

My Return Upon Cold Canadian Soil

Take care and so long
-Jonathan

Northern Territory: Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield, & Katherine

Anybody who has been to the Northern Territory would say it is much different then anywhere else in Australia. But I am sure most of you are wondering how is it really different? One of the most obvious differences is the weather. Let me tell you about the kind of wild weather your likely to expect in Darwin. It tends to rain about twice a day and the rain is literally just a complete downpour. The temperature hovers around 30 degrees Celsius and is wet and sticky humid ALL the time (notice the capitalization).

I have met up with an old friend from my McGill days. Catherine and I have met up in Darwin, and with the help of another backpacker we rented a camper van to check out the well surrounding national parks. The advantage to renting a camper van is being able to cook your own food in the back with a gas stove. Also, you can sleep in it for cheap accommodation.

The bonus is that they are nicely decorated and look super cool. The fun part is that you have a lot of flexibility in deciding where and what you want to do. You can spend as much or as little time in each site as you like. Plus you don't have 50 other tourists hovering over you which is pretty nice. However, driving on the opposite side of the road was so strange. I constantly had Cat who was my safety in making sure I was on the proper side of the road.

We decided that with the time we had we would spend a total of 3 days. I would recommend spending at least 2-3 days in each if possible. We felt slightly rushed during our trip because you cover so much distance in such a short amount of time. We spent a day in each Kakado & Litchfield National Park and Katherine. Kakado was wonderful but a lot of popular sites were closed for the wet season. They get so much rain it floods the roads. We saw tons of wildlife such as Kangaroos, snakes, wild boars(Pumba), frogs, and lizards. Litchfield had more sites opened which included some great waterfalls
where you can and just swim around.

Litchfield Waterfall

This is actually really rare because most bodies of water are filled with crocodiles.



Me & a Croc Warning

Last was Katherine which had this awesome gorge. The whole trip gives you an awesome feeling of having nature around your every turn. 
Now we are all back in Darwin safe and sound. In just two days I will be off to Melbourne to meet some old friends from when I was in Egypt. Annette & Chris, I'll see you soon.

Until next time wonderful world.
-Jonathan   

The Bibbulmun Track



My Trusty Guidebook

 What is the Bibbulmun track? In short, its a trail hike that goes from Perth all the way to Albany that goes for a daunting 963km. Clearly I don't time to do the whole thing but I decided I owed it to myself to do a chunk. So last Friday I took a Bus to North Bannister which is 137km out and started my trek. Approximately every 10km you have a campsite that is set up in order to help trekkers along.

 As you can see from the sunset video below rain water is collected from the roof of each campsite building in huge tanks. The days are so incredible hot that you need to drink insane amounts of water. Everyday I would drink about 8 litres of water (That's a lot even for me). To top it off, your location is so remote there are no grocery stores so I had to carry all my food for 6 days. The cuisine was bland and consisted of powder milk, muesli, instant noodles, pita bread, and sardines. Of course, you have no garbage cans along the way so you also have to carry your waste along the way. Finally, because water is so scarce showers are just not possible. Let's just say that first shower when I got back was a long wonderful experience.

Since its off season I actually didn't run into anybody along the trail for 6 days. It actually felt very strange to talk to another person once I was done. You begin to to feel quite comfortable with your own thoughts and being alone (can anyone say Cast Away?lol). All jokes aside, its a great way to clear your mind.

The animal life is literally all around you. Everything from lizards, spiders, snakes and even kangaroos. You really do feels closer to your roots. Once upon a time, we were hunting those Kangaroos to survive.


Tiny Lizard in the Middle of the Picture

Spider



Snake Trail



Sap on a tree that definitely looks like Blood

I would definitely recommend the Bibbulmun Trail to anybody willing to get off the beaten track in order to see a wonderful secluded part of WA. But traveller beware, you need to be willing to rough it (as you can tell by my filthy feet, ahah).

My Filthy Feet



Rain in the distance on my last night

 

A Wonderful Sunset on my Last Night

Me at the Finish Line


Until next time wonderful world,
Jonathan