Shauna
Small steps, big adventures Joined: July 29th 2006
Logged in: August 3rd 2011
Logged in: August 3rd 2011
I'm off! Travelling is something I've always wanted to do. So after thinking about it for a bit, flipping through the Lonely Planet Blue List, I decided La Tomatina would be the perfect place to start, so I got up one morning, and just booked my flight. Those who know me best, realize this is a very un-like-Shauna thing to do, as I'm normally very organized and like to have all my ducks in a row. But I figure, you only live once, and if I wait for the perfect timing, it will never come. So I leave behind me, my loving parents, most bestest friend and sister (and new brother-in-law - that sounds weird!), my awesome friends, my fabulous forestry job, and my little hut on the bay for some lively new experiences and new faces. Wish me luck, and check in every once in a while to see where the wind has taken me...
Travel Blog Posts
Injura
Whirlwind exploration of Ethiopia, well, the Wondo Genet watershed region towards the south to be exact, with a few days of Addis Ababa and the Bale mountains thrown in. I was very confused when told that we would be going to Ethiopia for our summer tropical forestry course. Forests? in Ethiopia? I was pleasantly surprised. We visited working forests, sacred forests, public forests that are being cleared illegally for settlement and firewood, and community managed forests. The natural forests we visited were dominated by Juniper and Podocarpus - incredulous species if given the opportunity to grow. Unfortunately, the population pressure makes this quite an oddity. As for wildlife, there were colobus monkeys, baboons, some other type of monkey that was all over the campus where we stayed, warthogs, horn-bills - these were the exciting ones. We ... read more
Warm up
What better place to spend the longest day of the year than somewhere where the sun doesn't actually set?!! Destination Tromso - 72 degrees north of the equator, somewhere amongst the fjords of Norway in the arctic circle, still with snow capped mountains, glaciers and evening temperatures of a balmy 5 degrees is a rather large city (given the living environment), host to the midnight sun marathon. Why not??? I can list a few reasons why not - cold, far away, expensive, 21.1kms - but then the reasons for are much greater than against - Arctic circle! Fjords! Midnight sun! Quality time with great friends! We got off to a bit of a rough start, with 4 of 6 of us missing our already expensive flights, requiring re-booking. However, we made up for the expenses with ... read more
Dive resort at Mabul
One of the perks of studying tropical forestry are the field trips! So we headed to Malaysian Borneo, the state of Sarawak to study land use change in the small Kampung Sebako. We spent 2 weeks interviewing locals, samping soil and water, walking through the adjacent jungle, rice paddies, oil palm plantations and rubber plantations. The community was very welcoming to us and really made us feel at home and were so helpful in their eager participation in our study. We arrived just in time for the start of the rice harvest and were invited to participate in numerous rice ceremonies, where the new rice is wrapped in a large leaf and cooked in bamboo. Copious amounts of Laingkao (rice whiskey) are consumed by the men as they role around drunk on the bamboo mats at ... read more
One of the many marches
Wow! It started Tuesday morning, Sept 22 and just finished today September 27th at about lunch time. I was into the beer at 9am on Tuesday morning, and it didn't stop until my last sip of wine for breakfast this morning. And this was a sports trip... Every year, students from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland studying at Life Sciences Universities get together to participate in the Nordic Games. There is track and field, swimming, soccer, hand ball, floor hockey, volleyball, basketball, horse riding, shooting, orienteering, etc. I participating in swimming, soccer, volleyball, and orienteering. Its a pretty packed schedule, with sleep only being scheduled between 5am and 7:30. Sports all day, then pre-parties, parties, and after parties. We slept on concrete floors of a basement in an apartment building on air mattresses. By the end ... read more
Tisvildeleje
Started with the need for a tree fix. I heard from Linzy, a friend at school, that there was this quaint little town in the north west of Zealand called Tisvildeleje. How on earth you would say this I will never know. A little investigation found that we could get a 24hour regional ticket for 120DKK which was much cheaper than the return fair. So Adrien (Mexico), Denisa (Albania), Kristen (America) and I hopped on the train with our bikes, some food, some wine a blanket each and I brought my tent. We had no plan except to find beach, find forest and not pay for accommodation. We stopped in Hillerod because the others hadn't seen the frederiksborg castle yet. Then it was back on to Tis..... I think I found the longest hill in Denmark ... read more
The Little Mermaid
So what springs to mind when you think of Denmark? Danish pastry, Hans Christian Anderson, Great Dane dogs, ice cream, chewing tobacco, Danish cookies in a pretty little tin, tall blond and blue eyed happy people speaking in some strange, throaty native tongue, Scandanavia and Greenland. This was my knowledge of the Danes before stepping foot in the country where I would be living for the next year. Reality: I arrive at the airport in Copenhagen and everyone is waving Danish flags. In the days to come I see Danish flags everywhere. Even if a family is having a picnic in the park, there will be Danish flags stuck in the grass around the blanket. I later learned, that no, they are not necessarily more patriotic than Canadians (we've been known to wave a flag or ... read more
Sunset over Lake Cowichan
The trouble with living in a place for a length of time is that for one, you fall in love with the place, and for two, you meet people who become your surrogate family, whom you want to see again. Of course this isn't a problem in my case, only created a bit of a detour in my Gisborne - Copenhagen route. I gave myself 3 weeks (1 in Australia and 2 in Canada) to reconnect with my past homes, with the hopes of grounding myself a bit before moving on to this next chapter in my life. While in Australia, I re-explored Brisbane. A marvelous city that I absolutely adore. I ran over the Story bridge, along the river walk, through the botanical gardens, just like I used to. I rode the city cat and ... read more
Sunset over Wainui beach
I find myself at a loss for words, don't worry, it won't last. I remember taking the bus into Gisborne that sunny Saturday about 18 months ago. Thinking, here I am, moving to this small, isolated town in one of the most isolated countries in the world, knowing nothing about the place apart from the fact that Gisborne (or Gizzy as it's affectionately known) prides itself on being the first city in the world to see the new day - because of its proximity to the international date line. They must possibly have some pine trees near by (as my future job would require), and some good surfing - not that I've ever stepped foot on a board. Not really scared, not really anxious, I was very excited to see what this little piece of heaven ... read more
On the road
Drawing card to Northland, perhaps the oldest and largest standing Kauri tree in New Zealand, even worthy of its own name, Tane Mahuta. Perhaps the romance associated with visiting the northern-most point of the country. Or maybe the thought of putting off autumn for just a little bit longer by climbing up to the warmest latitude New Zealand has to offer. Well, the top of New Zealand didn't disappoint. I made the trip with my good friend Chris, and two friends of his (Dan from Oz and Kat from Canada). We found a gem of a beach near Dargaville, that lent some good surf for the others and a golden sandy beach for me to run on. We spent a couple of nights in Whangarei, and it is from here that I did a trip out ... read more
Port of Tauranga 1/2 Ironman
Well, for some strange reason, I thought it necessary to run in more races this year than I have in any other given year. Normally I would do a couple, but this year, lets see... Oct - Gisborne 1/4 Marathon Nov - Whakatane 18km trail run Nov - Eastwood hill 1/2 Marathon Nov - Coromandel 32km mountain run Jan - Port of Tauranga 1/2 Ironman (run only). I didn't scrape through with any personal bests as far as times go, however, completing the 32km mountain run was a distance first for me, and has got me hooked on trail and mountain running. A whole new level of craziness. I've covered beaches, sand dunes, creeks, paddocks, native NZ forest, Pine plantation forest, just about everything you can find outside, here in this beautiful country. I even managed ... read more
