Great to be home!

Week one of classes done and dusted after being away for five weeks!

Thank you to all of you who expressed your gratitude for me being back and classes running again. I am also very grateful to all of you for your continued and loyal support as I am really happy to be home!

Travelling does many things to people and for me it really highlighted what a beautiful part of the world I live in. As beautiful as Hawaii is, in my opinion we in WA have the most beautiful clean and safe beaches where we can swim pretty safely and our sunsets are magnificent. I have returned with a resolve to get out and enjoy nature much more this summer.

Cats on the beach!

There were a few very special and memorable experiences, one being an eight mile hike that Nic and I did whilst in Kauai. The fact that I could hardly move for a few days afterwards is now a distant memory! The hike started at Ke’e Beach on the North Shore of the island where you set off on the Kalalau Trail and hike for two miles over rocks, up and down steep paths with stunning views of the Nepali coast to the beach. We had a brief rest at the beach stop where two cats joined us; cats kept popping up everywhere we went!

We then continued on and at one point I did say to Nic that it was a bit too scary – steep drop offs, slippery muddy paths – and that I would be happy to turn back.  He encouraged me on though so we walked, climbed, crossed the river a few times and scrambled over boulders for another two miles to the waterfall. We caught glimpses of the falls along the way, which kept us going.  It was like a never ending trail but so very worth the effort. We swam in the pool underneath the falling water then enjoyed our packed lunch and rested as we contemplated the return four mile hike out!

This was the most challenging hike I have undertaken but as you can see by the photos it was magnificent.  We were really glad we took our walking poles as I don’t think I would have made it without them.

There were some lovely moments along the way where I took in the lushness of the environment and tried to feel into the trees and plants and capture their essence in some photos.  I hope you can get a feel for the beauty of this lovely island, it was my favorite place over there.

Made it!