Teen Sailor Jessica Watson crosses the equator

Australian teen sailor Jessica Watson has crossed the equator on her round-the-world solo voyage.

The 16-year-old from Queensland's Sunshine Coast has been at sea for more than a month.

She crossed the equator early this morning, north of Fiji in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Her mother, Julie Watson, says Jessica is slightly ahead of schedule to complete her voyage by June.

"We are just so pleased - Jessica has reached her first, big milestone," Mrs Watson said. read more on abc news

Plan to ban bed-hopping blokes backfires!!!

Our motto at Adventurous Women is that men are an 'optional extra', even though we love them dearly, we don't always wish to be in their company....let's face it, men and women ARE DIFFERENT and have DIFFERENT NEEDS.

However I do think this lady has possibly gone to far by asking for an exemption. Love to know your thoughts so please read on and make comment.


ABC News Online - "Plan to ban bed-hopping blokes backfires"

Hidden Nepal with Adventurous Women

Hi there everyone! As I'm sitting here typing this blog, I am reflecting on our recent adventure to Nepal. I feel myself smiling as I recall some experiences and the wonderful friendships that were made, whilst on tour.

We were a party of 9, varying in ages & backgrounds and based in three different states of Australia, which no doubt added to the excitement of our adventure! It's a wonderful thing to see women stretch and grow (including myself) and I personally feel that Nepal is one of those magical places where we do learn so much more about ourselves. Just a few things we've learnt along the way:

You can do anything you put your mind to
We volunteered in a school with very little financial support, which certainly showed. The children were all clean and in uniform, BUT the school itself was of very low standard, unpainted buildings, disgusting ablutions - so bad that the stench seeped into some of the classrooms, leaking roofs, minimal school supplies, lack of teaching resources, just to name a few. We learnt here that we could contribute in so many ways, not only financially. Some of us had never painted, but we were quick to learn, others taught in classrooms, even though they had never taught a day in their life, others showed students how to grow things from seed and played games with the children. A couple of us were invited into the homes of some of the students and that was certainly an eye opener! Our experience at this school was very rewarding and we hope to return and offer further support in the future.

Inner Strength
Our trekking experience was tough, I admit...but when 8 of us reached the top of Poon Hill, 3200m above sea level, at sunrise and saw the might Annapurna range light up, we were elated. The impressive view and the power of these mountains was certainly worth the tough trek and again we learnt more about ourselves....we had to dig deep at times, encourge others, and find that inner strength to keep going!

Let the child out to play
Bathing the elephants in Chitwan National Park was a playful experience, which I would recommend you do if ever you have the opportunity! We had so much fun holding the elephant gently by the ears and sliding up on his trunk, rolling around and stroking him in the river, being tossed off his back into the water and showered as he cheekly flicked a trunk full of water over his shoulder!! Check out the video of us frolicking with the elephants on You Tube

Some of our other experiences included Rickshaw rides, boating on Lake Fewa, traffic jams on the mountains, walking amongst the moving mass of people in Kathmandu, massages at Seeing Hands by blind massage therapists, women's refuge, Tibeten refugee camp, singing on the bus, breaking down on the side of the road, sleeping under the stars, spotting rhino's, deer and other wildlife in Chitwan......and much more!

There are no more overseas trips scheduled for the remainder of the year, although there is still plenty of activity happening in most states of Australia, so check out our 'Adventure Club' for what's on in your state! If your into Yoga and looking for a bit of relaxation, check out Sunshine Yoga's 8 day retreat at Lord Howe Island starting on 6th December.

Next year begins with a bang — we have a Yoga Retreat in Tasmania scheduled for early January, Egypt at the end of Feb/Mar, Bali Bootcamps start up again in March, Hiking in Spain, April, Highlights of South America 8th May, Kokoda & India in the second half of the year.......and I'm sure there will be lots more!

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Adventurous Women Thailand Trip

DAY 9 - 24/06/09

It was only a 30 minute ferry ride across to Koh Samui and then a truck ride to our accommodation to Lipa Lovely Resort, which was indeed lovely. Located on the quiter side of the island overlooking the beach....just gorgeous and only 4k from the shopping district of Nathon. So the afternoon was spent shopping, dinner in town overlooking the beach watching the sunset. The next day was going to be the adventurous one!

DAY 10 - 25/06/09

OMG - what can one say - A couple of the girls decided to take in more relaxation and shopping, while four of us took off for the Jungle Canopy Adventure, which was FANTASTIC...what a rush. Although a couple of us were feeling very nervous about this experience we still went ahead with it and were certainly rewarded - I do believe the platforms we were standing on were more scary than flying through the air on the cable over the jungle canopy!!!! The fun didn't stop there for a couple of our adventurers...Danae & Deirdre decided to kick on to the golf course where they had a Zorb experience (Rolling down a ramp and around the grounds in a huge enclosed ball with water). Tracey and I had a BALL just watching them - it was so funny - Danae's hair got stuck to the velcro and lucky Deirdre wore a T Shirt, cause her bathers would have ended up coming off I rekon...I took video footage of it which I will post later.

DAY 11 - 26/06/09

Homeward bound - some very happy ladies who have thoroughly enjoyed their experience!!

Thailand Adventurous Women Trip

DAY 4 - 19/6/09

We awoke to mist settling on the mountains and the quiet of the river, just gorgeous! After breakfast was done, we watching the elephants being bathed in the river before two of the girls set off for an Elephant ride, some of us visited the nearby Mon Village and went onto the Buddah Cave which was very interesting and one of the girls decided another massage was in order.




On checking out of the Jungle Rafts, we longtailed it back to the Pier and then mini bus onto the Tiger Temple which was to be another highlight of the trip. Rules have changed a little since I had been there last as far as clothing, but we were prepared as we were traveling with our suitcases. Our Tiger experience started with sitting with some of the tigers, before being able to walk down to the Canyon with them, along with a volunteer carer and one of the monks. We then were able to go into the Canyon and have photos taken with them - that is a good experience, but the best was yet to come. Once we had finished at the Canyon we walked back to some of the open area where the monks, a couple of volunteers and some cub tigers were playing. They encouraged us to all come and sit with them, pat them and even kiss them on the nose - OMG that would have to be the highlight for many of our girls...they thought it was out of this world and so did I!! How lucky were we to have had this experience and I do believe it was purely by chance, as our timing for walking back before the crowd had given us this opportunity. Apart from tigers, there were plenty of buffalo, cows, deer, goats, boars and other wildlife just wandering around.

After the Tigers it was onto the Railway Station in Bangkok to catch our overnight train to Chumpon. Again - another great experience. We were all pretty exhausted from our big day and looked forward to being rocked to sleep by the train......eeek except when they braked suddenly (A LOT), it sounded like they were hitting cows!!!!

DAY 5 - 20/6/09

Early Morning - half asleep we arrived into Chumpon Railway Station at 5.00am after an early morning wake up call of 3.30am, so all feeling a little sleepy as we arrived into Chumpon at a guest house where we were able to have breakfast and freshen up before our 1.5 hour ferry ride across to Koh Tao which departed at 7.00am.

We arrived in Koh Tao at 9.00am after a pretty good ferry ride (few girls popped the old sea sick tabs for good measure). Koh Tao is a sleepy little island, with a beautiful tropical feel and the sand is almost as good as home!! From the Pier, it was a short truck ride to our hotel - Koh Tao Resort, which was just beautiful - all of us were totally wrapped. After settling in, it was off to explore the main town, back for a massage and swim and then a wonderful beach side dinner.

DAY 6 - 21/6/09

This morning the tide was really low as we waded out to the longboat for our snorkeling trip around the island. We went to four bays which were all AMAZING. I would have to say that it was on a par with our snorkeling experience in the Red Sea. We saw so much marine life and the visibility was awesome. We came across heaps of different fish, big and small, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, bright purple clams, all types of different coral and more! The colors were so vivid. On our return we didn't so much cause we were all really tired and pretty scorched - eeew.


DAY 7 - 22/6/09

Koh Phanang - Cookies Salad Resort.

We arrived in Koh Phanang (home of the full moon party), and it seems extremely quite. Took a truck to the Cookies Salad Resort where we are staying, then freshened up before heading back into town for a little lunch and shopping. After that it was back out to the resort for a swim and a bit of relaxation time.

DAY 8 - 23/6/09

This morning after breakfast a couple of the girls took off for a walk, whilst the rest of us went down to the beach cabana for some body treatments....aaah heaven! I had the works, massage, foot scrub, pedi and mani - so good and so cheap. Then the rain set in for the first time on our trip, so it's back to the open air bar/restaurant at the resort for a bit of blogging time. Tomorrow we set off for Koh Samui which is our last leg.