Apologies, dear reader, for the long delay since my last post. I’m in the midst of one of my typical “hanging around not doing much so don’t feel there’s anything to write about” spells. As it turns out, I’m still on, in, or around the Sunshine Coast. My oil change turned up a bit of work that needed to be done on the van, and I decided it was best to play it safe given that my next move is going to be driving across the absolute middle of nowhere to the other side of Australia. But of course that work couldn’t get started for another week and a half, so I just dropped my van off this morning, and I won’t be able to hit the road until the end of the week at the very earliest.

In the meantime I didn’t get up to too much. One nice thing was getting back on couchsurfing and meeting a really nice guy named Cheyne, who let me park in his driveway for a few days, provided some very pleasant company (much needed), and let me take hot showers and use fast internet. It was true luxury, especially since I’d been feeling a bit lonely and hadn’t found many ways of connecting with people. Besides that I also got back to surfing a bit, which was really fun, and spent a fair amount of time hanging around libraries working on the online biology course I recently started, which I’m enjoying. I’ve also been reading a little bit more recently. I read both of Ed Yong’s books, I Contain Multitudes and An Immense World, which deal with the beautiful world of bacteria and the incredible variety of animal senses, respectively. They’re great and I highly recommend them. And then just this morning I finished The Man in the High Castle, which was something of a thought experiment/philosophical musing, and a fun and quick read.

Now, the bad news. My barnacle-sliced toe remains an annoyance – it’s been very mildly infected on and off (don’t worry, it’s fine, I’m taking care of it), and while keeping it clean and using antiseptic cream helps, it seems to want to get worse again every few days. I’m pretty sure there’s something still in the cut, and have been very slowly coming to terms with the idea of going to a medical center and just having them cut it open and clean it out. Should I have done that fully two weeks ago and saved myself the nagging annoyance this whole time? Probably! Will I, having said that, continue to keep an eye on it and put off going to the medical center? Almost certainly!

The toe is ultimately small potatoes compared to my most recent injury, unfortunately. My last surf session was the best yet in Australia, right up until the moment when a wave caught and tumbled me, somehow yanking my leg to the side and very, very thoroughly pulling something in my groin. I’m no doctor, but I am a sporting enthusiast with an exquisitely fragile body, and my long history of sports injuries tells me this is going to be a recovery on the order of months rather than weeks. The good news is that it seems to be involved in fairly specific movements, so I can walk fine and generally go about my day unencumbered. And who knows, maybe I’m way off base. Either way, I’ll be keeping an eye on it and slinking into a physical therapist’s office when the time is right, and in the meantime I’ll have to lay low for a bit.

If reaction to my post about having a bit of the blues in Sydney is any indication, many of you will now be beside yourselves in consternation, given that this post mentions not just loneliness but also grievous injury of the groin. I just want to reassure you, dear reader, that I’m doing ok. This is certainly a bit of a valley (now you finally understand the title!) but I’m taking it as an opportunity to try to keep perspective and approach things somewhat philosophically.

There are always peaks and valleys, and the feeling of “when it rains it pours” has as much to do with your own mindset as it does the actual events. I’m reminding myself of that, and also taking the chance to practice trying to stay present and not stress about the future. I had planned on being in the Northern Territory or all the way over in Western Australia by now, unhurt and doing lots of physical activity. While it’s a bummer to think about that not being the case, I can also consider how lucky I am to be in a situation where unexpected car trouble, grievous injury of the groin, or tenacious infection of the pinky toe are just minor setbacks that I can adjust my plans around, and nothing more. I’ve got nice weather (mostly), good books to read, interesting biology to learn, and even the possibility of making a friend or two at this hostel. As the Aussies like to say, “she’ll be right”. And now, some random pictures.