The Centenary Trail from above. 👀🛸 I’ve been walking the trail in sections for the last few months and I’m proud to declare I now have less than 90km to go! It’s 145km all up, so while 90 is still a heck of a lot of km to walk/hike/run, it does nonetheless feel like quite the achievement to be more than a third of the way there! 👊🏼 This was also the maiden flight of my drone which I’ve owned for about a year but have been too scared to fly before now. I’m chuffed to share that a bird did not fly into the drone mid flight, the battery did not run out causing it to drop out of the air and I did not lose the drone, rather managed to land it (manually!!!) right back where it took off from. Truly, a miracle! Also say hi to me down there, left hand side. 👋🏼 #OrangeKitchenTravels on the Centenary Trail in Canberra, Australia (June 2020) 🇦🇺

The best kind of friends are the adventure buddy kind of friends. ☺️🏔🌲🌿 One of my favourite things about hiking is sharing stories. I love being outdoors with other people, talking about quite literally everything and anything, away from all the distractions, just purely connecting, with nature and with each other. It’s such a beautiful and heartwarming feeling to return home after a day in the hills so filled with stories and joy - honestly it’s the best! 💚 #OrangeKitchenTravels in Namadgi National Park, Australia (June 2020) 🇦🇺

Couldn’t have said it better myself! 🌲🏔🌥💚 #OrangeKitchenTravels in Brindabella National Park, Australia (June 2020) 🇦🇺

Saw a little kid riding around like a madman on his bike on Sunday and he had a green parrot sitting on his shoulder like it was the most normal thing in the world. #JustCanberraThings 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️ It reminded me of these beautiful Austral Parakeets in Chile (yeah you bet I’m going all bird nerd on you remembering the fancy actual name of these noisy but cute things)! They say a picture tells a thousand words but this lovely snap doesn’t show these two going at it romantic stylez (in the words of NYC’s preeminent detective, Jake Peralta) for legitimately over 30 minutes. I must admit, their stamina for lovemaking is inspiring! 😂👀💕 #OrangeKitchenTravels in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile (November 2018) 🇨🇱

Fun fact - zebras like to roll in the dust to help remove parasites from their skin. It’s truly hilarious to see, mostly because when you watch them on the wide plains of the African savannah, they’re generally pretty graceful and dignified animals and then nek minit they’re belly up, all four legs in the air looking a bit like a turtle on its back! 😂🦓 Swipe right for some extra zebra shenanigans! 👀🙄 #OrangeKitchenTravels in Etosha National Park, Namibia (February 2020) 🇳🇦

While the days get shorter and colder here in Aus, my mind is busy thinking back to the week I spent living my very best life Mauritius in September last year where the sun was shining, the mojitos were flowing and my biggest concern was whether I should have a morning swim in the lagoon or an afternoon one (or, porque no los dos)... 💃🏼☀️🏊🏼‍♀️ #OrangeKitchenTravels in Mauritius (September 2019) 🇲🇺

Happy Mother’s Day to the Juju. There’s no one I’d rather wear a badly wrapped scarf round my head in the middle of the Moroccan desert with. Also no one is rather be in the Moroccan desert with. 🐪🌅🕌 Thank you for being adventurous enough to go wild places and do crazy things with me, organised enough to make sure I’ve made it this far in one piece and fun enough that every moment has been nothing but joy and happiness. Every moment, and every place we’ve been together, seen together and all the things we’ve done together mean the world to me. You’re fabulous, and I hope you know it, today and all days. 😘

Actual photograph of me lurking in front of the freezer eyeing off that tub of Ben and Jerry’s icecream thinking about how a bowl would be somewhat useless and I’d best just get the spoon and go straight for it out of the tub... 🦛👀 (the hippos in Botswana do a mean side eye - you’ll definitely be hard pressed to pass through their waterhole without the whole family keeping you under a VERY watchful eye!) #OrangeKitchenTravels in Chobe National Park, Botswana (January 2020) 🇧🇼

Sunday mood; finding a cozy spot on the best (human) bed in the house (is my dog spoilt? Nah, not at all). 🐶😍

Some more love for earth in (belated) honour of Earth Day, this time from the largest national park in Chile. 🌲❄️ #OrangeKitchenTravels in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, Chile (November 2018) 🇨🇱

Happy Earth Day! 🌍 I’m a big fan of earth. She’s pretty great, got lots of stuff going for her, plenty of cool places to see, fun things to do and breathtaking scenery to be breathtaken by. I’ve spent lots of time during lockdown thinking about past adventures and some of the cool places I’ve been. I feel very lucky to have seen so much of earth’s magic and very determined to keep on seeing some more when we can again! ✨ #OrangeKitchenTravels in Spitzkoppe, Namibia (February 2020) 🇳🇦

Remember when this was almost exclusively a food blog? 🙄🍴 Things have certainly changed, mostly because I spent the better part of last year living my best life travelling the world (which with the gift of hindsight, was a perfectly timed round the world trip given all this covid drama!). I’m also back in Canberra now working full time as a lawyer and weirdly law firm office life isn’t exactly conducive to having hours to make and photograph pretty food... 😂🙅🏼‍♀️ The one constant however is that I still love food and eat lots of it, except these days it’s mostly pretty ugly and slapped together in a bowl with a bit of reckless abandon. I suppose lots of you originally followed me for the food content, in which case you must be most unsatisfied, which is sad and I apologise. At the same time though, we all grow and evolve and I guess this is me, growing and evolving, somewhat sadly out of my food blogger ways. The Orange Kitchen does live on though, and if you’re ever after something fun and vegan to cook, it’s clearly the place to go. (Yes that was some shameless self promotion) As an ode to the good times past, here’s the very last smoothie bowl I photographed, a relic from October 2019, but from memory, a mighty tasty creation nonetheless! 🍌🍓