Emma posts A LOT about the Gold Coast over on Lovelly Travels and so we thought we really needed an episode about her home town in Queensland, Australia.

Beaches that stretch for kilometres, a famous skyline and theme parks. That's what Australia's #1 tourist destination is known for. But there is so much more to enjoy and explore. Emma gives us her local insights.

From the hinterland to the must-eats for brunch, you'll get the top tips on how to enjoy all that this beautiful destination has to offer. And as always, some fun facts and fond travel memories. Lots of links in the show notes too!

This week we're talking frankly with Alison Hallworth! Yes, this is an excellent play on words because Alison's brilliant blog is called ... Talking Frankly! She writes about everything from housework to human rights and it's how Emma and Alison met.

Both these ladies are bloggers and were invited to be World Vision Australia blog ambassadors. Both went on to travel with the organisation to Uganda and India respectively. They are connected through a passion for giving back and raising awareness for important causes.

Alison shares some of her travel memories from over the years, including the wonderful story of how she met her husband in London and brought the Englishman back to Australia to live forever. She shares the differences in her travels from the early days as an intrepid backpacker taking on adventures to the more family-oriented escapades recently.

Importantly, Alison also shares openly and honestly about her own mental health journey and how it led to her being a speaker for Beyond Blue. We are so grateful for this refreshing honesty and we believe that more of us talking frankly in this space can support others on their journey.

Hola! Bienvenido a Espania.

Don't worry, we won't do the whole episode in Spanish! But this week are off to beautiful Spain. And we're so excited to have our first non-host local on the show. Talking about Spain with a Spanish person who is currently ... in Spain.

Welcome Pedro! Emma met Pedro in 2009 in Mexico while they were both on University exchange. They were actually roomies and travelled together quite a lot around Mexico.

In 2014, Emma went to visit Pedro in Vilafranca del Penedes outside Barcelona. They watched castellers build famous towers, sipped cava (local champagne), kayaked in a canyon, Desfiladero de Montrebei or Congost de Mont Rebei in Catalan, and of course went to see Park Güell and the church of the Sagrada Família by Antoni Gaudi.

Listen as they chat about Pedro's home town of Soria, his travels in Spain and the world and relive memories of some of their adventures together.

Emma even speaks a little español!

It's no secret that we are in the midst of a pandemic. It's July 2020 and this has been impacting the world for 6 months, but more intensely for 4 months. We launched this podcast in May 2020, during the time of Coronavirus, and while we didn't want to open with that, it's definitely come up in some of the chats.

At the start of April, Emma did a bunch of interviews with people from around the world about what they were experiencing in their local area as an effect of Covid-19. But she didn't really know what would come of it. So when Darius and Emma got chatting on the subject recently, they pushed RECORD and followed where it led.

It would be silly to have a travel podcast and not address this topic as it's dramatically changed the travel landscape for ... ever!

There'll be more to come, if you guys want it, but here's a brief chat of what things look like for Emma in Australia and Darius in Germany in the middle of July 2020

Grace Arach shares with Emma her story of hope. Originally from Uganda and now living in Australia, Grace is a social worker who has also started a foundation to support people who have been through a similar experience to her own. Emma and Grace met through World Vision Australia when Grace was touring with "A Night of Hope" sharing her story of being a former child soldier in the Lord's Resistance Army.

Bedo Ki Gen, Grace's Not For Profit Organisation, has been established to pick up where foreign aid left off – providing hope in practical ways to people who were abducted and traumatised by the LRA. Bedo Ki Gen means Living with Hope.

Grace also loves to travel and has seen a fair bit of Australia and travelled to a number of other countries as a speaker with World Vision Australia. She loves her time off and shares some of her fun memories from those travels. We also discussed mental health in Australia and Uganda and the differences that Grace has experienced in the approach to support between these two countries.

She's incredibly kind, generous, gracious and strong and we are so honoured to have Grace on the podcast sharing her story of hope.

This week Emma and Darius take us off to the land of the Dutch, where windmills are a plenty and cycling is ... everywhere, The Netherlands.

Emma's first trip to The Netherlands (Country #39/ 195) was in 2013, hosted by Darius! it's an easy train ride from Dusseldorf where Darius lives in Germany and the two had a whirlwind of a trip exploring Amsterdam and sampling the Dutch culture - including the delicious delights of Febo!

Hear about Emma's return visit to see her dear friend Betsy, aged 83 now, and sharing some special history lessons. Darius shared more about his MANY visits over the nearby border into The Netherlands.

So slip on your clogs, and let's get exploring.

Danielle Colley lives an adventurous life. She takes her positive outlook and applies it to all that she does, and she's not afraid of a challenge. So when Emma heard that she'd trekked Mt Kilimanjaro for charity in 2017, she knew there was a podcast episode right there.

Emma also trekked the tallest freestanding mountain, 5895m, in Tanzania in 2011 while raising funds for a charity. The two women however have very different feelings about doing it ever again! Hear as they banter and share their unique experiences - both memorable and somewhat life-changing.

Danielle shares her passion for raising awareness and funds for great causes such as Rafiki Mwema, an amazing Australian based organisation who support children who've experienced extreme trauma through two homes in Kenya.

Check out the show notes for more on Danielle!

Did you know that Emma is a dual citizen?

Australian born with English parents, Emma has her heart very much between these two places. Her first visit was at the age of 2 and she's since been another 14 or so times. Although, she's only really been to half the UK having never been to Wales or Northern Ireland. So in this episode, we talk mostly about England with a sprinkle of Scotland.

For the purpose of Emma's mission, we are counting this as 1 tick for the UK, as it's UN recognised and 3/195 on her list. But we will certainly be exploring all of these countries in more detail with future episodes.

Enjoy as Darius and Emma chat about foods, sayings, must-see places and even some accents!

People tell Emma that she travels a lot! Well, they clearly haven't met Elena Gabrielle.

She is currently on a small pause due to the pandemic, but otherwise, she's touring the world with the international comedy dating show “Story Party - True Dating Stories told live”. They performed over 330 times in 65 countries in 2018 alone. Check out www.facebook.com/storypartytour for more details.

Trained in Musical Theatre at Australia's prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) Elena is an accomplished comedian and singer.

You'll love this chat with this talented traveller.

Can you visit 4 countries in 4 days? Sure you can!

Emma and Darius set out on a mission in November 2019 to visit this row of countries in Europe to prove a point - it can be done. As Emma's on a mission to visit all 195 UN recognised countries, she's trying to get as much bang for her buck! But they got more than they bargained for ... this podcast was born out of that very trip!

Spectacular shout out to Darius for exceptional editing on this episode to help us relive the roadtrip with recordings from the actual trip as well as the recount from the two hosts.

Food, accommodation, tips and lesson learned. It's a whole lot of fun in this whirlwind of an episode.

Also! These ticked off countries 58-61 for Emma!