This was a trip of a lifetime! I made lifelong friends with people from around the world who also valued my love of volunteering and travel. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the staff at Walkabout Wildlife Park. They were always right there working with us to make their park a better place. Our group focused on constructing walking trails and planting trees during our time at the park. We accomplished a lot during our two weeks, but I think that we would have been more productive if the labor of maintaining the park was cut into half days rather than being all day work. For example, working the mornings and then getting to interact with the wildlife or educating the public about the importance of conservation in the afternoons. The second half of the trip we toured the Eastern coast. My group got to meet the local and native people, interact with the wildlife, learn about the history of the country, as well as get to participate in activities such as scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, skydiving, white water rafting, repelling the Blue Mountains, surfing, ocean kayaking, and whale watching. This half of the trip was amazing and like nothing I had every experienced before. The free time that we got at each destination was important. It allowed us to do things individually that was not on the itinerary. On top of being a spectacular trip, it was wonderful that ISV took care of all the logistics of traveling so that I could just enjoy the ride. This was a no stress, thoroughly enjoyable, once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget!
What would you improve about this program?
One area that could be improved would be providing the travelers with a basic information package of what they need to know before traveling to their destination. The package could just include a very basic need to know checklist for traveling to said country. Things like to check your phone provider for international service, purchasing a phone card, packing enough local currency to get a cab or hotel room in the case of an emergency, translation dictionary, etc.. I received prior to my trip a packing list for the nature preserve which was wonderful, however, it would have been nice to have also receive a checklist just for international travel to my specific destination.
