September 22, 2024 • 45 mins
Join us as we chat with avid traveler Ella Parlor, who turned her solo honeymoon in Sydney into an ecological escapade in Cairns. After a lackluster cultural outing in Sydney, Ella shares how a retired travel guide and Airbnb host helped her discover the wonders of the Daintree Rainforest, revealing its stunning beauty and deep significance as a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the Kuku Yalanji tribe for over 50,000 years. Discussing the challenges of trekking through this remote yet historically rich area, we underscore the importance of guided tours for ensuring safety and cultural respect.
You can find Ella Parlor's website here.
Ella's LinkedIn here.
Ella's Instagram here.
Ella's YouTube channel, Eavesdrop with Ella, here.
Ella's TikTok, ellayourbella, here.
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Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen & Carol (00:15):
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel
with Kristen and Carol.
I am Kristen and I am Carol,and we're two long-term friends
with a passion for travel andadventure.
Each episode we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
So today we have Ella Parlorhere and she is going to talk to
(00:37):
us about the rain tree.
Did I get that right?
Rainforest?
No, Dane Dane tree rainforestin Australia, which I have never
heard of before.
So you're a pretty avidtraveler, Ellen.
Ella (00:51):
Yeah, I actually just got back from island hopping in
Europe around the French Rivieraand Mediterranean, which was
really fun, and I actually gotproposed to on the trip, which
was also really fun.
Oh my goodness, that is very fun.
Yeah, so I am an avid traveler.
I took my first flight when Iwas seven years old, by myself,
which a lot of people don't flyalone in their thirties, let
(01:12):
alone at seven years old.
My mother is a travel agent.
My father was in the military,so very much an avid traveler, I
will say.
Like ages 14 to 18, I didn'twant to travel, I was over it,
had a little bit of bitternessabout it, but I think we all
kind of go through that.
But I actually went toAustralia by myself on my
(01:34):
honeymoon, on the note ofgetting engaged in a previous
engagement.
Yeah, A different yeah, so thiswas yeah, this was a very.
This was about eight.
It was, oh my gosh, nine yearsago.
Holy cow, yeah, nine years ago.
So this was November 2015.
I had a wedding that didn'thappen, my very sex in the city
(01:57):
moment, and I went on thehoneymoon by myself because, as
an avid traveler, I wasn't goingto let this expensive plane
ticket go to waste.
I'm really proud of myselfoverall for that journey, but I
traded in my ticket to go toAustralia because I tried to
pick a place that would be theleast romantic possible so I
didn't have to see a bunch ofother couples on their
(02:17):
honeymoons and I went to Sydney,australia, and I will say as a
Californian I'm a Californiagirl, grew up on the beach.
Kristen & Carol (02:28):
I land and I you know.
Ella (02:29):
I'm from Orange County, California.
Kristen & Carol (02:31):
Where are you?
Okay?
Well, I lived in Marina Del Reyfor just a year, but Kristen's
from Redondo beach, nice, okay.
Ella (02:39):
Yes, Well, I love Redondo and Marina Del Rey.
I think that the South Bay isnot really LA Um.
So I grew up on the beach andlove it.
And here I am.
I travel 16 hours to get toSydney and I land and I open my
eyes and I look around andeverybody looks American,
(03:03):
everybody's English, and then Istep into the ocean and I'm like
I traveled 16 hours to get here.
What ocean am I in, I asked himwhat ocean is this, sir?
What ocean are we in right now?
And he's like the Pacific.
And I'm like I traveled 16hours to be in a place where
(03:23):
everybody looks like they do athome, speaks like they do at
home, with a bit with an accent,surf culture, same ocean Are
you kidding me?
I was so annoyed, I was likethis is not the cultural
experience I was thinking.
And so a friend says you can'tbe in Sydney.
I mean, sydney is beautiful,just like Southern California is
(03:43):
beautiful, Right, but you don'ttravel that far to feel like
you're at home.
And so I ended up taking a flyup to Cairns, which is spelled
C-A-I-R-N-S but it's pronouncedCairns like cans of soup.
Yeah.
So I fly up to Cairns and Istay in an Airbnb and this is
(04:05):
when the host says, oh, you wantan experience that doesn't feel
like home.
I got you.
And she actually was a retiredtravel guide, my Airbnb host,
which was a blessing, that'sawesome.
And so she set me up for a tourat the Dane Tree Rainforest.
(04:28):
And while I will say, growing upin Southern California, you
have a very hyper awareness ofecological impact because we are
so hyper aware of protectingour mother earth and our oceans
and all of that, but I would saythat I'm not the most
eco-friendly.
You know, outside of that, likeI have a bit of awareness, I
don't think of myself as themost eco-aware individual and I
(04:55):
learned so much and it was sucha humbling, just wild experience
and I was like I think that itcould be really interesting
experience and I was like Ithink that it could be really
interesting and I wouldencourage anybody who has the
means and the time to go.
It will really put intoperspective how small and
insignificant we are.
This, this beautiful ocean, andthen also for for anyone who
(05:16):
doesn't isn't aware, the GreatBarrier Reef is also located
outside of yeah, outside ofCairns.
So if you go to Sydney.
Kristen & Carol (05:25):
it's down there too, Okay.
Ella (05:26):
Yeah, you're not up there.
So if you go to Sydney, you'renot going to see the Great
Barrier Reef.
That's not where the GreatBarrier Reef is.
The Great Barrier Reef is inthe Northeast corner, where
Cairns is Okay, and so yeah, Iwas.
I wanted to talk a little bitabout Daintree, rainforest and
maybe Nudie beach if we havetime, which is not a nude beach,
for the record how do you spellthat one?
the nudie beach?
Nudie beach is spelled likenude n-u-d-e and then a y.
(05:50):
Okay, named after a man,apparently the man who
discovered it, or found it.
It was named nudie, that washis name, but it is not a nude
beach, but if we get a chance.
I would love to tell you aboutthat as well okay, funny.
Kristen & Carol (06:03):
I was in um, maui and there's a nude beach
but it's called little beach.
There's like there's thismechanic big beach and then over
on the side there's littlebeach, and when you walk over
there it says clothing isoptional or something, or no.
It says you must wear clothing.
I'm like what?
Why would they say that?
I'm like this must be a nudebeach, this must be a nude beach
(06:25):
.
Yeah, yeah, like, how long wereyou in the rainforest?
Is it just day trips or yes, itwas a, it was a long.
Ella (06:28):
It was a long day trip.
You.
You got a trek to get up there,um, so you're driving for about
to get to get to the rainforest.
It's about a three hour drivewe took.
We were in this again.
I was on a tour which was oh,okay, what are?
(06:48):
Your?
What are your thoughts on paidtours when you go to a city like
, how do you feel about that,like if you go to rome or
somewhere?
Kristen & Carol (06:54):
I this is my general opinion if it's a very
unique place like egypt, wherethere's like all these cultural
differences and maybe womenaren't treated, you know the
right way.
If you a certain way you couldget harassed or something,
definitely do a tour.
But if it's like very Western,I don't like doing tours
personally, cause I just likejust kind of go with the flow.
But these, but the tours, theinsiders, they just know so much
(07:17):
.
Right, some of that's livedthere their whole entire life.
You're not going to be able tofigure that out, you know
they'll tell you a hidden gem.
So, especially if you don'tspeak the language, I would
definitely do a tour.
Ella (07:28):
Yeah, well, and so I feel the same way.
I'm anti tours.
I'm like like when I see allthe especially when you go to
Italy and France, you'll see alot of these tour guides with
their brochures.
Hi, kristen, hi sorry.
So nice to meet you.
We're just getting started.
I'm so happy you're here.
(07:52):
It's so nice to meet you.
We were just discussing ouropinions on guided tours because
growing up, especially becauseI'm from California, I spent a
lot of time in Las Vegas andthey have a lot of guided tours.
Like the brochures are in yourface Come here, come here, try
this tour, try this tour.
And I've just, I am, I amconditioned to say no, thank you
, leave me alone.
No, thank you, leave me alone.
And I'd always done that.
And so this was my first guidedtour and I will say, of the few
(08:16):
that I've done, because I'vemaybe done maybe four or five,
because, again, I still havethis apprehension against
wasting money on something I canlearn myself using Google.
You're right, when you have alocal, the insider knowledge,
the historical, they can callout certain things that Google
just isn't going to know or havethe wherewithal to have.
(08:38):
And I really enjoyed thisguided tour and I don't know
that it would have been the sameexperience had I just found it
on a map or a brochure and triedto take myself First of all.
I think you can get to theDaintree rainforest unless you
know how to drive for there.
Kristen & Carol (08:55):
We were like rough road.
Ella (08:57):
We were in like a Jurassic park Jeep.
Kristen & Carol (09:01):
Oh awesome.
Yeah, and there's probably alot of creatures there that you
might not know how to handle,Like are the.
Is the snakes going to jump outat you or don't like step out?
Yeah, there's probably so muchto know, but and there's no food
up there, right?
Ella (09:16):
So if you didn't, if you don't know how to like, we
weren't allowed to bring food,but there's no food up there.
So you have to know the onerestaurant on the way there to
stop at um or we stopped at abanana plantation as well, on
the way up there too, to like,get a quick bite.
But if you don't know, thoseare.
That's the type of localinsider knowledge.
(09:37):
I do think that a lot of theguided tours are a lot like I
did it at the rome Coliseum.
I could have googled thatmyself.
I feel, um, but you know I, Iunderstand it, um.
So that's why I was curiousKristen, where do you stand with
guided tours?
Kristen (09:56):
um, you know, it's funny, I, when you were saying
that, I actually, when I was inItaly and Rome and it was all
the students and it was a freetour, it was free, we just
walked around and learned and itwas amazing and this was 99.
It was a long time ago, I guess.
I'd say I'm split, although I'm, I am more towards it, because
then you get to learn, and so Ithink with our podcast it's been
(10:18):
a lot of connecting with thelocals so we get that insider
knowledge.
So it's not typically like a,an actual guided tour company,
but I see the value.
I mean, I would want to learnmore like that.
When I was in Rome, it was oneof my highlights was to be able
to talk with the people and findthat out, and that's why I love
(10:38):
this podcast so much is becausewe talk to people who are
actually living it and we reallydive in deep, which is what a
guided tour was.
And specifically, if you're in avery remote place, like I,
would die if I couldn't eat, andI, you know, I work out a lot,
so when I am hungry, I am hungryand I need to eat now.
So you know, hence the reason Ilook like this, because I either
(11:01):
showered and I didn't have timeafter my swim to get it all
done.
Because I either showered and Ididn't have time to, after my
swim, to like get it all done.
So but the rainforest, I meanthe pictures look incredible and
I was really excited to learnsort of you know this tour and
what it is, and um, yeah.
I would love to get caught up tospeed on you know, and so you
guys talked about the, therainforest we're just talking
(11:22):
about, like, how to get there,how we got there so, or how I
got there.
Ella (11:26):
So I did take a guided tour, and it was my first guided
tour after years of alwaysdeclining them.
But my Airbnb host insisted youdo not want to do this on your
own, and so I want to echo thatas well.
For anybody who is inspired tovisit this amazing place, I
can't wait to go back.
Who is inspired to visit thisamazing place, I can't wait to
(11:48):
go back.
It's truly usually when I visitsomewhere, I leave and I'm like
all right, check the box, I'mready to move on, unless I want
to live there, which is totallydifferent.
But this is somewhere where Iwant to take my family there, I
want to take my friends there,because I think that from an
existential perspective, it isso, so, very special.
So I will say some of the facts,because I took this tour nine
(12:09):
years ago are disputed on theinternet.
So, for the sake of argument,everything I'm saying is going
to be regurgitated from what Ilearned on the tour, and then I
will flag anything that might bea little up for debate.
But my understanding ofDaintree when I went is that it
is the oldest place on earth.
It is the oldest standing placeon earth.
(12:30):
It is verifiably older than theAmazon rainforest.
It is verifiably over 180million years old, which means
that literal dinosaurs walkedthere and I mean, our earth is
Earth, so it always existed thatlong.
Kristen (12:48):
But this is what?
One that was documented,because even where we live, like
California, it existed, I'massuming.
Or what do you mean by that?
Ella (12:57):
It's the same.
It hasn't changed.
What's the same?
Kristen (13:00):
The forest.
Ella (13:00):
Yeah, yeah, ok, so like where you live right now was not
what it looked like 180 millionyears ago, it could have been
underwater yeah.
So the reason why this is thesame is because it has an
extremely diverse ecosystem.
So what is so fascinating aboutthe Daintree rainforest is they
haven't been able to do a longform documentary on it.
(13:22):
You can't do long-term studyingin the rainforest.
You have people who set up shopto live there.
But the problem is therainforest is so alive that even
as you're walking through thetrees have these beautiful
dangling, almost like spiderwebs, and they touch you and
(13:42):
grab you as you're walkingthrough the rainforest and you
can just brush them off like aspider web.
But if you stand there, put apost up there, build a temporary
shelter there the rainforestwill absorb it.
Nothing can sustain, Not ametal pole, not a camera.
You can't just set up a cameraand have it record, because the
(14:05):
rainforest will consume it.
Um and so this is where it'sdifferent than like a california
or anything else that's beenthere like.
This is what so there's nocamping allowed huh, you can't
there.
Yeah, I mean, people try.
There was a camper, there was acamp shut up, but they were
shutting down shop because theirtheir setup got was decaying,
(14:29):
um, after however many days.
So it is such a moist, aliveforest and and I mean it you're
walking through and you feellike the trees are talking to
you.
There are over 400 birds, 400birds species in this rainforest
so it just gives you Truly,it's very akin to what you see
(14:55):
in Avatar.
It's beyond, it's beyond, andthat's why it's really hard even
today to find a lot of footageof it.
You have to go there toexperience it in this beautiful,
almost spiritual way.
It is unlike other areas ofearth, like the pyramids of
Egypt, where you can photographand get a concept.
(15:16):
You really have to go there tounderstand how tall the trees
are, how alive everything is,all the noises, all the colors,
the vibration.
But there are not just 400species of birds.
There are insects and bugs andall of these amazing things that
are just living freely andthey're a part of the
(15:38):
rainforest's ecological system.
So it's really, reallyinteresting, because anything
that tries to stay in thatforest, that doesn't belong,
disappears.
Kristen (15:50):
I was curious about like are there?
I have so many questions likeare there tribes that are there?
Do you die in there?
Are there insects that arelarger than you, that are larger
than normal size, that can killyou?
Like, where did you?
How long were you there?
How long?
What did you sleep?
Ella (16:08):
yeah, no, no.
So I was only there.
I was only there for a day trip, so we were there for about six
hours.
I don't fully understand whoregulates the Wren Forest.
I don't know the proper namesfor Australia, it escapes me at
the moment.
But what I will say is that wewere on like we got the shallow
(16:30):
end of the forest, if that makessense, like we did not go too
far deep.
I think we walked maybe about amile and a half in and a mile
and a half out, so we did notreally penetrate.
You know how, how deep it can gowhen you talk about the
indigenous people.
So the conversation about theindigenous of australia just
(16:54):
honoring, like australianhistory, is a very hot topic in
australia.
In north america it's not asmuch of a hot topic because
we've completely wiped out theindigenous population and kind
of put them away.
I don't say that to soundpolitical, but I'm saying it's a
very stark difference.
Um, in australia it's a lotmore we'll your face, I guess,
(17:16):
like this idea of the indigenousversus the Westerners or
settlers, colonizers, whateveryou want to call it.
And again, I'm not saying thatto be political, I'm just saying
from a cultural perspective, asan American.
Again, we have an idea of anindigenous population in our
nation, but they're not around,they're not on our streets
(17:36):
begging for food the way that itis in Australia.
And so the indigenous people ofthe Daintree rainforest it's.
I don't know the full studiesof them and I wouldn't be
equipped to like fully talkabout them, but what I will say
is, actively, there areindigenous people who live in
the rainforest.
Um, they are of a tribe that iscalled the Kuku Yanali.
(18:02):
I might be saying thatcorrectly, um, but they have
been there for over 50,000 yearsand they are a part of the
rainforest stories.
As far as safety or not, I willsay, like, if you're with a
guided tour guide, they probablyhave.
Yeah, I, I again, I don't thinkyou can even go by yourself if
you try, um, but if you could,right, like, these are things to
(18:26):
be really considerate of of,because this is much bigger than
you, this is much bigger thanlike oh, this is much bigger
than like oh, I have somedollars and I want to go visit
this really amazing rainforest.
I also think, in some ways,it's kind of a best kept secret
to prevent any type of hostilityor confusion or cultural
(18:47):
clashes.
So I don't fully understand theindigenous population of the
rainforest, but what I can sayis it's really hard for us to
study the rainforest, includingthe indigenous people that
currently inhabit it.
Kristen (19:05):
So I'm curious, because it sounds like you were saying
that the forest would absorbthem, so they didn't absorb them
.
Ella (19:11):
Figured out like how to live in it.
Yeah, and again I don't fullyunderstand, like, if they're, I,
I don't fully know because Ithat's where I'm not a um, I'm
not an anthropologist, so Idon't fully understand.
But what we were told is justyou're not going to see them,
but they're probably watching us.
That's what I was told oh wow,that's very interesting Say like
(19:35):
how big itis you said you're just on the
edge.
We were just on the edge.
Um, let me look it up, cause Iforgot how big it is.
To be honest, I totally forgot.
Kristen (19:45):
And then it's on the.
It looks like the coast ofQueensland up at the North end.
Ella (19:50):
Yes, which is exactly what I was going to talk about yes,
so it's 460 square miles, um, sosizable, but not, you know, the
largest ever, but still verysizable.
Uh, pretty hard to walk in aday.
Um, but what is so incredible?
And what really blew my mind?
Because it's so dark and densewhen you're in there, I mean
(20:12):
it's beautiful, the the sunlightcomes in so you can see the
birds, you can hear so manyamazing things and spiders, and
it's so incredible.
But then what we did was thetrail that we took brought us to
the beach, and so you land onthe beach.
I mean, this is a forest that,as you said, is sitting on the
(20:35):
Cape Tribulation Beach, and sowhat we ended up doing?
Because they gave us the optionthat we can either take the
Jeep with them back, but whenyou get to the beach, like
basically, you're spit out fromthe rainforest and you're on the
beach, you can hitch a ridewith an Uber, which is what we
decided to do Everyone elsehopped back in the Jeep.
It was just my girlfriend and Ithat were like, we'll stay on
this beach, we're not scared.
And so it was just her and I onCape Tribulation, by ourselves,
(21:00):
on this beautiful beach, withthe forest, you know, as our
backdrop, but again, bearing inmind, we were, we were on the
periphery.
We weren't like super deep intoit.
I'm sure there are ways and youhave to work with the local
rangers or whatever it may be,but we were just there for a
quick day tour.
Cape Tribulation is kind oflike the entire beach.
(21:21):
It's like saying SouthernCalifornia coast, if you will,
and then there are these littlebeaches in between, so you have
like the Wonga Beach and theThornton Beach and Imogen Beach,
so you have these other beacheslike within it, almost like
what we have in SouthernCalifornia right, where it's
like yeah, there's Huntington,but then there's also sunset and
seal and you know.
(21:42):
So we have the beaches withinthe beach.
My understanding, cause I wasusing Google maps to figure out
where we were too, cause Ididn't fully understand where we
were.
Um, it was just good.
Kristen & Carol (21:52):
Oh, so you had internet.
You had, you did have wifi outthere.
Yes, that's good yeah, onceyou're on the beach.
Ella (21:58):
You're kind of in the mainland again.
Right, it's when you're in thatrainforest that there's.
You know, there, uh, I, I don'teven think that I looked at
myself.
You're just absorbingeverything.
You're not even looking atyourself everything.
You're not even looking atyourself to check.
Yeah, it is, it is.
It's very akin to meow wolf inthe sense.
(22:18):
I mean, when he said to us youknow there, you're not going to
see them, but they can see you,like that sends a shiver down
your spine because you'rewondering am I welcome here, am
I going to be safe, am I?
You know, your head starts togo because again, it's such,
it's such like meow wolf.
You know that there's sosomething so much bigger than
you happening, like you feel sosmall and so insignificant in
(22:43):
the sense of you're like oh,dinosaurs literally stepped here
, like actually lived here.
They've discovered dinosaurbones here and we're feeding off
of this very vegetation, rightand just for anyone that doesn't
know what Meow Wolf is.
Kristen & Carol (22:58):
it's a museum.
There's one I don't know ifthere's one in Dallas, there's
one in Denver, I think itstarted in New Mexico and it's
like the people that did, Ithink Burning man, all these
artists and then they grabbedall this cool art and it's just
crazy, crazy art, like in thiswalking museum that just blows
your mind away.
And then just to get a littleperspective, like what is 460
(23:19):
square miles, like I, I can'tlike figure out what that is,
you know.
So I looked Disney World is 43square miles, so it's 10 times
as big as Disney World.
La County, which you ladiesknow is la county, is 4 000
square miles and los angeles,proper city, is 468 square miles
(23:40):
, so that's how I love that,thank you interesting.
So there's probably a lot moreto explore than than a day trip,
so you probably could spend,but if you did multiple days,
you'd go in and out, in and outprobably.
Ella (24:00):
So my understanding again, I was there nine years ago but
my understanding was that youcannot stay there like at all.
You have to get very specialpermits to try to do studies and
the studies I think like ourmaximum one month or a couple
months, like it's not anythingum long term again.
So when we see a lot of thesebeautiful because I have a few
friends who've filmed for natgeo, national geographic- when
(24:23):
you see these beautiful footagesof nat geo.
That is anywhere from 18 monthsto 5, 10 years of footage.
One month of footage reallyisn't sufficient, especially
from an ecological standpoint.
So they have people who come inset up shop.
They're mostly focused on onespecies within the forest, not
(24:45):
the whole forest as itself.
It's just so a mass that it'skind of I don't want to say
impossible, but again you'recovered in, in in just a few
hours.
You're covered with these likethey almost look silver, like,
um, they're like, uh truly likea spider web.
But then they have these littlesticky things that are like
(25:07):
tiny sticky hands that juststick all over you, because
already the four is just saying,saying welcome, you're here now
and you're a part of me, so, um, you just really do get
absorbed into the rainforestwhat are the trees, the, what
are they uh called, like thespecies?
(25:29):
um, let me see, I'm gonna lookthat up because I don't remember
exactly what that is called.
I will say that they also have,because there are thousands of
species in this forest.
They have, um, there's adinosaur that is alive there.
Um, it's called the greendinosaur and I don't believe it
exists anywhere else on theplanet.
(25:51):
Naturally, the green dinosaursorry, that's the one it was the
green dinosaur is the tree,sorry okay, okay, yeah, yeah, so
they have the ribbon tree fanpalm.
I'm trying to find the one.
Let me see.
Oh, the strangler.
That's called the strangler ofcourse.
(26:12):
How could I forget?
Yes, oh yeah, the stranglertree, if that gives you an idea
of what it does when you'rewalking so you don't want to sit
still too long, huh?
It's cool, I mean, and again,how poetic is that?
Don't sit still too long or youwill die.
I mean, i's like it soundsreally awful to say it that way,
(26:34):
but isn't that a metaphor forlife?
We are not meant to staystagnant.
Kristen & Carol (26:39):
Right, that's what they always say about like
aging, you know cause denial,like empty nesting soon and um,
but they're like oh, when youget old, you slow down, and it's
like no, when you slow down,you get old.
Ella (26:56):
That's right.
Yeah, it's so true.
It's so true.
And that's where I say like Ithink it's a very, it's such,
it's truly a place where I'mlike I want everyone to
experience this because I thinkyou just see the world truly so
differently, and not from areligious perspective, which I
am very.
I am very religious and faithfilled.
But I think just beyond that,like remove religion from the
scenario, because I can almostguarantee that my religion
(27:18):
doesn't match the religion ofthe indigenous people who
habitate this Daintree forest.
But the fact that you can justreally think, wow, this is so
much bigger and older than him.
We think we have an idea ofdinosaurs because we grew up
going to museums and seeing thebones.
But when you're in a space thatis tech free and I mean truly
(27:42):
tech free, I mean, besides thedevices on yourself, it's just a
different type of it's.
It's very, very awe inspiring.
Kristen (27:52):
I was in the Osa Peninsula, which is pretty heavy
rainforest and the stranglertree like that actually looks
like when I was hiking, and thetrees they were kind of
different not entirely, I'm surethey're totally different, but
that feel, you know, is really,and it's so dark.
I was so surprised because itwas so hot and blue skies but
(28:15):
dark and there were just likeall these macaws flying all over
the place and, uh, monkeysswinging from the trees.
And it was pretty amazing.
I was curious how, when did yougo?
And I don't know if you spokeabout this already.
Um, what was the weather like?
Was it humid?
Um, what's the best time?
Best time to go, you know towhere you went.
Ella (28:36):
So I went in November of 2015, which is Australia's
summer, so overall, really hotand a little humid up in Cairns.
So down south in Sydney, nothumid, but up north it does get
a little bit more humid.
Sydney, not humid, but up northit does get a little bit more
humid.
That said, they told us to packa sweater, which I thought was
(28:57):
kind of crazy because I'm like asweater.
It's daytime in the summer andit's hot and humid, but because
the forest is so dense, youdon't get the same humidity or
light or warmth from the sun.
So you have this cold chillwhen you're walking through.
And that's where I say likeit's almost like when you're
(29:17):
walking into an ac room, butlogically, you're like well, of
course it's cooler in this roomthan outside because there's an
air conditioning running, butthis, this, if you can imagine,
you know, walking from a hotspace into a cooler space,
because the trees just kind ofencompass you, it's very
interesting.
So, yeah, we, we broughtsweaters, light, light sweaters,
(29:39):
nothing, nothing too heavy.
You don't need a parka, but itis the.
The weather definitely changeswhen you get closer to the
forest.
And that's pretty probably closeto the equator right, so it's
probably warm all year around, Iwould think, as great as my
geography is, I guess Australiaalways throws me off because it
(30:01):
was so much closer to exactlyBali and China than I really
envisioned in my head.
And as far as the equator goes,I don't really understand.
They don't have snow, tropicalicebergs.
I remember getting that speechfrom when I was scuba.
I'm a scuba diver, so of courseyou are nice.
Yes, um, of course, diving thegreat barrier reef, which is,
(30:23):
for anyone who doesn't know, umchristian.
We had said earlier, the greatbarrier reef is up north, where
kansas, where the daintryrainforest is.
It's not near sydney at all,it's about a three hour flight
away.
They were like you don't haveto worry about our tropical
icebergs, like they don't have.
I guess they've never had aniceberg out in their oceans, so
it probably does stay, does staywarm, but close to the equator,
(30:43):
I mean, I don't.
I guess that's just relative towhat we consider close.
It's not on the equator, right.
Kristen & Carol (30:48):
Okay, and then ?
How did you get to Cairns?
Did you have to fly there ordid?
Ella (30:55):
you drive?
Yeah, so I flew Train would besignificantly longer.
So Australia, which again, itwasn't until I went there that I
learned this it's about thesame geographical size as the
United States.
Kristen & Carol (31:09):
Oh, okay.
Ella (31:10):
So how do you get from Florida to New new york or
florida to maine?
Oh okay, yeah, right.
So if you, think of it in thatcontext like sydney would be
where florida is and cans wouldbe up in maine, like you could
take a train, but it's gonnatake a while.
And then you have to alsounderstand there's a lot more um
, desert and plain and and likeless, we'll say commercialized
(31:34):
stuff.
But so, yeah, you're mostlikely going to take a flight
and it was a very rough, bumpyflight.
It was the most.
It was the oldest, scariestplane I'd ever been on.
I will say that.
But I also booked it lastminute because, like I said, I
went to Sydney and I was likethis feels too much like
(31:55):
California, get me out of here.
So it was like a whatever cheaplast minute flight.
Maybe there are nicer options,but I took tiger air and never
heard of that airline and the.
I would not be surprised ifthat plane was from the 1970s
Like.
It was a very rickety ride foreverybody.
Kristen & Carol (32:15):
It was very like all right, we're doing this
and then, once you got there,did you rent a car or just get
drivers, or what makes the mostsense?
Ella (32:22):
I did not rent a car.
I'm trying to remember whatside of the road they drive on
out there yeah, I'm trying toremember right now everyone does
.
Kristen & Carol (32:32):
I think it's like the UK is the only one that
does it oh, really okay okayyeah, um, I've never driven in
Australia.
Ella (32:40):
Yeah, yeah, but they, so I , they have uber.
Like uber was available backthen.
It's only going to be availablenow.
But so to get to the Daintreerainforest like I, like I had to
, I had to ask my Airbnb host todrive us there.
Yeah, I met up with a friend inAustralia who came with me to
(33:01):
this.
She had to drive us because theUber wouldn't take us to the
spot where we're meeting.
So where we met for the tourwas not at the Daintree Forest,
it's we're meeting at anotherarea, but Uber wouldn't go that
far.
I don't remember exactly wherewe were meeting for that.
But again, if you're lookingfor a tour, like, they will give
you all that information ofwhat you need.
So renting a car might've beenprudent, but luckily my Airbnb
(33:24):
driver did come, come clutch andwas able to give give us a ride
.
Kristen & Carol (33:29):
Yeah, oh, I did just look.
Ella (33:30):
They do drive on the left side, so yeah, yeah, I feel like
I remember that because I wasthinking I don't know if I'd
want to rent a car, but Iremember feeling that way, but I
couldn't remember why Imight've felt that way.
Um, where I stayed in cans wasabout walking distance from
other stuff outside of like theyou know off skirts.
Um, so, like there are so manyways to get to the great barrier
(33:53):
reef, if that's what you'reinterested in, I will say, um, I
do want to tell you about nudiebeach only because, again, it's
just a special gem and it's sohard to get to that.
Okay, it's one of those placesin the world where you're like,
not too many people have beenhere it's, and if you can make
it happen, I would bedisappointed to know I went all
the way to cane cans and thendidn't hear about nudie beach
and didn can make it happen.
(34:13):
I would be disappointed to knowI went all the way to Cairns
and then didn't hear about NudieBeach and didn't make it to
Nudie Beach because it's likeyou've already gone that far.
Just go the extra couple miles.
And this is where we talkedabout guided tours earlier.
I'm a big proponent of stayingin Airbnbs or VRBOs, verbos,
because when you stay in anAirbnb or a verbo, compared to a
(34:35):
hotel, you have a local who isinvested in your enjoyment of
the trip.
Because there's this mutual I'mgoing to rate you, you're going
to rate me.
We're in a mutual partnershiphere.
So in my experience, I've hadoverwhelmingly positive
experiences.
But they want you to have agood time and they're happy to
help you with whatever you'retrying to do.
(34:56):
And it's a local.
They're also going to keep acloser eye on you.
As a female myself who travelsalone a lot, they're going to
keep a closer eye on you than ahotel who doesn't know who's
coming in and out, like myAirbnb.
I've had Airbnb hosts like textme and say hey, like, not your
mom just checking that you'reokay, cause it's midnight,
you're not home yet, right?
Like those type of extra rides,no, but I'll say that I will
(35:20):
say like hey, if I'm not home bymidnight, check-in.
But like, because, again, I'm afemale alone in a country and I
just need to be vigilant aboutmy safety, right.
So I'm a big proponent ofAirbnbs or VRBOs, like renting
from locals, but a big part ofthat is because they will know
the like secret stuff.
So Nudie Beach was one of thosesecret spots.
(35:43):
To get to Nudie Beach is quitethe trek.
So you got to.
You know you fly into Sydney.
If you're coming from theStates, take another flight into
Cairns.
Then from there you're going tohop on a big ship which will
take you, uh, by the greatbarrier reef, right, because
that's where you want to go.
The great barrier reef is aboutan hour off the shore, so it's
an hour cruise.
So you take like a big ship, um, towards fitzroy island, which
(36:07):
is a mid-sized island, um,smaller than catalina island for
anyone who's familiar withcalifornia.
From there you go to fitzroyisland and from fitzroy island
you take a little dinghy boat tonudie beach.
Nudie beach is not a nude beach, but if you wanted to get nude
you totally could, because it'sa small, private, desolate
(36:30):
island that just is really, youknow, difficult to get to, in
the sense of how much you've gotto travel to get there.
Locals will go there for, like,a quick lunch break just to tan
on the reef.
So the beach is white, whitewhite because when the Great
Barrier Reef dies and breaks off, that reef, as we know, turns
white right.
(36:51):
So it goes from pink a coral tothen white and washes and
washes up.
Kristen & Carol (36:57):
You've probably seen white coral?
Yes, I never knew.
Okay, thanks for that.
Yeah, so when?
Ella (37:02):
it dies, it turns white and then it washes up on shore.
So this beach is very rocky.
It's going to be uncomfortable,like think about walking on
rocks but it's absolutelybeautiful.
Uncomfortable, like, thinkabout walking on rocks, but it's
absolutely beautiful.
Um, and I'll send you.
I'll actually send you a photo,because it's probably the photo
was so beautiful that my friendtook of me that my, my mom blew
it up and hung it in her livingroom.
(37:23):
No one knew it was me in thephoto, but it just looks like a
real.
It's a really incredible scene,so I'll send that to you if you
want to post it for for yourlisteners.
It's just again.
You're in a space where youturn around, do a 360.
There is no one else, nothingbut ocean.
So if you look up nudity on themap, it is like the middle of
(37:45):
the ocean just yeah, so far away.
Climb up to see the 360 uh,there's, there are rocks, there
are these big rocks, yeah, andyou can climb up and it's just
ocean.
Okay, you'll see a little bitof Fitzroy Island, like um,
you'll see a little bit ofFitzroy Island, but yeah, it's
just ocean okay it's so and Ijust I love how big like the
(38:09):
world is so small in so manyways, but it's still so big.
It's so big and we're the smallone.
Kristen & Carol (38:17):
Yes, we are the small one.
Ella (38:18):
Okay.
Kristen & Carol (38:18):
Well, we need to wrap up.
Unfortunately, this was sogreat.
Ella, thank you so much.
I'm going to skip the firequestions today, but you have a
consulting service, is thatright?
Do you want to talk a littlebit about what you do?
Ella (38:37):
You're so inspirational and so positive.
Every interaction with you hasbeen amazing.
You're so kind.
I'm going to send you thisnudie beach photo right now.
I yes, I do own a consultingfirm.
I recently wrote a book calledhigh tolerance, and what I love
it's about my career and what I.
What I love is that I've beenso blessed that I've been able
to find a career that allows meto travel and visit the world,
and so I'm really grateful forthat.
But what I want to do isempower more people, women,
(38:59):
everyone to just think outsideof their own little world,
whatever that might be.
Whether it's the city you livein, the town you live in, the
state you live in the countryyou live in, we are never going
to be peaceful, kind people toeach other.
It's through traveling andlearning others, like whatever
other might look for you,someone who doesn't look like
(39:19):
you, who doesn't eat like you,who doesn't speak the same
language as you do.
This is where our compassion isdeepened, and I think we get so
self-absorbed.
Because we live a world in ourown four walls, with our family.
We think the world revolvesaround us, and when we travel
and extend ourselves into otherspaces, we can realize there's
(39:39):
so much more happening in thisworld.
I just put it in the chat foryou, that is beautiful, so yeah,
my book Looks really amazing.
Kristen (39:49):
Yeah, it's, it's.
Oh, there we go.
Oh, that's cute, You're layingon a rock rock.
Ella (39:54):
Yeah, I'm laying on a rock yeah.
Kristen & Carol (39:57):
Yeah, that's great yeah so we'll post that if
you're okay with that, or yeah,of course, of course it's one
of my favorite photos, justbecause it's so.
Ella (40:04):
That's my peaceful place when I'm in a really stressful
time.
I remember sitting there onnudie beach, going just soak
every feeling up soak, the coralunder your butt, the sun in the
sky, the smell of the cleanocean, and just remember this
for any stressful moment and Igo back there every time I'm
like really stressed.
Kristen (40:21):
Oh very good.
Kristen & Carol (40:22):
All right, and so we'll put your.
If you send me your like, anysocial channels that you want us
to share, we'll put in the shownotes as well.
Kristen (40:28):
So what is the consulting business that you do
that allows you?
Ella (40:31):
to travel.
Yeah, so I started EPConsulting officially about six,
seven months ago, but I've beendoing it about nine years.
So I, by trade, I am amarketing executive for CPG,
like Fortune 500 companies, andthen what I do is I really just
help empower leaders to fix someof the mess within their
(40:52):
business.
So that could be from anoperational standpoint, sales
standpoint or marketing.
Those are the three verticalswhere I'm the strongest.
So, working with various CEOsor founders who are trying to
figure out where the bottlenecksare in their business, helping
with team morale if, like, theteam is struggling there, giving
some strategies and tactics onproper marketing, because I've
(41:12):
had I've worked for amulti-billion dollar company, so
I've had really big milliondollar marketing budgets and
what happens is, with a lot ofsmaller, medium-sized businesses
, they're spending money wherethey don't realize.
Like that's not how you shouldbe spending and allocating your
budget.
So, with my big experience oflike look, when I worked for a
$5 billion company, we weren'tspending this much money on
(41:35):
social media, neither should youbeing able to have those kind
of like real talks abouteffective marketing, because
marketing is such an elusiveconcept and it's so necessary,
especially from a digitalstandpoint today.
It's a great way to buildcommunities and a great way to
build your network and get moreclients, but you want to make
sure that you're doing it in aneffective way where you're not
(41:56):
losing a ton of profits becauseyou're getting caught up in
whatever the hot TikTok trend isof the day.
So really offering likeeffective tactical ways to
market it's beyond like adigital ad.
It's going to be a lot ofrelationship building, making
sure you're in the right room,making sure that you have the
right relationships, and so mybook is a lot less expensive
(42:20):
than my services.
So I wrote the book really tohelp smaller business owners
kind of have an idea of how bigbusiness works and thinks in
terms of marketing.
I've worked with a lot ofcelebrities, sports teams,
influencers, things like that,and so a lot of people have
sports teams, influencers,things like that, and so a lot
of people have asked questionsabout my career.
So I was like, let me justwrite a book.
I wrote the book from ahospital bed, which is also in
the book, so that's kind of likethe yeah you found the silver
(42:44):
lining.
Yeah, well, I had.
I had time to think about mylife and the meaning of it, so I
was like, let me just writethis book now while I have the
time.
So it's been a really greatproject.
It landed on several bestsellerlists and it's been a really
interesting, fun thing.
But, yeah, if you just go toellaparlorcom, it's going to
have all the things.
And if anybody does want towork with me, I'm always happy
(43:08):
to help and empower smallerbusiness owners.
That's what I'm hoping to do.
I really want to help empowerpeople to fill their purpose and
feel good about whatever.
Kristen & Carol (43:17):
Whatever it is that they're doing, getting
them out of bed, yeah, I juststarted working on this New York
nonprofit called theacceleration project.
Their whole thing is to getconsultants and leave a train
consultant Some are volunteersand some are, like paid but to
get them to learn these skills,to go in and help all these
small businesses like locallyany you know hairdressers, car
(43:39):
shops, etc.
So many like let's keep thesmall business world alive.
Kristen (43:43):
So yeah, sure, so I'll have to reach out to you a lot
of oversized large companies ona daily basis love that.
Ella (43:56):
Yeah, no, I get it I see you, I get it.
Kristen & Carol (43:59):
Yeah, that's wonderful, we'll definitely
connect.
Kristen (44:02):
Yes, that would be great, that's our goal, for sure
me and carol, and carol alsodoes all the marketing for
companies and things as well.
So yeah um, yeah, a lot ofsynergies.
Ella (44:13):
I love that.
Well, yes, I would love tocontinue connecting and talking,
and thank you so much forletting me bring Daintree to
more ears, because I really meanit.
It's the one place on the earthwhere I'm like everybody needs
to experience this, and I don'tfeel that way about the
Colosseum in Rome or the EiffelTower.
Kristen & Carol (44:32):
So that'll give you perspective.
Okay, very good, all right,I've got to run to a call, so
I'm going to okay, all right.
Thank you, ladies, bye.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, canyou please take a second and do
a quick follow of the show andrate us in your podcast app, and
if you have a minute, we wouldreally appreciate a review.
(44:53):
Following and rating is thebest way to support us.
If you're on Instagram, let'sconnect.
We're at where next podcast?
Thanks again, thank you.
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel
with Kristen and Carol.
I am Kristen and I am Carol,and we're two long-term friends
with a passion for travel andadventure.
Each episode we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
So today we have Ella Parlorhere and she is going to talk to
(00:37):
us about the rain tree.
Did I get that right?
Rainforest?
No, Dane Dane tree rainforestin Australia, which I have never
heard of before.
So you're a pretty avidtraveler, Ellen.
Ella (00:51):
Yeah, I actually just got back from island hopping in
Europe around the French Rivieraand Mediterranean, which was
really fun, and I actually gotproposed to on the trip, which
was also really fun.
Oh my goodness, that is very fun.
Yeah, so I am an avid traveler.
I took my first flight when Iwas seven years old, by myself,
which a lot of people don't flyalone in their thirties, let
(01:12):
alone at seven years old.
My mother is a travel agent.
My father was in the military,so very much an avid traveler, I
will say.
Like ages 14 to 18, I didn'twant to travel, I was over it,
had a little bit of bitternessabout it, but I think we all
kind of go through that.
But I actually went toAustralia by myself on my
(01:34):
honeymoon, on the note ofgetting engaged in a previous
engagement.
Yeah, A different yeah, so thiswas yeah, this was a very.
This was about eight.
It was, oh my gosh, nine yearsago.
Holy cow, yeah, nine years ago.
So this was November 2015.
I had a wedding that didn'thappen, my very sex in the city
(01:57):
moment, and I went on thehoneymoon by myself because, as
an avid traveler, I wasn't goingto let this expensive plane
ticket go to waste.
I'm really proud of myselfoverall for that journey, but I
traded in my ticket to go toAustralia because I tried to
pick a place that would be theleast romantic possible so I
didn't have to see a bunch ofother couples on their
(02:17):
honeymoons and I went to Sydney,australia, and I will say as a
Californian I'm a Californiagirl, grew up on the beach.
Kristen & Carol (02:28):
I land and I you know.
Ella (02:29):
I'm from Orange County, California.
Kristen & Carol (02:31):
Where are you?
Okay?
Well, I lived in Marina Del Reyfor just a year, but Kristen's
from Redondo beach, nice, okay.
Ella (02:39):
Yes, Well, I love Redondo and Marina Del Rey.
I think that the South Bay isnot really LA Um.
So I grew up on the beach andlove it.
And here I am.
I travel 16 hours to get toSydney and I land and I open my
eyes and I look around andeverybody looks American,
(03:03):
everybody's English, and then Istep into the ocean and I'm like
I traveled 16 hours to get here.
What ocean am I in, I asked himwhat ocean is this, sir?
What ocean are we in right now?
And he's like the Pacific.
And I'm like I traveled 16hours to be in a place where
(03:23):
everybody looks like they do athome, speaks like they do at
home, with a bit with an accent,surf culture, same ocean Are
you kidding me?
I was so annoyed, I was likethis is not the cultural
experience I was thinking.
And so a friend says you can'tbe in Sydney.
I mean, sydney is beautiful,just like Southern California is
(03:43):
beautiful, Right, but you don'ttravel that far to feel like
you're at home.
And so I ended up taking a flyup to Cairns, which is spelled
C-A-I-R-N-S but it's pronouncedCairns like cans of soup.
Yeah.
So I fly up to Cairns and Istay in an Airbnb and this is
(04:05):
when the host says, oh, you wantan experience that doesn't feel
like home.
I got you.
And she actually was a retiredtravel guide, my Airbnb host,
which was a blessing, that'sawesome.
And so she set me up for a tourat the Dane Tree Rainforest.
(04:28):
And while I will say, growing upin Southern California, you
have a very hyper awareness ofecological impact because we are
so hyper aware of protectingour mother earth and our oceans
and all of that, but I would saythat I'm not the most
eco-friendly.
You know, outside of that, likeI have a bit of awareness, I
don't think of myself as themost eco-aware individual and I
(04:55):
learned so much and it was sucha humbling, just wild experience
and I was like I think that itcould be really interesting
experience and I was like Ithink that it could be really
interesting and I wouldencourage anybody who has the
means and the time to go.
It will really put intoperspective how small and
insignificant we are.
This, this beautiful ocean, andthen also for for anyone who
(05:16):
doesn't isn't aware, the GreatBarrier Reef is also located
outside of yeah, outside ofCairns.
So if you go to Sydney.
Kristen & Carol (05:25):
it's down there too, Okay.
Ella (05:26):
Yeah, you're not up there.
So if you go to Sydney, you'renot going to see the Great
Barrier Reef.
That's not where the GreatBarrier Reef is.
The Great Barrier Reef is inthe Northeast corner, where
Cairns is Okay, and so yeah, Iwas.
I wanted to talk a little bitabout Daintree, rainforest and
maybe Nudie beach if we havetime, which is not a nude beach,
for the record how do you spellthat one?
the nudie beach?
Nudie beach is spelled likenude n-u-d-e and then a y.
(05:50):
Okay, named after a man,apparently the man who
discovered it, or found it.
It was named nudie, that washis name, but it is not a nude
beach, but if we get a chance.
I would love to tell you aboutthat as well okay, funny.
Kristen & Carol (06:03):
I was in um, maui and there's a nude beach
but it's called little beach.
There's like there's thismechanic big beach and then over
on the side there's littlebeach, and when you walk over
there it says clothing isoptional or something, or no.
It says you must wear clothing.
I'm like what?
Why would they say that?
I'm like this must be a nudebeach, this must be a nude beach
(06:25):
.
Yeah, yeah, like, how long wereyou in the rainforest?
Is it just day trips or yes, itwas a, it was a long.
Ella (06:28):
It was a long day trip.
You.
You got a trek to get up there,um, so you're driving for about
to get to get to the rainforest.
It's about a three hour drivewe took.
We were in this again.
I was on a tour which was oh,okay, what are?
(06:48):
Your?
What are your thoughts on paidtours when you go to a city like
, how do you feel about that,like if you go to rome or
somewhere?
Kristen & Carol (06:54):
I this is my general opinion if it's a very
unique place like egypt, wherethere's like all these cultural
differences and maybe womenaren't treated, you know the
right way.
If you a certain way you couldget harassed or something,
definitely do a tour.
But if it's like very Western,I don't like doing tours
personally, cause I just likejust kind of go with the flow.
But these, but the tours, theinsiders, they just know so much
(07:17):
.
Right, some of that's livedthere their whole entire life.
You're not going to be able tofigure that out, you know
they'll tell you a hidden gem.
So, especially if you don'tspeak the language, I would
definitely do a tour.
Ella (07:28):
Yeah, well, and so I feel the same way.
I'm anti tours.
I'm like like when I see allthe especially when you go to
Italy and France, you'll see alot of these tour guides with
their brochures.
Hi, kristen, hi sorry.
So nice to meet you.
We're just getting started.
I'm so happy you're here.
(07:52):
It's so nice to meet you.
We were just discussing ouropinions on guided tours because
growing up, especially becauseI'm from California, I spent a
lot of time in Las Vegas andthey have a lot of guided tours.
Like the brochures are in yourface Come here, come here, try
this tour, try this tour.
And I've just, I am, I amconditioned to say no, thank you
, leave me alone.
No, thank you, leave me alone.
And I'd always done that.
And so this was my first guidedtour and I will say, of the few
(08:16):
that I've done, because I'vemaybe done maybe four or five,
because, again, I still havethis apprehension against
wasting money on something I canlearn myself using Google.
You're right, when you have alocal, the insider knowledge,
the historical, they can callout certain things that Google
just isn't going to know or havethe wherewithal to have.
(08:38):
And I really enjoyed thisguided tour and I don't know
that it would have been the sameexperience had I just found it
on a map or a brochure and triedto take myself First of all.
I think you can get to theDaintree rainforest unless you
know how to drive for there.
Kristen & Carol (08:55):
We were like rough road.
Ella (08:57):
We were in like a Jurassic park Jeep.
Kristen & Carol (09:01):
Oh awesome.
Yeah, and there's probably alot of creatures there that you
might not know how to handle,Like are the.
Is the snakes going to jump outat you or don't like step out?
Yeah, there's probably so muchto know, but and there's no food
up there, right?
Ella (09:16):
So if you didn't, if you don't know how to like, we
weren't allowed to bring food,but there's no food up there.
So you have to know the onerestaurant on the way there to
stop at um or we stopped at abanana plantation as well, on
the way up there too, to like,get a quick bite.
But if you don't know, thoseare.
That's the type of localinsider knowledge.
(09:37):
I do think that a lot of theguided tours are a lot like I
did it at the rome Coliseum.
I could have googled thatmyself.
I feel, um, but you know I, Iunderstand it, um.
So that's why I was curiousKristen, where do you stand with
guided tours?
Kristen (09:56):
um, you know, it's funny, I, when you were saying
that, I actually, when I was inItaly and Rome and it was all
the students and it was a freetour, it was free, we just
walked around and learned and itwas amazing and this was 99.
It was a long time ago, I guess.
I'd say I'm split, although I'm, I am more towards it, because
then you get to learn, and so Ithink with our podcast it's been
(10:18):
a lot of connecting with thelocals so we get that insider
knowledge.
So it's not typically like a,an actual guided tour company,
but I see the value.
I mean, I would want to learnmore like that.
When I was in Rome, it was oneof my highlights was to be able
to talk with the people and findthat out, and that's why I love
(10:38):
this podcast so much is becausewe talk to people who are
actually living it and we reallydive in deep, which is what a
guided tour was.
And specifically, if you're in avery remote place, like I,
would die if I couldn't eat, andI, you know, I work out a lot,
so when I am hungry, I am hungryand I need to eat now.
So you know, hence the reason Ilook like this, because I either
(11:01):
showered and I didn't have timeafter my swim to get it all
done.
Because I either showered and Ididn't have time to, after my
swim, to like get it all done.
So but the rainforest, I meanthe pictures look incredible and
I was really excited to learnsort of you know this tour and
what it is, and um, yeah.
I would love to get caught up tospeed on you know, and so you
guys talked about the, therainforest we're just talking
(11:22):
about, like, how to get there,how we got there so, or how I
got there.
Ella (11:26):
So I did take a guided tour, and it was my first guided
tour after years of alwaysdeclining them.
But my Airbnb host insisted youdo not want to do this on your
own, and so I want to echo thatas well.
For anybody who is inspired tovisit this amazing place, I
can't wait to go back.
Who is inspired to visit thisamazing place, I can't wait to
(11:48):
go back.
It's truly usually when I visitsomewhere, I leave and I'm like
all right, check the box, I'mready to move on, unless I want
to live there, which is totallydifferent.
But this is somewhere where Iwant to take my family there, I
want to take my friends there,because I think that from an
existential perspective, it isso, so, very special.
So I will say some of the facts,because I took this tour nine
(12:09):
years ago are disputed on theinternet.
So, for the sake of argument,everything I'm saying is going
to be regurgitated from what Ilearned on the tour, and then I
will flag anything that might bea little up for debate.
But my understanding ofDaintree when I went is that it
is the oldest place on earth.
It is the oldest standing placeon earth.
(12:30):
It is verifiably older than theAmazon rainforest.
It is verifiably over 180million years old, which means
that literal dinosaurs walkedthere and I mean, our earth is
Earth, so it always existed thatlong.
Kristen (12:48):
But this is what?
One that was documented,because even where we live, like
California, it existed, I'massuming.
Or what do you mean by that?
Ella (12:57):
It's the same.
It hasn't changed.
What's the same?
Kristen (13:00):
The forest.
Ella (13:00):
Yeah, yeah, ok, so like where you live right now was not
what it looked like 180 millionyears ago, it could have been
underwater yeah.
So the reason why this is thesame is because it has an
extremely diverse ecosystem.
So what is so fascinating aboutthe Daintree rainforest is they
haven't been able to do a longform documentary on it.
(13:22):
You can't do long-term studyingin the rainforest.
You have people who set up shopto live there.
But the problem is therainforest is so alive that even
as you're walking through thetrees have these beautiful
dangling, almost like spiderwebs, and they touch you and
(13:42):
grab you as you're walkingthrough the rainforest and you
can just brush them off like aspider web.
But if you stand there, put apost up there, build a temporary
shelter there the rainforestwill absorb it.
Nothing can sustain, Not ametal pole, not a camera.
You can't just set up a cameraand have it record, because the
(14:05):
rainforest will consume it.
Um and so this is where it'sdifferent than like a california
or anything else that's beenthere like.
This is what so there's nocamping allowed huh, you can't
there.
Yeah, I mean, people try.
There was a camper, there was acamp shut up, but they were
shutting down shop because theirtheir setup got was decaying,
(14:29):
um, after however many days.
So it is such a moist, aliveforest and and I mean it you're
walking through and you feellike the trees are talking to
you.
There are over 400 birds, 400birds species in this rainforest
so it just gives you Truly,it's very akin to what you see
(14:55):
in Avatar.
It's beyond, it's beyond, andthat's why it's really hard even
today to find a lot of footageof it.
You have to go there toexperience it in this beautiful,
almost spiritual way.
It is unlike other areas ofearth, like the pyramids of
Egypt, where you can photographand get a concept.
(15:16):
You really have to go there tounderstand how tall the trees
are, how alive everything is,all the noises, all the colors,
the vibration.
But there are not just 400species of birds.
There are insects and bugs andall of these amazing things that
are just living freely andthey're a part of the
(15:38):
rainforest's ecological system.
So it's really, reallyinteresting, because anything
that tries to stay in thatforest, that doesn't belong,
disappears.
Kristen (15:50):
I was curious about like are there?
I have so many questions likeare there tribes that are there?
Do you die in there?
Are there insects that arelarger than you, that are larger
than normal size, that can killyou?
Like, where did you?
How long were you there?
How long?
What did you sleep?
Ella (16:08):
yeah, no, no.
So I was only there.
I was only there for a day trip, so we were there for about six
hours.
I don't fully understand whoregulates the Wren Forest.
I don't know the proper namesfor Australia, it escapes me at
the moment.
But what I will say is that wewere on like we got the shallow
(16:30):
end of the forest, if that makessense, like we did not go too
far deep.
I think we walked maybe about amile and a half in and a mile
and a half out, so we did notreally penetrate.
You know how, how deep it can gowhen you talk about the
indigenous people.
So the conversation about theindigenous of australia just
(16:54):
honoring, like australianhistory, is a very hot topic in
australia.
In north america it's not asmuch of a hot topic because
we've completely wiped out theindigenous population and kind
of put them away.
I don't say that to soundpolitical, but I'm saying it's a
very stark difference.
Um, in australia it's a lotmore we'll your face, I guess,
(17:16):
like this idea of the indigenousversus the Westerners or
settlers, colonizers, whateveryou want to call it.
And again, I'm not saying thatto be political, I'm just saying
from a cultural perspective, asan American.
Again, we have an idea of anindigenous population in our
nation, but they're not around,they're not on our streets
(17:36):
begging for food the way that itis in Australia.
And so the indigenous people ofthe Daintree rainforest it's.
I don't know the full studiesof them and I wouldn't be
equipped to like fully talkabout them, but what I will say
is, actively, there areindigenous people who live in
the rainforest.
Um, they are of a tribe that iscalled the Kuku Yanali.
(18:02):
I might be saying thatcorrectly, um, but they have
been there for over 50,000 yearsand they are a part of the
rainforest stories.
As far as safety or not, I willsay, like, if you're with a
guided tour guide, they probablyhave.
Yeah, I, I again, I don't thinkyou can even go by yourself if
you try, um, but if you could,right, like, these are things to
(18:26):
be really considerate of of,because this is much bigger than
you, this is much bigger thanlike oh, this is much bigger
than like oh, I have somedollars and I want to go visit
this really amazing rainforest.
I also think, in some ways,it's kind of a best kept secret
to prevent any type of hostilityor confusion or cultural
(18:47):
clashes.
So I don't fully understand theindigenous population of the
rainforest, but what I can sayis it's really hard for us to
study the rainforest, includingthe indigenous people that
currently inhabit it.
Kristen (19:05):
So I'm curious, because it sounds like you were saying
that the forest would absorbthem, so they didn't absorb them
.
Ella (19:11):
Figured out like how to live in it.
Yeah, and again I don't fullyunderstand, like, if they're, I,
I don't fully know because Ithat's where I'm not a um, I'm
not an anthropologist, so Idon't fully understand.
But what we were told is justyou're not going to see them,
but they're probably watching us.
That's what I was told oh wow,that's very interesting Say like
(19:35):
how big itis you said you're just on the
edge.
We were just on the edge.
Um, let me look it up, cause Iforgot how big it is.
To be honest, I totally forgot.
Kristen (19:45):
And then it's on the.
It looks like the coast ofQueensland up at the North end.
Ella (19:50):
Yes, which is exactly what I was going to talk about yes,
so it's 460 square miles, um, sosizable, but not, you know, the
largest ever, but still verysizable.
Uh, pretty hard to walk in aday.
Um, but what is so incredible?
And what really blew my mind?
Because it's so dark and densewhen you're in there, I mean
(20:12):
it's beautiful, the the sunlightcomes in so you can see the
birds, you can hear so manyamazing things and spiders, and
it's so incredible.
But then what we did was thetrail that we took brought us to
the beach, and so you land onthe beach.
I mean, this is a forest that,as you said, is sitting on the
(20:35):
Cape Tribulation Beach, and sowhat we ended up doing?
Because they gave us the optionthat we can either take the
Jeep with them back, but whenyou get to the beach, like
basically, you're spit out fromthe rainforest and you're on the
beach, you can hitch a ridewith an Uber, which is what we
decided to do Everyone elsehopped back in the Jeep.
It was just my girlfriend and Ithat were like, we'll stay on
this beach, we're not scared.
And so it was just her and I onCape Tribulation, by ourselves,
(21:00):
on this beautiful beach, withthe forest, you know, as our
backdrop, but again, bearing inmind, we were, we were on the
periphery.
We weren't like super deep intoit.
I'm sure there are ways and youhave to work with the local
rangers or whatever it may be,but we were just there for a
quick day tour.
Cape Tribulation is kind oflike the entire beach.
(21:21):
It's like saying SouthernCalifornia coast, if you will,
and then there are these littlebeaches in between, so you have
like the Wonga Beach and theThornton Beach and Imogen Beach,
so you have these other beacheslike within it, almost like
what we have in SouthernCalifornia right, where it's
like yeah, there's Huntington,but then there's also sunset and
seal and you know.
(21:42):
So we have the beaches withinthe beach.
My understanding, cause I wasusing Google maps to figure out
where we were too, cause Ididn't fully understand where we
were.
Um, it was just good.
Kristen & Carol (21:52):
Oh, so you had internet.
You had, you did have wifi outthere.
Yes, that's good yeah, onceyou're on the beach.
Ella (21:58):
You're kind of in the mainland again.
Right, it's when you're in thatrainforest that there's.
You know, there, uh, I, I don'teven think that I looked at
myself.
You're just absorbingeverything.
You're not even looking atyourself everything.
You're not even looking atyourself to check.
Yeah, it is, it is.
It's very akin to meow wolf inthe sense.
(22:18):
I mean, when he said to us youknow there, you're not going to
see them, but they can see you,like that sends a shiver down
your spine because you'rewondering am I welcome here, am
I going to be safe, am I?
You know, your head starts togo because again, it's such,
it's such like meow wolf.
You know that there's sosomething so much bigger than
you happening, like you feel sosmall and so insignificant in
(22:43):
the sense of you're like oh,dinosaurs literally stepped here
, like actually lived here.
They've discovered dinosaurbones here and we're feeding off
of this very vegetation, rightand just for anyone that doesn't
know what Meow Wolf is.
Kristen & Carol (22:58):
it's a museum.
There's one I don't know ifthere's one in Dallas, there's
one in Denver, I think itstarted in New Mexico and it's
like the people that did, Ithink Burning man, all these
artists and then they grabbedall this cool art and it's just
crazy, crazy art, like in thiswalking museum that just blows
your mind away.
And then just to get a littleperspective, like what is 460
(23:19):
square miles, like I, I can'tlike figure out what that is,
you know.
So I looked Disney World is 43square miles, so it's 10 times
as big as Disney World.
La County, which you ladiesknow is la county, is 4 000
square miles and los angeles,proper city, is 468 square miles
(23:40):
, so that's how I love that,thank you interesting.
So there's probably a lot moreto explore than than a day trip,
so you probably could spend,but if you did multiple days,
you'd go in and out, in and outprobably.
Ella (24:00):
So my understanding again, I was there nine years ago but
my understanding was that youcannot stay there like at all.
You have to get very specialpermits to try to do studies and
the studies I think like ourmaximum one month or a couple
months, like it's not anythingum long term again.
So when we see a lot of thesebeautiful because I have a few
friends who've filmed for natgeo, national geographic- when
(24:23):
you see these beautiful footagesof nat geo.
That is anywhere from 18 monthsto 5, 10 years of footage.
One month of footage reallyisn't sufficient, especially
from an ecological standpoint.
So they have people who come inset up shop.
They're mostly focused on onespecies within the forest, not
(24:45):
the whole forest as itself.
It's just so a mass that it'skind of I don't want to say
impossible, but again you'recovered in, in in just a few
hours.
You're covered with these likethey almost look silver, like,
um, they're like, uh truly likea spider web.
But then they have these littlesticky things that are like
(25:07):
tiny sticky hands that juststick all over you, because
already the four is just saying,saying welcome, you're here now
and you're a part of me, so, um, you just really do get
absorbed into the rainforestwhat are the trees, the, what
are they uh called, like thespecies?
(25:29):
um, let me see, I'm gonna lookthat up because I don't remember
exactly what that is called.
I will say that they also have,because there are thousands of
species in this forest.
They have, um, there's adinosaur that is alive there.
Um, it's called the greendinosaur and I don't believe it
exists anywhere else on theplanet.
(25:51):
Naturally, the green dinosaursorry, that's the one it was the
green dinosaur is the tree,sorry okay, okay, yeah, yeah, so
they have the ribbon tree fanpalm.
I'm trying to find the one.
Let me see.
Oh, the strangler.
That's called the strangler ofcourse.
(26:12):
How could I forget?
Yes, oh yeah, the stranglertree, if that gives you an idea
of what it does when you'rewalking so you don't want to sit
still too long, huh?
It's cool, I mean, and again,how poetic is that?
Don't sit still too long or youwill die.
I mean, i's like it soundsreally awful to say it that way,
(26:34):
but isn't that a metaphor forlife?
We are not meant to staystagnant.
Kristen & Carol (26:39):
Right, that's what they always say about like
aging, you know cause denial,like empty nesting soon and um,
but they're like oh, when youget old, you slow down, and it's
like no, when you slow down,you get old.
Ella (26:56):
That's right.
Yeah, it's so true.
It's so true.
And that's where I say like Ithink it's a very, it's such,
it's truly a place where I'mlike I want everyone to
experience this because I thinkyou just see the world truly so
differently, and not from areligious perspective, which I
am very.
I am very religious and faithfilled.
But I think just beyond that,like remove religion from the
scenario, because I can almostguarantee that my religion
(27:18):
doesn't match the religion ofthe indigenous people who
habitate this Daintree forest.
But the fact that you can justreally think, wow, this is so
much bigger and older than him.
We think we have an idea ofdinosaurs because we grew up
going to museums and seeing thebones.
But when you're in a space thatis tech free and I mean truly
(27:42):
tech free, I mean, besides thedevices on yourself, it's just a
different type of it's.
It's very, very awe inspiring.
Kristen (27:52):
I was in the Osa Peninsula, which is pretty heavy
rainforest and the stranglertree like that actually looks
like when I was hiking, and thetrees they were kind of
different not entirely, I'm surethey're totally different, but
that feel, you know, is really,and it's so dark.
I was so surprised because itwas so hot and blue skies but
(28:15):
dark and there were just likeall these macaws flying all over
the place and, uh, monkeysswinging from the trees.
And it was pretty amazing.
I was curious how, when did yougo?
And I don't know if you spokeabout this already.
Um, what was the weather like?
Was it humid?
Um, what's the best time?
Best time to go, you know towhere you went.
Ella (28:36):
So I went in November of 2015, which is Australia's
summer, so overall, really hotand a little humid up in Cairns.
So down south in Sydney, nothumid, but up north it does get
a little bit more humid.
Sydney, not humid, but up northit does get a little bit more
humid.
That said, they told us to packa sweater, which I thought was
(28:57):
kind of crazy because I'm like asweater.
It's daytime in the summer andit's hot and humid, but because
the forest is so dense, youdon't get the same humidity or
light or warmth from the sun.
So you have this cold chillwhen you're walking through.
And that's where I say likeit's almost like when you're
(29:17):
walking into an ac room, butlogically, you're like well, of
course it's cooler in this roomthan outside because there's an
air conditioning running, butthis, this, if you can imagine,
you know, walking from a hotspace into a cooler space,
because the trees just kind ofencompass you, it's very
interesting.
So, yeah, we, we broughtsweaters, light, light sweaters,
(29:39):
nothing, nothing too heavy.
You don't need a parka, but itis the.
The weather definitely changeswhen you get closer to the
forest.
And that's pretty probably closeto the equator right, so it's
probably warm all year around, Iwould think, as great as my
geography is, I guess Australiaalways throws me off because it
(30:01):
was so much closer to exactlyBali and China than I really
envisioned in my head.
And as far as the equator goes,I don't really understand.
They don't have snow, tropicalicebergs.
I remember getting that speechfrom when I was scuba.
I'm a scuba diver, so of courseyou are nice.
Yes, um, of course, diving thegreat barrier reef, which is,
(30:23):
for anyone who doesn't know, umchristian.
We had said earlier, the greatbarrier reef is up north, where
kansas, where the daintryrainforest is.
It's not near sydney at all,it's about a three hour flight
away.
They were like you don't haveto worry about our tropical
icebergs, like they don't have.
I guess they've never had aniceberg out in their oceans, so
it probably does stay, does staywarm, but close to the equator,
(30:43):
I mean, I don't.
I guess that's just relative towhat we consider close.
It's not on the equator, right.
Kristen & Carol (30:48):
Okay, and then ?
How did you get to Cairns?
Did you have to fly there ordid?
Ella (30:55):
you drive?
Yeah, so I flew Train would besignificantly longer.
So Australia, which again, itwasn't until I went there that I
learned this it's about thesame geographical size as the
United States.
Kristen & Carol (31:09):
Oh, okay.
Ella (31:10):
So how do you get from Florida to New new york or
florida to maine?
Oh okay, yeah, right.
So if you, think of it in thatcontext like sydney would be
where florida is and cans wouldbe up in maine, like you could
take a train, but it's gonnatake a while.
And then you have to alsounderstand there's a lot more um
, desert and plain and and likeless, we'll say commercialized
(31:34):
stuff.
But so, yeah, you're mostlikely going to take a flight
and it was a very rough, bumpyflight.
It was the most.
It was the oldest, scariestplane I'd ever been on.
I will say that.
But I also booked it lastminute because, like I said, I
went to Sydney and I was likethis feels too much like
(31:55):
California, get me out of here.
So it was like a whatever cheaplast minute flight.
Maybe there are nicer options,but I took tiger air and never
heard of that airline and the.
I would not be surprised ifthat plane was from the 1970s
Like.
It was a very rickety ride foreverybody.
Kristen & Carol (32:15):
It was very like all right, we're doing this
and then, once you got there,did you rent a car or just get
drivers, or what makes the mostsense?
Ella (32:22):
I did not rent a car.
I'm trying to remember whatside of the road they drive on
out there yeah, I'm trying toremember right now everyone does
.
Kristen & Carol (32:32):
I think it's like the UK is the only one that
does it oh, really okay okayyeah, um, I've never driven in
Australia.
Ella (32:40):
Yeah, yeah, but they, so I , they have uber.
Like uber was available backthen.
It's only going to be availablenow.
But so to get to the Daintreerainforest like I, like I had to
, I had to ask my Airbnb host todrive us there.
Yeah, I met up with a friend inAustralia who came with me to
(33:01):
this.
She had to drive us because theUber wouldn't take us to the
spot where we're meeting.
So where we met for the tourwas not at the Daintree Forest,
it's we're meeting at anotherarea, but Uber wouldn't go that
far.
I don't remember exactly wherewe were meeting for that.
But again, if you're lookingfor a tour, like, they will give
you all that information ofwhat you need.
So renting a car might've beenprudent, but luckily my Airbnb
(33:24):
driver did come, come clutch andwas able to give give us a ride
.
Kristen & Carol (33:29):
Yeah, oh, I did just look.
Ella (33:30):
They do drive on the left side, so yeah, yeah, I feel like
I remember that because I wasthinking I don't know if I'd
want to rent a car, but Iremember feeling that way, but I
couldn't remember why Imight've felt that way.
Um, where I stayed in cans wasabout walking distance from
other stuff outside of like theyou know off skirts.
Um, so, like there are so manyways to get to the great barrier
(33:53):
reef, if that's what you'reinterested in, I will say, um, I
do want to tell you about nudiebeach only because, again, it's
just a special gem and it's sohard to get to that.
Okay, it's one of those placesin the world where you're like,
not too many people have beenhere it's, and if you can make
it happen, I would bedisappointed to know I went all
the way to cane cans and thendidn't hear about nudie beach
and didn can make it happen.
(34:13):
I would be disappointed to knowI went all the way to Cairns
and then didn't hear about NudieBeach and didn't make it to
Nudie Beach because it's likeyou've already gone that far.
Just go the extra couple miles.
And this is where we talkedabout guided tours earlier.
I'm a big proponent of stayingin Airbnbs or VRBOs, verbos,
because when you stay in anAirbnb or a verbo, compared to a
(34:35):
hotel, you have a local who isinvested in your enjoyment of
the trip.
Because there's this mutual I'mgoing to rate you, you're going
to rate me.
We're in a mutual partnershiphere.
So in my experience, I've hadoverwhelmingly positive
experiences.
But they want you to have agood time and they're happy to
help you with whatever you'retrying to do.
(34:56):
And it's a local.
They're also going to keep acloser eye on you.
As a female myself who travelsalone a lot, they're going to
keep a closer eye on you than ahotel who doesn't know who's
coming in and out, like myAirbnb.
I've had Airbnb hosts like textme and say hey, like, not your
mom just checking that you'reokay, cause it's midnight,
you're not home yet, right?
Like those type of extra rides,no, but I'll say that I will
(35:20):
say like hey, if I'm not home bymidnight, check-in.
But like, because, again, I'm afemale alone in a country and I
just need to be vigilant aboutmy safety, right.
So I'm a big proponent ofAirbnbs or VRBOs, like renting
from locals, but a big part ofthat is because they will know
the like secret stuff.
So Nudie Beach was one of thosesecret spots.
(35:43):
To get to Nudie Beach is quitethe trek.
So you got to.
You know you fly into Sydney.
If you're coming from theStates, take another flight into
Cairns.
Then from there you're going tohop on a big ship which will
take you, uh, by the greatbarrier reef, right, because
that's where you want to go.
The great barrier reef is aboutan hour off the shore, so it's
an hour cruise.
So you take like a big ship, um, towards fitzroy island, which
(36:07):
is a mid-sized island, um,smaller than catalina island for
anyone who's familiar withcalifornia.
From there you go to fitzroyisland and from fitzroy island
you take a little dinghy boat tonudie beach.
Nudie beach is not a nude beach, but if you wanted to get nude
you totally could, because it'sa small, private, desolate
(36:30):
island that just is really, youknow, difficult to get to, in
the sense of how much you've gotto travel to get there.
Locals will go there for, like,a quick lunch break just to tan
on the reef.
So the beach is white, whitewhite because when the Great
Barrier Reef dies and breaks off, that reef, as we know, turns
white right.
(36:51):
So it goes from pink a coral tothen white and washes and
washes up.
Kristen & Carol (36:57):
You've probably seen white coral?
Yes, I never knew.
Okay, thanks for that.
Yeah, so when?
Ella (37:02):
it dies, it turns white and then it washes up on shore.
So this beach is very rocky.
It's going to be uncomfortable,like think about walking on
rocks but it's absolutelybeautiful.
Uncomfortable, like, thinkabout walking on rocks, but it's
absolutely beautiful.
Um, and I'll send you.
I'll actually send you a photo,because it's probably the photo
was so beautiful that my friendtook of me that my, my mom blew
it up and hung it in her livingroom.
(37:23):
No one knew it was me in thephoto, but it just looks like a
real.
It's a really incredible scene,so I'll send that to you if you
want to post it for for yourlisteners.
It's just again.
You're in a space where youturn around, do a 360.
There is no one else, nothingbut ocean.
So if you look up nudity on themap, it is like the middle of
(37:45):
the ocean just yeah, so far away.
Climb up to see the 360 uh,there's, there are rocks, there
are these big rocks, yeah, andyou can climb up and it's just
ocean.
Okay, you'll see a little bitof Fitzroy Island, like um,
you'll see a little bit ofFitzroy Island, but yeah, it's
just ocean okay it's so and Ijust I love how big like the
(38:09):
world is so small in so manyways, but it's still so big.
It's so big and we're the smallone.
Kristen & Carol (38:17):
Yes, we are the small one.
Ella (38:18):
Okay.
Kristen & Carol (38:18):
Well, we need to wrap up.
Unfortunately, this was sogreat.
Ella, thank you so much.
I'm going to skip the firequestions today, but you have a
consulting service, is thatright?
Do you want to talk a littlebit about what you do?
Ella (38:37):
You're so inspirational and so positive.
Every interaction with you hasbeen amazing.
You're so kind.
I'm going to send you thisnudie beach photo right now.
I yes, I do own a consultingfirm.
I recently wrote a book calledhigh tolerance, and what I love
it's about my career and what I.
What I love is that I've beenso blessed that I've been able
to find a career that allows meto travel and visit the world,
and so I'm really grateful forthat.
But what I want to do isempower more people, women,
(38:59):
everyone to just think outsideof their own little world,
whatever that might be.
Whether it's the city you livein, the town you live in, the
state you live in the countryyou live in, we are never going
to be peaceful, kind people toeach other.
It's through traveling andlearning others, like whatever
other might look for you,someone who doesn't look like
(39:19):
you, who doesn't eat like you,who doesn't speak the same
language as you do.
This is where our compassion isdeepened, and I think we get so
self-absorbed.
Because we live a world in ourown four walls, with our family.
We think the world revolvesaround us, and when we travel
and extend ourselves into otherspaces, we can realize there's
(39:39):
so much more happening in thisworld.
I just put it in the chat foryou, that is beautiful, so yeah,
my book Looks really amazing.
Kristen (39:49):
Yeah, it's, it's.
Oh, there we go.
Oh, that's cute, You're layingon a rock rock.
Ella (39:54):
Yeah, I'm laying on a rock yeah.
Kristen & Carol (39:57):
Yeah, that's great yeah so we'll post that if
you're okay with that, or yeah,of course, of course it's one
of my favorite photos, justbecause it's so.
Ella (40:04):
That's my peaceful place when I'm in a really stressful
time.
I remember sitting there onnudie beach, going just soak
every feeling up soak, the coralunder your butt, the sun in the
sky, the smell of the cleanocean, and just remember this
for any stressful moment and Igo back there every time I'm
like really stressed.
Kristen (40:21):
Oh very good.
Kristen & Carol (40:22):
All right, and so we'll put your.
If you send me your like, anysocial channels that you want us
to share, we'll put in the shownotes as well.
Kristen (40:28):
So what is the consulting business that you do
that allows you?
Ella (40:31):
to travel.
Yeah, so I started EPConsulting officially about six,
seven months ago, but I've beendoing it about nine years.
So I, by trade, I am amarketing executive for CPG,
like Fortune 500 companies, andthen what I do is I really just
help empower leaders to fix someof the mess within their
(40:52):
business.
So that could be from anoperational standpoint, sales
standpoint or marketing.
Those are the three verticalswhere I'm the strongest.
So, working with various CEOsor founders who are trying to
figure out where the bottlenecksare in their business, helping
with team morale if, like, theteam is struggling there, giving
some strategies and tactics onproper marketing, because I've
(41:12):
had I've worked for amulti-billion dollar company, so
I've had really big milliondollar marketing budgets and
what happens is, with a lot ofsmaller, medium-sized businesses
, they're spending money wherethey don't realize.
Like that's not how you shouldbe spending and allocating your
budget.
So, with my big experience oflike look, when I worked for a
$5 billion company, we weren'tspending this much money on
(41:35):
social media, neither should youbeing able to have those kind
of like real talks abouteffective marketing, because
marketing is such an elusiveconcept and it's so necessary,
especially from a digitalstandpoint today.
It's a great way to buildcommunities and a great way to
build your network and get moreclients, but you want to make
sure that you're doing it in aneffective way where you're not
(41:56):
losing a ton of profits becauseyou're getting caught up in
whatever the hot TikTok trend isof the day.
So really offering likeeffective tactical ways to
market it's beyond like adigital ad.
It's going to be a lot ofrelationship building, making
sure you're in the right room,making sure that you have the
right relationships, and so mybook is a lot less expensive
(42:20):
than my services.
So I wrote the book really tohelp smaller business owners
kind of have an idea of how bigbusiness works and thinks in
terms of marketing.
I've worked with a lot ofcelebrities, sports teams,
influencers, things like that,and so a lot of people have
sports teams, influencers,things like that, and so a lot
of people have asked questionsabout my career.
So I was like, let me justwrite a book.
I wrote the book from ahospital bed, which is also in
the book, so that's kind of likethe yeah you found the silver
(42:44):
lining.
Yeah, well, I had.
I had time to think about mylife and the meaning of it, so I
was like, let me just writethis book now while I have the
time.
So it's been a really greatproject.
It landed on several bestsellerlists and it's been a really
interesting, fun thing.
But, yeah, if you just go toellaparlorcom, it's going to
have all the things.
And if anybody does want towork with me, I'm always happy
(43:08):
to help and empower smallerbusiness owners.
That's what I'm hoping to do.
I really want to help empowerpeople to fill their purpose and
feel good about whatever.
Kristen & Carol (43:17):
Whatever it is that they're doing, getting
them out of bed, yeah, I juststarted working on this New York
nonprofit called theacceleration project.
Their whole thing is to getconsultants and leave a train
consultant Some are volunteersand some are, like paid but to
get them to learn these skills,to go in and help all these
small businesses like locallyany you know hairdressers, car
(43:39):
shops, etc.
So many like let's keep thesmall business world alive.
Kristen (43:43):
So yeah, sure, so I'll have to reach out to you a lot
of oversized large companies ona daily basis love that.
Ella (43:56):
Yeah, no, I get it I see you, I get it.
Kristen & Carol (43:59):
Yeah, that's wonderful, we'll definitely
connect.
Kristen (44:02):
Yes, that would be great, that's our goal, for sure
me and carol, and carol alsodoes all the marketing for
companies and things as well.
So yeah um, yeah, a lot ofsynergies.
Ella (44:13):
I love that.
Well, yes, I would love tocontinue connecting and talking,
and thank you so much forletting me bring Daintree to
more ears, because I really meanit.
It's the one place on the earthwhere I'm like everybody needs
to experience this, and I don'tfeel that way about the
Colosseum in Rome or the EiffelTower.
Kristen & Carol (44:32):
So that'll give you perspective.
Okay, very good, all right,I've got to run to a call, so
I'm going to okay, all right.
Thank you, ladies, bye.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, canyou please take a second and do
a quick follow of the show andrate us in your podcast app, and
if you have a minute, we wouldreally appreciate a review.
(44:53):
Following and rating is thebest way to support us.
If you're on Instagram, let'sconnect.
We're at where next podcast?
Thanks again, thank you.
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