AK Month-to-month Recap: September 2025

September 2025 is without doubt one of the most adventurous months I’ve had in years! My long-awaited journey to Mauritius, Réunion, and Madagascar passed off — and this journey had the best highs and lowest lows of the entire yr.

It is a BIG month-to-month recap and fairly a bit occurred, so prepare for a prolonged learn!

Locations Visited

• Prague, Czech Republic
• Flic en Flac, Tamarin, Chamarel, Bois Cheri, Curepipe, Port Louis, Pamlemousses, Cap Malheureux, and Grand Baie, Mauritius
• Saint-Gilles, Saint-Leu, Cilaos, L’Étang-Salé, Langevin, Saint-Philippe, Saint Joseph, and Saint Pierre, Réunion
• Antananarivo, Antsirabe, Lac Tritiva, Maromandray, Miandrivazo, Anosinampela Waterfall, Begidro, Tsaraotana, Belo Tsiribihina, Mahajanga, Bekopaka, Tsingy de Bemaraha Nationwide Park, Kirindy, Morondava, Betania, Nosy Be, Nosy Sakatia, and Nosy Tanikely, Madagascar

Highlights

Good occasions in Prague. My buddy Mike, one in all my oldest buddies from the world of journey running a blog, got here to stick with us in Prague for a couple of days, and we obtained to point out him the very best that Prague has to supply.

Altogether, there have been meats at Kantýna, a wine competition on the sting of Prague Fortress, a burger competition, a brewery cease, and simply having fun with the unimaginable place that’s Prague within the month of September. And OF COURSE Charlie and Mike obtained alongside like a home on fireplace!

Ending 75 Onerous. I haven’t talked about something about it on the weblog but, however from June 24 by means of September 6, I accomplished 75 Onerous — a health and psychological toughness program.

Every day, you could do two exercises of at the least 45 minutes every; observe a weight loss plan of your alternative (I did no sugar and no junk meals); learn 10 pages of a private improvement ebook; drink completely zero alcohol; drink one gallon (3.8 liters) of water per day; take a progress picture; and ZERO CHEATS WHATSOEVER. In the event you miss something, you begin over.

I wrote about it in a submit on the Adventurous Kate Fb web page, and gained’t reiterate what I mentioned there. Right here’s a quote about why 75 days is a lot extra transformational than 30:

30 days isn’t sufficient for a problem to be transformative. I’ve performed a LOT of 30-day challenges over time: Whole30s, sober challenges, health tune-ups. 30 days seems like so much whenever you’re getting began. It isn’t. 

This time, I didn’t truly hit my groove till 40+ days in. I didn’t begin trying completely different to my buddies till the 50s. And 75 days of social engagements provides you much more observe not ingesting round drinkers, which you want.

General, this has been a tricky yr for health for me partly attributable to my hip harm in March, however 75 Onerous helped me turbo-charge my well being and get again into fairly respectable form.

Additionally, the man who created 75 Onerous, Andy Frisella, is a homophobic and transphobic right-wing nut job, so I made certain to donate $75 in his identify to the Metro Trans Umbrella Group in his hometown of St. Louis.

The problem could also be over now, however I’m sticking to 90 minutes of figuring out per day, sticking to the identical weight loss plan 90% of the time, and I haven’t had a single alcoholic drink since. I plan on solely ingesting on particular events going ahead.

A style of Mauritius. For my journey to Madagascar, I had simply sufficient further time to do a couple of days every in each Mauritius and Réunion. They’re every in regards to the dimension of Rhode Island, the smallest state within the US. Whereas three days isn’t sufficient for both vacation spot, I believed it could be sufficient time to get a taster and see if I needed to return for extra.

Mauritius is an attention-grabbing place — an island within the Indian Ocean that was uninhabited till 1638 (!!), and at present has a inhabitants descended largely from Indian visitor staff and enslaved Africans (not not like Guyana, minus their Indigenous inhabitants). The island is a lush paradise, with waterfalls, craggy mountains, and fairly seashores.

I loved touring across the island and seeing the sights — I particularly liked the waterfalls, the large tortoises, an interesting Hindu temple on a sacred lake, and the bustling market in Port-Louis. The seaside in Flic en Flac was pretty.

Mauritius is ideally explored by automotive, however as a result of they drive on the left aspect of the street and I used to be flying in a single day (i.e. a sleepless night time), I didn’t assume I’d be a secure driver underneath these circumstances. However I used to be capable of finding taxi drivers for 83 euros that may take you on excursions for round six hours or so. I did that on two days.

That mentioned — Mauritius and I didn’t actually vibe. It felt a bit shabby general, public areas have been poorly cared for, most sights have been a bit underwhelming, and I discovered the Indian-influenced meals fairly bland regardless of begging everybody to make it spicy, native spicy.

I’m glad I visited Mauritius, and loved what I noticed, however I don’t have the necessity to return. I contemplate my go to a hit. Not each vacation spot needs to be a house run.

A whirlwind go to to Réunion. Réunion Island, technically a part of France, completely blew me away. I discovered the island spectacular in its pure magnificence, exceedingly effectively maintained (the roads have been LIKE BUTTER), coated with recent flowers, and filled with pleasant individuals who thoughtfully helped me discover the best French phrase as a substitute of rolling their eyes and switching to English like the standard Parisian.

And admittedly, I barely noticed a fraction of what the island needed to provide. My massive day journey was a non-public tour to Cilaos, an virtually unspeakably stunning little village set amongst the mountains.

The surroundings was so beautiful, it almost made me cry. (And effectively value costing 4 occasions what I paid for a day journey in Mauritius — yikes!! You’re very a lot in France right here!)

So sure, I’m fairly wanting to return to Réunion and see MUCH MORE! The lively volcano and the opposite cirques of Salazie and Maïdo are on the prime of my checklist. I’d additionally like to spend a number of days in Cilaos and use it as a base for climbing.

I’ll be writing extra about my time in Réunion, so keep tuned for an even bigger submit!

The journey of a lifetime in Madagascar. After which got here the BIG occasion — my Madagascar journey with Rock My Journey. Probably the most adventurous journey I’ve had in years, and one in all my favourite journeys EVER.

Madagascar has been excessive on my checklist for years — but it surely’s a little bit of a tough vacation spot with restricted infrastructure, even by African requirements, so I at all times knew I needed to go to Madagascar on a gaggle tour. And as quickly as I noticed the itinerary coated ALL the locations I needed to go to in Madagascar, I knew I needed to do it!

Sure, Madagascar could be very a lot a difficult place to go to, but it surely’s additionally filled with beautiful pure magnificence and wildlife, and residential to a few of the warmest, most fantastic individuals ever. Moreover, there’s zero overtourism right here, which is refreshing.

So what have been my favourite components?

A 3-day journey down the Tsiribihina River. This was very tough — we camped, our boat didn’t have a rest room, we went days with out showering, and after we wanted to pee, we pulled over to shore to pee behind a bush (and generally MORE THAN PEE). However this was such a enjoyable journey. We swam in waterfalls, sang songs across the fireplace, and stopped in cities alongside the best way.

Mountaineering within the Grand Tsingy. The Grand Tsingy is an intimidating rock forest, and exploring it was probably the most intense hikes I’ve ever performed. That is the primary time I’ve performed a By way of Ferrata-style hike the place you put on a harness and clip in to cables all through the route. Regardless of that, it truly wasn’t scary in any respect!

Experiencing the wildlife. We obtained to see SO many lemurs! And in Kirindy, we obtained to see some uncommon animals just like the foussa, mouse lemurs, and a few cool chameleons.

Island time in Nosy Be. We completed our journey with time in Madagascar’s most touristy space: the northern islands. We obtained to snorkel with huge sea turtles, and lemurs truly crawled on our heads!

And the individuals of Madagascar have been an absolute spotlight. The warmest, most welcoming individuals. The children have been improbable and lovely, at all times wanting to carry our arms. We randomly stopped in a village and the ladies launched us to a child who had been born only some hours in the past!!

However this tour was SO nice, and I can’t suggest it extra extremely. The following Madagascar tour is happening in October 2026, and you possibly can find out about it right here.

Keep tuned for way more about Madagascar. I can’t wait to put in writing about it.

For now, you may get £100 off any Rock My Journey tour with the code KATE100. And I had a lot enjoyable on this tour, I’m already choosing out my subsequent tour for 2026!

Talking French for 3 weeks. Regardless of visiting Paris yearly, I don’t get to talk French fairly often — partly as a result of if Parisians sense you’re overseas, they routinely swap to English. However BOY, DID I SPEAK A TON OF FRENCH throughout this journey!

In Mauritius, you may get by simply with English, however many locals solely converse French. In Réunion, French is the one and solely language. And in Madagascar, most Malagasy individuals study French for “official” communication and English is a decrease precedence, so we often defaulted to French in our conversations.

I truly rescheduled a canceled flight on the cellphone completely in French with Air Austral. I took a non-public tour with a information who solely spoke French in Réunion.

I took over speaking with the French-speaking employees of our guesthouse after we have been caught in Antananarivo and Helen was on the airport attempting to get us new flights. I made native buddies in Madagascar that don’t converse English.

I’ve at all times needed to make use of my French abilities extra on my travels, and I’m so delighted that I obtained to talk a ton of French on this journey. Lesson? If you wish to converse extra French, go to francophone Africa!

Challenges

Unrest in Madagascar. I’ve talked about this extra extensively on Fb, however I’ll give the fundamental factors right here: on the day we flew from Morondava again to Antananarivo, protests started in cities all through Madagascar. Individuals are protesting energy cuts, water shortages, and a corrupt authorities.

Let me be clear: I absolutely help the protestors. They’re asking for very basic items that we as westerners take with no consideration.

I’ve been in areas with unrest earlier than, and it’s often fairly simple to keep away from. However this time, our resort was proper in the course of the fray — a lot that we have been herded inside in a panic, principally barricaded in our resort, and the police tear gassed the neighborhood, which harm our eyes and throat even throughout the resort courtyard.

Our flight to Nosy Be the following day was canceled, and we moved to a small guesthouse in a secure space in a gated neighborhood. By this time town was underneath curfew and all outlets have been alleged to be closed (we discovered a couple of that have been open).

Our flight the day after that was canceled as soon as once more, however we have been lastly capable of get to Nosy Be two days later than scheduled.

On prime of that, as soon as I obtained to Nosy Be’s airport to go away, my flight was canceled for the following two days. Boy was I glad after I lastly made it out of Madagascar.

So sure, it was so much to take care of — significantly the scary arrival day in Madagascar after we have been surrounded by violent clashes — however in the end, it was simply an inconvenience. My coronary heart is with the Malagasy individuals, who’re dwelling this day-after-day.

Our hire went up. By a LOT. Charlie has lived in our residence since 2009, and our neighborhood of Karlín has gentrified enormously since then. Consequently, our hire has been under market price for fairly a while, and solely raised a bit at a time.

However this yr they raised it a really surprising quantity, which hit me laborious as the previous renter of a backed residence in New York whose hire by no means went up greater than $50 at a time. YIKES.

That mentioned — we will work with this. It’s not as unhealthy because it may very well be.

(No, we’re not going to purchase a spot in Prague. We do hope to purchase a spot in Italy within the subsequent few years.)

What I Listened To This Month

I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Biggest Albums of All Time, which I’m having fun with immensely. I’m loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve someway missed my total life till now!

In September, I listened to albums 249-228. Listed below are the highlights:

Favourite Discovery: Anti by Rihanna. I’ve been a fan of Rihanna’s music for the reason that starting, however I’ve by no means sat down and listened to Anti begin to end. And now I notice how Rihanna followers lose it over this album.

This album is horny and futuristic, robotic and intense, and has such a transparent standpoint. The manufacturing is on level and all the pieces is completely attuned to Rihanna’s distinctive voice.

Yep, that is an album I’ll be blasting for a very long time.

Different Favourite Discoveries: Discovery by Daft Punk, American Fool by Inexperienced Day, Love Deluxe by Sade, Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos, Heaven or Las Vegas by the Cocteau Twins.

Favourite Revisited Album: Every thing was new to me in September — I had hoped I’d get to #218, CrazySexyCool by TLC, however that should wait till subsequent month!

Favourite Songs: “Kiss It Higher” by Rihanna, “Voyager” by Daft Punk, “Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)” by De La Soul, “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, “Vacation/Boulevard of Damaged Goals” by Inexperienced Day, “Jingling Child” by LL Cool J and Marley Marl, “Naima” by John Coltrane.

Get the playlist: I’m making a playlist of my favourite songs from the five hundred albums — most one per album — on Spotify. You’ll be able to take heed to it right here.

Lowlight of the Month: I don’t perceive the purpose of Kraftwerk. Their album Trans-Europe Specific could be very “bleep bleep, bloop bloop, I’m a pc and I make music.”

Random Music Ideas: This month I had maybe one of the best mixture of vacation spot/expertise and music, as I listened to Daft Punk’s Discovery whereas driving round Réunion Island.

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. Listening to immaculate French dance music whereas driving these buttery-smooth roads curving round volcanic hills, with essentially the most good mild heat climate and large fluffy clouds up within the sky? FANTASTIC.

It’s the finest driving I’ve performed for the reason that Loire Valley final yr, and maybe one of the best driving I’ve performed, ever.

This was my first month actually listening to Patsy Cline, and I discovered her voice so compelling. She actually has a unique high quality, so fashionable, that’s distinctive on the planet of nation.

And at last, it was attention-grabbing revisiting Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak this month. I listened to the album again when it got here out, and like all Kanye followers on the time (I’m not a fan anymore, his conduct is reprehensible), I used to be shocked at how unusual this album was. Autotuned, weak, melodic rap. “I miss the previous Kanye,” certainly.

However this album has since develop into the blueprint. EVERYONE in hip-hop at present seems like this album, from Drake to Child Cudi (granted, a Kanye protege) to J. Cole and Travis Scott. This isn’t Kanye’s finest album by far, however I’d wager it’s essentially the most influential.

What I Watched This Month

The Righteous Gem stones. It is a Danny McBride-created HBO sequence I by no means obtained round to watching till now, a few household of televangelists in South Carolina and all of the wild issues that occur behind the scenes. The forged is wonderful, every character is as fascinating as they’re vile, and the present is so much funnier than I anticipated it to be!

(Additionally, no new season of Under Deck to report on this month, however my Madagascar journey was FULL of Under Deck followers!! We saved saying issues like, “Captain Jason provides me the fanny flutters.”)

The Emmy Awards have been earlier this month, and I’m so happy that The Pitt, so many actors on The Pitt, and Jeff Hiller of Any individual Someplace gained Emmys! These exhibits are each MARVELOUS and I extremely, extremely suggest them each.

What I Learn This Month

I obtained by means of three books this month. Let’s have a look:

Woodworking by Emily St. James (2025) — Erica is a 35-year-old trainer in South Dakota — and she or he’s trans. She’s informed nobody. However then she will be able to’t maintain it in anymore and comes out to Abigail, an out trans lady at her faculty, and the one trans particular person she is aware of. They develop an unlikely friendship that quickly attracts the scrutiny of the neighborhood.

Emily St. James is a TV critic and Yellowjackets author whose work I’ve lengthy loved, and her first novel is a improbable debut. The characters are so richly drawn, and I appreciated a narrative about trans individuals happening in rural America relatively than a giant metropolis (one purpose why I really like Any individual Someplace).

Although actually, I had a lot dread all through the ebook as I knew a detailed friendship between a male-presenting trainer and feminine scholar would NOT go unnoticed.

All of the Solution to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert (2025) — When Elizabeth Gilbert’s finest buddy Rayya Elias was identified with terminal most cancers, Gilbert had a realization: she was in love with Rayya, she wanted to go away her husband, and she or he wanted to make the remainder of Rayya’s days fantastic. However that’s only one a part of the story.

Throughout her most cancers journey, Rayya returned to drug dependancy, and Gilbert realized she herself was a intercourse and love addict who was inflicting plenty of harm to Rayya along with her earlier companions.

There isn’t a lot that HASN’T been mentioned about this ebook — particularly the half the place Gilbert contemplates murdering Rayya. A LOT of individuals hate Elizabeth Gilbert, it doesn’t matter what she does, and I believe some (however not all) of that’s rooted in misogyny.

That mentioned — I don’t assume persons are speaking sufficient in regards to the accountability Gilbert goes by means of later within the ebook, discovering how far her intercourse and love dependancy has harm individuals, and her excruciating efforts to get sober and keep sober going ahead.

(I imply, most of us have performed some loopy issues for intercourse and love…she’s obtained some good ideas in right here.)

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk (2022) — Bob Odenkirk has had fairly an attention-grabbing profession in leisure, rising from the comedy golf equipment and improv exhibits of Chicago to writing for Saturday Night time Reside, creating the unusual area of interest comedy present Mr. Present with David Cross, getting forged as Saul Goodman on Breaking Dangerous, and getting tons of Emmy nominations for drama on Higher Name Saul.

I actually loved this sort of memoir as a result of Bob has been barely or reasonably well-known for many of his profession — it wasn’t actually till Breaking Dangerous that he turned tremendous well-known. And I liked studying about his neighborhood with comedians of the 90s, particularly the fantastic issues he says about Janeane Garofalo.

As an SNL superfan who would like to see Bob host someday, this ebook sadly made me notice that it’s in all probability by no means going to occur. Bob didn’t love working at SNL; he sort of phoned it in and secretly labored for Second Metropolis in Chicago concurrently and had his buddies cowl for him. Lorne holds grudges. The truth that Bob put that in print means Lorne isn’t going to let him host.

Coming Up in October 2025

We’re heading to Piemonte! Charlie and I truly haven’t been to Italy but this yr, which is wild (we often go to thrice or so), so we needed to squeeze in an extended weekend journey earlier than the yr ends.

This month we will probably be visiting Piemonte for a couple of days. Piemonte is within the north and residential to a few of the finest meals and wine within the nation. Whereas we’ve visited Piemonte a couple of occasions earlier than, this time we will probably be visiting a couple of completely different areas which are new to us.

And sure, this will probably be thought of a “big day” and I will probably be ending my 100+ day sober streak and treating myself to a glass of Barolo, my favourite wine on the planet.

Any plans for October? Share away!