Monday –
Departure! We had to be at the bus stop by 6:45am… ouch, but it was basically conditioning for the remaining three days. We really didn’t get much sleep, and the sleep that we did get wasn’t very peaceful. Bus ride took 2.5 hours, did my best to nap but the seats were stiff as a board and there was nothing to lean on making it all that more difficult. When we arrived we did a couple games to try and get to know our group better along with a couple team-building activities. After the activities we trekked up what some might consider the side of a mountain, it was pretty steep. This trip pushed my physical limits to their max, man was I out of shape. (You can kinda get the picture from picture 1, but it doesn’t really put it into perspective very well. You can see where the ground comes to a point, that’s where we climbed up but you can also see how steep it drops off [bottom left of the picture] and the view we got). We stopped and ate lunch at the top, took a little rest, and then continued on to our camping sight.
Later that day, once our tent/tarp contraptions were set up we did the zip-line they had there. Obviously with my background in disliking roller coasters I wasn’t overly thrilled, but I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass me by. It was actually a little bit of a let down, wasn’t quite as long/fast/high as I had imagined, and wasn’t that bad after all. That’s about then when weather changed on a dime and it went from sunny to pouring rain. Thankfully we had moved all our packs under the shelter so nothing got wet… The first night! (Picture 2: you can see our shelter/tent-tarp “tents” in the background. This is also a camp where high school and middle schools come, so they have shelters set up to supply food and store the tents. Typically campers don’t carry their own food/shelter here but we had to in order to prep for our second trip.) Monday night came at went with very few interruptions. The rain didn’t last to long during the evening, it mainly only poured during dinner. We played a few more games (Mafia) to pass some of the time and told a couple ghost/scary stories. I lucked out and slept in the middle of the tent, but Derek said he woke up in the middle of the night to a small Kangaroo hoping around his face at the opening of the tent.
Tuesday – Tuesday morning we woke up around 7am. We had to eat breakfast and pack our stuff up before the days activities. Our first one was wrapping our heads around navigation with a compass and a map. We talked about it in class, but in practice it’s far more complicated and difficult. We were given a series of points on a map that corresponded with painted buckets (can been seen in pictures, red and yellow striped) somewhere within a 2km radius. We were to follow either the map by using physical features, or follow a bearing on a compass in order to go from point to point. (A GPS would have been handy =)) It was quite difficult at first, our group confused ridges for valleys and valleys for ridges and we ended up going south when we needed to go north but we quickly remedied the problem. Easier now to read, but still a skill that will take far more time to master. I think the worst part about it were the spiders, not because they were all creepy like, but because they spun their webs between trees and we nearly walked into 100 of them. They’re MASSIVE too. But more on spiders later. I was pumped to catch a glimpse of a snake sometime on this trip, but I was disappointed. We didn’t see any. Australia is home to the top 10 deadliest snakes in the world, I just wanted to snap a picture of one, that’s all!
After navigation we at lunch and then did the high ropes course. We didn’t get the option of completing the whole thing because the rain the day before prevented some from doing the zip-line. These ones weren’t quite as high as I had expected, and I don’t have a tremendous fear of heights, so this was more of a challenge to myself to get across without using the support rope. For some (those who were afraid of heights) this was more challenging. Still fun nonetheless! (Some of the pictures make it look almost level with me, this is untrue, I just zoomed? Some will give a good perception of the actual height). The ropes course consisted of everything from a barrel you had to walk on top of, to a bridge where the wooden planks weren’t attached to the rope and shifted around.
Onward to probably the most difficult part of the trip, at least it was in my eyes.
Once everyone had completed the high ropes course we gathered our gear and set off back down to the base of this hill, where we first started. We also took what I’d claim to be a shortcut, why we didn’t take this the first time is beyond me. Haha, I guess it wouldn’t be quite as worth it if the journey wasn’t as hard as it was though right? At this point our group was running a little behind so we had to pick up the pace. The plan was to climb the other hill and catch the sunset (quick side note: The camp ground is set in a valley [where we got dropped off] on two farm plots donated to the camp. The first day we climbed the hill on the left of the road, the second day we visit the other side). This hill wasn’t quite as steep, but far more difficult. If the first hill pushed my physical limits, this one nearly killed me. We hiked for over 45 min uphill. And I mean uphill, if it ever got flat it was for no more then 20 feet. Keep in mind too we had pack weighting upwards of 20 pounds or so.
Camp was reached just as the sun was setting so we had little time to spare. We quick dropped our packs and climbed a smaller hill to get the best view. I felt completely rejuvenated after I had dropped my pack, literally a million pounds were lifted off my shoulder and I almost ran up the second hill. I wasn’t about to miss out on the reward for all my hard work, and the sun was setting fast. I leave you with the best view on Australia’s east coast. (According to my Outdoor Ed instructor Steve who lives and breathes the outdoors, someone who was able to sit with me and name each individual mountain in the background accompanied by his stories of each.) Take particular note of the horizon and the numerous mtns.
One of the more enjoyable moments on the trip came at dinner. (Libby and those with deep fears of spiders, if you wish to sleep tonight, you may wanna close your eyes) We witnessed a spider catch, bite, kill, wrap, and eat a praying mantis. I will not explain, I will merely show you the events that took place.
Wednesday -
Tuesday nights sleep didn’t go much in the same as Mondays. It POURED rain. From around 11pm to 1am. We were one of the few tent/tarp combo’s that didn’t get as wet as others, mainly because we did our best to water proof our tent before hand. There was one unlucky group who posted their tent perpendicular to ours in which the rain ran down our tarp right into theirs. They said they basically “slept” in a puddle. After the minimal sleep that everyone got, we woke up at 4:45am (yes ANOTHER early morning) to catch the sunrise on the same hill. Sadly I got one picture of the group, and then my camera died. It wasn’t quite as wonderful as the sunset though.
Wednesday’s events transpired as follows. Our first stop was another high ropes course, this one we were tethered to another person and had to complete the task as a group. This one was much more difficult this then first. We didn’t have anything to hold onto other then our partner and it was situated much further up then the first high ropes. The second stop was a free falling exercise. We climbed about 50 feet in the air, stood on a platform, and then stepped off plummeting to the ground. The catch was our camp leader was there holding us up with a rope. So we really only fell for about 20-30 feet before the ropes slack went out and we swung outwards over the ground. I imagine the start being very similar to bungee jumping, except instead of getting snapped back up, we swung out. I think I nearly peed my pants. Not something I would do had it not been for coming here. Deff feel more comfortable with dropping uncontrollably, who knows maybe I’ll actually enjoy rides now? Then off back down the hill to a debrief, kinda talk about the week, our expectations and what we got out of it, and then onto the bus. It made for a good last day.
That's all for now.
