day 1:
we had to be on the bus by 7:45 to take a three hr bus ride northwest to guirraween where we passed through towns full of "real fall" trees that were orange/yellow/red and all the kids from the east coast were super stoked because fall here at uni is just like fall in so cal.. colder than summer and just a little warmer than winter.. no crazy colors or falling leaves. so that was cool to get to see those towns full of colorful trees THEN we actually got to camp.. and it was raining. but on an off.. it wasnt too bad. we started of with a short walk to our first campsite and set up camp then we went on an off track section (aussies and their off tracks MAN! when they say off track they mean it! i feel like i would DEF get yelled at for this kind of thing at the national parks back home). our leader took us into this gully that was FULL of ferns!.. yes ladies and gentlemen i was in a "fern gully" haha and everyone got all excited about that. i saw a baller huntsman spider that looked all fuzzy and i got all up in his grill and took a pretty good pic of him and his eyes look all cool and stuff.. umm i cant remember seeing any other wildlife other than that and birds bugs the usual. but there werent that many spiders DEFINITELY not as many as in meebunn bia.. but we were in ferns up to our chests and practically over our heads at points. not on a trail. just kind pushing through it hoping you didnt step on any kind of creature in the process.. it was a total jurassic park moment i was waiting for a velociraptor to abduct me at any second. then we came out of the gully and it was pretty much dusk and we made dinner then went to bed straight away because it was so cold, and because we had to get up for sunrise
day 2:
the rain stopped and the wind dried up mt norman (the granite mtn that we didnt get to climb day 1 because the granite was too slippery from the rain) so we got to scramble to the top after a rushed morning to catch the sun rise.. the most beautiful red sunrise i have EVER seen. i was sooooo glad that we didnt try to get up mt norman the day before because it was basically just a granite slab that you scale up till you get to the top and hope that you dont slip in the process and take out everyone below you. then our leader made us gum tree tea (just the fallen dried up gum tree leaves from the ground boiled in water) and it was pretty good... THEN!!!! we went caving. and when i say caving, i man CAVING! we were on our stomachs pulling ourselves through cracks with head lamps covered in dirt through a channel in the boulder that had been made through erosion of water after it rains and streams down mt norman. (i just found out from a girl on the trip before mine that a boy in her group had to be dug out of the end because he got stuck because the hole was too small). then we also went caving like we climbed around down into a mess of boulders and around to see different rooms that had been made of the piled up boulders (a lot more climbing and less contorting/squishing). then we walked some more by this point our leader had us orienteering our own way, we were given a grid reference, a map, and a compass and we were supposed find our way.. our leader would stalk us in the bush to make sure we didnt die but other than that we were on our own, if we walked the wrong way (which never happened of course :) because we are expert orienteers) he would follow us the wrong way and laugh every minute of it. we had lunch at the underground creek (dont ask why its called that cus i have NO idea cus it looked pretty above ground/normal to me) and we got a chance to jump in... and i did.. andddd it was BY FAR the COLDEST water i have EVER been in!!! to the MAX.. oh MAN!! and it was ORANGE!!! from all the tree leaves it was wierdddd you jump in and look up and you expect to see sky but it looks like there are flames above your head. THEN we started our first off track of the day using magnetic bearings to our from pt A to B and we were crossing creaks/climbing boulders/charging forests left and right till we see our FIRST australian kangaroo just haning out in a grass plain... soooo tight!! :) ahhh :) then we finished that off track and our leader met us there (he was a stinking EXPERT STALKER he would leave after us watch us the whole way and then always bet us there.. WITHOUT us seeing him.. what the heck?!) then we started our second off track where our bearing lead us DIRECTLY in the middle of to herds/packs of kangaroos.. these things are like 6ft when they stand up mind you.. soo we kept on our way walking though the two herds where at the last minute all but a few would hop off and the real big ones would stay behind and look scary (one even started hopping all curious toward us and it was pretty cool/scary haha) but yea just on that grass plane alone there were like 8+ different herds of them all grouped together and we went from seeing our first AU bush kanga to 50-100 all with in 1/2 an hour it was AMAZING.. not to mention the setting sun in the background.
day 3:
we basically did most of our hiking day three we climbed a couple peaks on the way saw some sweet views of where we started to where we had come.. CRAZY to think how much you can walk in one day. this is also where we crossed over from guirraween national park over into bald rock national park. we stopped at a campground for lunch where i saw my first kookaburra up close and lemme tell you they are WEIRD looking birds! (pretty fiesty too one girl in the group before had can of tuna in her hand and she was holding it as she was eating her cracker and a kookaburra just swooped in and yoinked some tuna out of the can only to grip of it as it flew into another boys face.. fact or fiction i dont know but either way i def enjoyed the story haha) we also had our first and ONLY toilet of the trip other than that we had our trowel and a roll of toilet paper and i will leave it at that. our trip commenced at south bald rock where we once again scaled the granite slab and when i say slab i really mean 1200 m tall BOULDER to watch the sun set.. beautiful. then we came back and had dinner then our leader showed us a few constellations you can actually see the full orion (same one you see in the northern hemi) for about an hour after sun sets before it heads behind the horizon.. then i was asked by a girl in my group that lives in boston if we saw the same stars in CA as they do in MA and i nearly died.. along with our group leader.. then we went to bed
day 4:
sunrise on south bald rock again.. gorgeous.. ALMOST as good as mt norman day 2.. more caving.. the a little of both the crawling/squeezing/dragging and the climbing.. we saw GLOWWORMS.. only like 10-15 not the planet earth kind :) ahh i LOVE AUSTRALIA! umm then we did our last off track of the day and headed through this REALLY thick brush/forest trying to find this creak and we were preeeetty lost because we were getting impatient and we just walked instead of following a magnetic bearing which takes FOREVER!!! so we were trying to orienteer feature based.. but the forest/bush was too thick to see anything sooo that was a failed attempt from the start so we just continued walking and we happened to hit this creek that we were planning on hitting and following down to the destination and we thought we were WAYY off track and 60 seconds later we hit the destination becuase we happend to hit it exactly where we were planning on hitting without even trying.. after we thought we were completely off track.. a COMPLETE God send. sooo LUCKY and then we finished out or walk back to the start to complete our 50+k adventure around guirraween and south bald rock and we were off to good ol' lismore :) where i came home ate an apple, granola bar and an ENTIRE pizza and now i am going to bed :)
all in all it was a complete success to the max :)
1 comment:
WOW!!!!!!!! not only was this your best blog ever! But it also seems like the most amazing trip ever! ahhhh!
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