Thursday, March 18, 2010

mmm possums and spiders

for my outdoor education class we have two field trips planned and we just got back from our first trip. we went camping at a place called meebunn-bia somewhere on the goldcoast just outside of a town called rathdowney. sweet eh? we had to pack everything in this giant legit backpack. we carried our stove, food, "mattress", actually just a ridiculously thin and skinny piece of foam, rain jacket and clothes on our backs the whole time. crazy. the place we stayed was basically farmland. the first day we got there we hiked for about 2 hours to where we were staying, set up our tent, which was actually two tarps, one on bottom and one on top that was propped up by 5 poles and held down by rocks. when our instructor said the university would be providing tents it was a little misleading. after we set up our camp we went to a ropes course where there were 3 different sections and a zip line. they were awesome! the crazy part about it was that we did everything ourselves. all we had was a helmet, a harness, and two carabiners hooked on to our harness that we attached to the trees and wires BY OUR SELF!!! we weren't attached to anyone on the ground or security, my hands have never been more sweaty. surprising, i know. between each little section of the ropes course was a tree, so you had to switch your carabiners at the tree and somehow find a way to hold on to the tree, unhook yourself from the wire, and move on to the next course, by yourself without falling. sweeeet. if you were lucky there as a platform on the tree to stand on but that was about twice. i was behind a couple girls who got to one transition point and kept talking about all the spiders on the tree that you had to get around. all i could think of was how i was going to get there and freak out from a spider and fall off. buuut you all will be so proud to hear that i was happy to be hugging a tree with spiders crawling all over it. i was so scarred of falling and not being attached to the wire that i literally loved holding onto the tree with spiders and i said it aloud right then. i was shocked with my self. someone definitely owes me something for that, tim. i survived the ropes course and zip line which i got to video tape from my teachers camera so hopefully ill get that soon! that night we went back to our camp it was raining a little sooo we were definitely worried about sleeping seeing as our "tents" had no sides, little did we know that was the least of our worries. a little after dinner we were sitting around the camp fire and noticed some noises. possums were every where. freaking great. they weren't even scared of us, which scared me. we all stayed up and tried to warn other tents when the possum would go near it but that could only last so lung. i got stuck on the outside of the tent and mummied myself in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep. pretty soon i hear a little scratching and then feel something crawling on my back. eeeffff meeee. i rolled over and screamed. about 5 minutes later that piece of crap tried to crawl on my feet. i didn't sleep for the rest of the night. the next day we woke up and had to navigate around the whole farmland. four of us took off with a map and a compass and had to find 15 markers. there were about 4 trails and the rest was complete forest and bush. it was crazy. we were literally trekking through huge trees and weeds and dried up creeks with overgrown brush. we ran into about 17 HUGE spiders but after this weekend of bush walking spiders and hugging trees full of them, the progress i'm making is unreal. again tim, if you want to just reward me for that it would be great. after the navigation we packed up our camp and started on another 2 hour hike with all our stuff in our packs. our next activity was a free fall where we climbed up a freaking tiny unstable cable latter 40 ft up a tree and jumped into the air. our harness was attached to a rope connected to someone on the ground who actually knew what they were doing so that was nice but it was heaps fun. we continued our hike up to our next camp were we set up "tents" again. this time even better. no poles, just a rope that we tied between two trees. i'm convinced i can do anything at this point after snuggling with a possum and hugging spiders. we got up to our next campsite just in time to walk up this hill right behind us and watch the most amazing sunset. we all decided that we would wake up early the next morning and hike back up the hill to watch the sunrise. it was one of the most amazing things i've ever seen and so inspiring. we all were so excited to get up that early and sat up there in silence as the sun came up. beautiful. our last activity was another ropes course that you did in pairs. it was legit the hardest thing i have ever done. you are constantly connected to someone and can't move more than 2 feet away from each other, as well as being 30 feet off the ground. trying to climb up a rope ladder, across a cable ladder where the wood planks were too far to step from one to the other, then walk on a cable wire only holding on to ropes spaced apart just enough so you couldn't reach from one to the next. it was extremely difficult but getting to the end and ringing the bell with taylor was one of the most rewarding things and best feelings i have ever had. we were so proud of ourselves and it felt really good to work through that with someone. i loved it!

food for the weekend was interesting.. breakfast consisted of a granola bar and an apple each day. lunch was a tortilla with the famous pb&j, which is surprisingly good and i actually make it at home now when i have anything available to me, sad i know. and dinner was pasta ahhh. boil some noodles. add some sauce. same menu for three days. yuuuup. i was definitely ok with it but that's because at home my meals aren't much different. =] haha

i had a blast the whole trip, i was exhausted but i feel like i really learned a lot and got a lot out of it. i have camped with just a sleeping bag, mat and two tarps, and happily survived. i feel like that's a great accomplishment. im pretty proud of myself. and i'm pretty sure the worst has happened, a possum crawled on me and im ok with spiders crawling everywhere. sounds good hey. and now i could not be more excited for the outback. next step... no tarps, just the stars. perfect =] we'll see what kind of wildlife i come across and if i can survive.

1 comment:

  1. I am so proud of you....now I won't be hearing "MOM THERE'S A SPIDER IN MY ROOM" KILL IT, KILL IT, KILL IT! Glad I did not know before hand about you doing it all yourself with no security down below???? Isn't watching a glorious sunrise the best! And I am not so sure about tortillas and PB&J. LOVE AND MISS YOU, Mom & Dad xoxoxoxox

    ReplyDelete