HEAPS ADVENTURES OF THE BLOODY KNUCKLE TRAVELERS PART II

Fortunately, the 6 travelers had no barf to deposit into the bags and they successfully arrived at the AVALON TERMINAL, which was in the middle of no where. Originally the group's plan was to camp out in the airport to save money, but the airport was terribly small with no where to rest their weary heads so they bought bus tickets to stay in a youth establishment located in MELBOURNE CITY. Upon arrival, they united with the 2 missing members of THE BLOODY KNUCKLE TRAVELERS, the Parrotmaster Patrick of the Ruthless Ruths, and THE Nedulizer, who presence on the team was not yet known by Carolinese Cameron until their arrival. Surprise! 

After 8 hours of travel, the group quickly fell into a peaceful coma.

3 AM........ *angry muffled voices from the room next store*

"F*#I@# you! Get out *#($*(@ I'm going to &@#@*&# You think #@%^@ you can #@#^@#@#%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

!!***BOOM***!!

*silence*

Travelers = scared

DAY 2

After nearly a full, yet slightly terrifying night's sleep, they eagerly departed the hostel after indulging in the free coffee and toast (which to them was like Christmas morning, as an average cup of coffee costs $3.50) 

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Side note: Australia does not offer regular cups of coffee. The only coffee that is sold here is cappuccino, latte, flat white (my personal favorite) and some other ones I can't remember the names of. If you want to drink a regular coffee you have to buy the crystals and make it at home. Oh, and an "iced coffee" is just coffee with ice cream in it. No ice. 

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For method of transport in this wholly southern road trip, two top-of-the-line vehicles were booked by always-over-dressed-for-the-weather Woda the night before at 2 AM. 

Rape Dust, a white stallion with automatic windows, was quick and sassy with just a pinch of attitude. Named by the-girl-who-touched-kasey's-weeney of the Ruthless Ruths, Rape Dust fearlessly took on the fatally winding roads of the south coast highway. 

Then there was Bloody Knuckles, named by the Comical Caitlin, naturally.

B.N. was quite a character. Equipped with a state-of-the-art USB iPod hook up, B.N. knew how to entertain. Considered the be the "party car", B.N. had to somehow compensate for being the slower of the two. 

After getting lost in the labyrinth of roads they call a city, the travelers finally found their route. After an hour of driving, their first stop was the first lookout point they stumbled across. It was quite a beautiful sight to the travelers, the beauty was almost a relief as they had spent long hours getting lost before finding their way to the magical road. 




When you put 8 people into two cars, some very interesting games come about in passing the time between each glorious stop. Some of the games the brilliant travelers conjured up included: 

What are you parents and grandparents names? Actually quite interesting if you think about it, as the naming of children is constantly evolving. Replacing Virginia, Agnes, Betty, and Arthur are children now named after fruit, days of the week, or just a random combobulation of letters. Apple, Axton, Zylan, Echo just to name of few. 




Another game popular among the women of Bloody Knuckles, was "guess this song" where one of them fan-dangled ipooeds was set to shuffle and the first person to guess the song won. 
Won what you might ask? The respect for being awesome at life. 


Then there is the classic "whose gonna barf first?" during the stretch of road with nauseating curves and hairpin turns. Comical Caitlin almost won!  

Should have got more barf bags! bleh!




Next stop on the THE WORLD'S MOST AWESOME AGENDA was a the a light house. The travelers stumbled upon a curious looking man who was hovering in front of the cylindrical tower, offering tours for the steep price of $10. They travelers declined, but did get a hot tip on a koala sanctuary down the road. SCORE! 







It was about an hour down the road that the the normal every day road turned into THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD made official by a giant wooden gate. Nothing could have prepared them for the magic, mysteries, trials and tribulation that lied just beyond this gate of wonder.


 It had begun. 






After navigating just a bit farther down the GRO, they decided to stop to refuel their tired bodies in a town known as Lorne. Quite full of strange oddities, this quirky coastal town brought them much delight, and even a nice hot shower! (only $1 for three minutes...what a steal!) 





















What happened next, no one could really explain. It was one of those things that just happens and must be accepted as fate. It's like when a door is closing and you slip through without touching it all James Bond-like. 


Yeah, it was like that. 


Thanks to the tip by hovering-overpriced-tour-of-the-light-house-man, the group veered off the road at Kenneth River, and drove their tiny 4-cylinder mighty steeds up into the bush via a wet and muddy dirt road. As they rose higher and higher up through the canopy, the forest plummeted downward to one side, shrouded by fog and anxiety. Not bad anxiety, mind you, but that excited, "I am literally going to explode because I don't know what's going to happen next...literally" type of anxiety.

After pulling of the mud slick, and scrambling to get out of the car, they saw them. 


Perched in the trees, stoned and smiling, heaps of koalas peered down at their human visitors with curiosity. Some were sleeping, some eating, and some were...well, that's basically all they do. 


With the notion they were the luckiest people to ever be alive and witness a gathering such as this, they left Koala Land, and headed down the real life slip-n-slide, towards the road. 








But then... yet another one of the "OMG" occurrences. 
On the side of the road they found a flock of chattering colourful parrots, just wating to make their acquaintance. There were dozens perched in the trees, like they had been waiting all their life for this moment. 

"You liked the koalas? What till you see US!" 



And yes, always-over-dressed-for-the-weather-Woda knew all the names. She is just that obsessed with birds. Female king parrot on the right, eastern rosella on the left. 




No parrots were harmed in the making of this blog






If you were wondering why everything looks so dreary and grey is because it literally rained the entire time we were there. Almost. 






After leaving Parrotropolis, they young travelers spent the next few hours racing to get to the infamous 12 apostles. Driving through rain sent from everything-that-is-not-awesome, they arrived at their destination just as the darkness began to fall.


Racing to catch a glimpse of these famous formations, they sprinted to the shoreline, cameras bouncing around their necks. 


At the last moment, the sun who had been so shy all day, peeped out to say hello to the world's luckiest travelers. And it was glorious. 

After the show, they piled back into good old Bloody Knuckles and Rape Dust and headed for their hostel in Port Fairy. 


Sleepy time........


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Stay tuned for the next adventure of THE BLOODY KNUCKLE TRAVELERS!

Yes, my friends, they conquered the Great Ocean Road, leaving only the rape dust and some very, very bloody knuckles behind.

It a day like no other.

It was for the first time in recorded human history that two hardy blokes and six giggling sheilas challenged the fury of what is known in perilous land of Australia as THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD.

Now shockingly well known in the southern hemisphere (firstly for the introduction of the now highly demanded “granoler”), this rare species of super-humans consisted of those now know as the Comical Caitlin, the Carolinese Cameron and her trusty sidekick, The Nedulizer, the Wandering Walford, the Labradorian Laura Lee, the unrivaled brother-sister duo, The Ruthless Ruths, and myself, the always-way-over-dressed-for-the-weather Woda.

Yes, it is a rare day that beings such as these might convene, even for a second, on the same place on this raging planet. You are probably asking yourself this question right now… “ How the in the flipping blazes did they do it?”  It’s a question asked quite frequently, especially by humans like yourself, so don’t feel bad, you are not alone.

It all started a few thousand years ago when the oceans rose after the last Ice Age and began eroding the soft limestone of the southern Australia coastline. Fast-forward to the Holocene Epoch, and you will find The Wandering Walford’s interest of the current condition of this event being sparked by events that are still unclear.

After careful months of intense planning, it was on one fateful May night at 11:47 PM that 5 return trip tickets were booked on the one and only Wandering Windows, all of which was supervised by the house nun, Miss Clevel (though no amount of supervision, be it governmental or supernatural, can rival the forces of the feared JETSTAR *evil echoing laugh* By some miracle not yet fathomable by the human mind, there were no fatal damages in the process of the nerve-racking process of the booking.) By yet another valiant effort against the corrupted JETSTAR, *evil echoing laugh* the 6^th ticket booked solo by the Labradorean Laura Lee.

And so, the plan was set in motion.

Nothing

            could

                        stop

 them

 now.

It was on the one hundred and forty seventh day of the year two thousand ten (commonly known as May 28^th), the six most gallant American exchange students ever to grace the grounds of Newcastle City left their mighty fortress behind, each with only a small pack of only the most vital resources on their back and a confirmation number scrawled on the hand of the Wandering Walford.

It was 5:15 PM at Civic station when their ship departed. A sturdy two-story vessel that travels up to speeds of 70km/hr, the journey to what is known as the Mecca of all speeding vessels usually takes about 178 minutes.

 They did, however, encounter a problem along the way. There was an attempted attack on the voyager’s lives. Without warning, an odor so pungent that would make a grown man violently ill (good thing they were all women) began to fill the carriage. After about 15 minutes of intensely burning facial sinuses and by using altered forms of respiration, they escaped with their lives… they were going to see another day.

Finally after 4 grueling hours of travel, 2 bags of chips, 9 chocolate chip cookies, 1 nintendo DS, 2 squashed muffins, 1 terrifying ticket check, and 5 hemp bracelets later, they arrived at the TERMINAL. Upon entering they had to pass the test of the automated check-in. With a now nearly illegible combination of letters and numbers on the hand of the Wander Walford, she incredibly entered the passcode correctly, yielding six happy tickets to the six happy travelers.  

After success with the first of many challenges, the hopeful travelers boarded the mothership, and after seating themselves, began writing letters to their loved ones of the excessive amount of barf bags found in the seat pockets. Maybe they should have saved them…stay tuned to find out in the next episode of THE BLOODY KNUCKLE TRAVELLERS, PART II

Lost Memory Card!

Hey peeps. Lost my memory card but another is on the way so sorry about the lack of postings! Going to Melbourne on the 28th, Cairns on the 3rd, New Zealand on the 9th, so keep checking in... more adventures soon!

Americans are puzzling

I am currently taking a river basin processes class that has a three day field trip to the upper hunter valley. I just got back from that field trip a few hours ago and would like to tell you about my experiences the past few days. If you have been reading my blog you would know that this is the second multi-day field trip I’ve been on since I’ve been to Australia, so I had somewhat of an idea what to expect. 

Day 1

The bus was leaving from Uni at 8:00 am, and I decided to leave the house at 7:13. I get to the train station, and like usual, I missed the train by 15 seconds. Luckily, there is another train coming at 7:34 and I hop on that one and barely make it to the bus station on time, sweaty and the last one to board the bus. One kid actually did get left, so drove himself 3 hours to find us. It was a quick 3 hour bus drive, as I pretty much slept the entire way. Our first stop is a privately owned plot of 700 hectares, which is used primarily for soil and ground water studies. The country looked a lot like the hills of California and was characterized by dry, sparsely vegetated land. When they were explaining what we were going to be doing that day, a herd of kangaroos hopped by just down the valley. It was exciting. 

 Our first assignment was, in groups, to determine soil moisture in various places in an area of about 5 acres. Our group consisted of Anne, Dan, Cam, Nat, and myself. We had to use a soil moisture probe and a GPS to plot on a map the location of moisture content of the soil. Our second assignment was a little more exciting. We were to determine soil color, consistency, and content at 4 different locations on a hill slope. Large, deep holes had been dug before we got there, about 5 feet deep so we could sample different parts of the soil layers. It was actually very interesting, and I found myself very much enjoying the field work. We wrapped it up around 4, and headed for the busses to make the drive back to our accommodation, the Murrurundi House. 

After arriving at the house, we were assigned rooms. Unlike everyone else on the trip, I did not bring a sleeping bag as had been instructed, so I was a bit nervous about how that was going to work out. I ended up grabbing a spot in a room with 3 other girls, and the owners of the place were very accommodating and gave me sheets and a comforter to use during my stay. Later in the evening, Anne had found a 2 person room upstairs that was unoccupied. So she kidnapped me while everyone was gone and we moved all of my stuff to the upstairs room. 

After getting situated, we realized there was not very much to do around the area, and I was getting a little bored sitting around while waiting for dinner to be made. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a puzzle. Yes, a 500 piece puzzle of the Rhine River in Germany. Coming from a family of intense puzzlers, I got right to work, and convinced the one other American, Dan, to start it with me. At first people were giving us weird looks, but I knew the underground puzzlers were secretly wishing they could be working in the puzzle with us. Little by little, they gave in. Soon enough we had about 6 people working diligently on the puzzle. While puzzle observers (people that like the watch people do puzzles) lingered in the area, fascinated by how fast it was coming together. If you are a puzzler, you would know that nothing else in the world matters unless the puzzle is finished. That's why we stayed up until past midnight, until we could puzzle no longer. It was finished the following morning before breakfast. 

Day 2

After waking up bright and early to finish the puzzle, we loaded the bus for our next day's activities. We were split into two groups - the river group, and the cave group. We decided to be in the river group first so we could save the best for last. Upon arrival at the river, we realized it was dry which was very sad. Even though it was dry, we still had to do our measurements pretending that water was flowing. This was very easy for me as I had a job doing very similar tasks last summer. 

(If you are interested in reading about my trip, here is the link to the blog I was writing while I was there http://summerofecolove.blogspot.com) 

So for this assignment, we were given levels to use to determine a cross section of the stream bed. We each took turns being the recorder, stick holder, and level reader. We then had to write a one page report on determining flow characteristics which we started while we were there. Leveling is a very important part of surveying, so I am glad we got to practice using it because I know I will most likely being using one in the future. 

After lunch our group of about 20 got on the bus and headed over to the caves. The first cave we went  to was a 2 minute walk up the side of a hill/mountain.  The entrance was a low dark hole in the side of the cliff, and I had no idea what to expect upon entering the cave. 

For some reason, I did not expect the cave to be as dark as it was. My flashlight (which I borrowed from the owner of the Murrurundi house) was dull, but got the job done. One kid was using his mp3 player as a flashlight so I was grateful to have mine. Our teacher (Russell) guided us around the cave, showing us various formations in the limestone. There were lots of speleothems (cave formations after they are drained of water) including stalactites, stalagmites, and lots of other things I can't remember the names of. 

The last thing we did before leaving cave #1, was the "squeeze". I did not realized how much I would actually have to squeeze to get through this tiny hole in the cave wall. To get to the "squeeze" we had to crawl for about 20 feet through a wide but vertically challenged area. When I first saw the squeeze I thought "they must be kidding" as it was about is a big as my arms can make a circle. I was one of the first through. I had to put my right hand forward and my left hand back as I slid on my belly through a nerve-rackingly small hole. Upon emerging on the other side I was blown away by the huge formations; there were gigantic columns of rock that reached from floor to ceiling and everything was very slippery and wet. By the time we had finished exploring the cave on the other side of the "squeeze", I was covered in mud and happiness.






The second cave was quite different. This cave was located on the top of the mountain, which took a good 20 minute hike to the top.

After taking a short break to catch my breath, I peered over the ledge to take a gander at the entrance of cave #2. A bit more intimidating than cave # 1 I must say, but I plunged down the hole with excitement.

This cave was like one big chamber, instead of separate rooms like cave #1. The first thing I notice was bats, everywhere. Flying between people, past my face, and screeching as they did so.

Our assignment in this cave was to do a drawing and interpretation of a cave formation which turned out to be a cave that formed inside of an old cave. It was really cool!

The coolest thing I  saw when we were in there was this giant speleothem that looked like the rock was dripping down the cave wall.

After we had finished up in the caves, we headed back to the dry riverbed to pick up the other group and head back to our accommodations. By the time we got back, most of the teachers had headed to the bar, or were enjoying themselves out back with the many bottles of wine they brought. We, on the other hand, had a lot of homework ahead of us, so we stopped by the bottle-o first to get our supplies before beginning. By the time we had finished it was around midnight, so we decided to celebrate by taking a little walk in the graveyard next to our house. This photo was actually taken in complete darkness, but by using a 30-second shutter speed, I was able to capture way more light. We ended up staying up till 3 am doing I don't know what, but I knew I had a long bus ride tomorrow to catch up on my sleep.

Day 3


I don't have many pictures from day three because it pretty much rained the entire time. I actually dont have any pictures but you can imagine. It was a pretty dull day and we ended up just writing reports under a bridge like the whole time. We arrived back in Newcastle, and thankfully Cam gave me a ride home because I was sore from the hike the day before and I was carrying all my stuff.

All in all, it was my favorite field trip so far. Arrived at my house around 6:30, and was asleep by 8:00. We still have one more field trip (its only a day trip) for my River basins class, which I am also looking forward to.

Next weekend = Sydney

Cheers!

Dead thing we found in the cave. 

Any guesses to what it might have been? 

Photos for all

If you are interested in seeing some more pictures, here are links to two of my facebook albums I have been adding to since day 1. Cheers!


Just Ozzin' Along



Easter with my somebunnies! 

Takin' shortcuts through the bush!

This whole week is our Australia “spring break”, but we don’t call it that since it’s winter here, so this week is our holiday break. We decided to go to Sydney for 3 reasons. 1.) we wanted to go to Hillsong for the Easter service, 2.) Lindsey, Devin, Cameron, and Caitlin were leaving for New Zealand and we wanted to see them off, and 3.) because we’re awesome.

Instead of driving, which was an apparent nightmare last time trying to get into the city, all seven of us took the 3-hour train ride to get there.

After arriving to the city, we headed to our hostel, X-Base to drop our bags before exploring what Sydney had to offer during the Easter season. First of all, just know that Easter here is like Christmas or Thanksgiving in the states. It’s a four-day bunny-rific celebration that at the same time shuts down and hypes up the whole city. Most shops close or are open for limited hours over the weekend, but bars and clubs are open and packed at night.

Our first destination was Darling Harbor, one of my favorite places in Sydney. Devin had yet to see Darling, so we ventured off by ourselves for a while to see what there was to see. To our surprise, there was a huge street fair in the harbor area that boasted four arenas hosting street performers, a mini “big top”, and lots of people to enjoy the festivities.

The first performer we stumbled upon was Bendy M, an Australian female contortionist who could fit herself inside an 18-inch cube. It was weird.

Then we saw this crazy old French dude whose name I cannot remember. It got kind of weird towards the end as most of his clothes came off, leaving him in a red, white, and blue leotard with a can-can skirt on.

 We also found some giant Amelia Earhearts (I think that’s who they were?) on stilts that we had to get a picture with. We just wanted to get a picture with one of them but by the time the picture was over, three of them somehow jumped into the picture without our knowing. I didn’t know stilt people could be so darn sneaky!

SATURDAY

Today the girls were scheduled to leave for the Airport around 3:00 so we decided to spend our last afternoon together going to the Opera House for the first time. We took the underground train to get there and rose above ground at the end to see the one and only harbour bridge! People can actually pay to climb across the top of the bridge in harnesses and windsuits…so fun!

So after getting off the train at Circular Quay, we walked around the harbour and saw the big O.H. peeking out from behind a building. After rounding the corner there she was… big, white, and beautiful. It was interesting how different the building looks from the pictures that seem to be mostly taken from the direction of the ocean. I also did not realize that the structure is made up of separate buildings and is not all connected. One more thing I did not expect was that the surface was made of tile and was quite shiny.

I can now officially say that I have not only touched, but also HUGGED the Sydney Opera House. I know that if it could, it would have hugged me back. We would have done a tour, but I pretty much would have had to sell one of my kidneys to get inside, so we stuck with the free, exterior, self-guided tour.

After a decent amount of time spent at the Opera House, we headed back to the station through a park that overlooked the harbour. We found the immense trees and climbed them for a good while before time told us we were going to be late and forced us to move on. 

After seeing the girls off to the great New Zealand which I will myself be visiting in June, we crashed at the hostel for a few hours before meeting up with Robbie, our friend who goes to the Hillsong Music College. He took us to the Shark Bar, an upscale bar/buffet type of establishment that had pool tables, big TVs, and really good food. Afterwards, he took us to this Asian board game and dessert joint. It was a small door with little indication of what lied beyond, so heading up 3 flights of dodgy stairs to get there I felt we were heading into a crack den. But we finally reached the café, got a seat, and ordered a dessert and a game of Jenga for the four of us to play. It was one of the coolest restaurants I’ve ever been in and I encourage all those entrepreneurs in C-bus to strongly consider opening an establishment of a similar nature.

SUNDAY

It is just the three of us (Laura, Brandi, and I) for the next 9 days. This is the first time all three of us have been away from our families during Easter. I still don’t understand why the Easter bunny didn’t poop a trail of jelly beans to my non-existent basket this morning, but hopefully he will make up for it next year. We went to the Sunday morning service that Hillsong put on at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and they did a good job of easing my holiday chocolate withdrawals by offering constantly replenished chocolate eggs in the “welcome area”. It was so nice of Chocolate to make us feel so welcomed. We spent about 20 minutes before, during, and after the service getting to know Chocolate.

After the service we headed over to Paddy’s market, which is basically a giant indoor flea market. I have a theory about Paddy’s. It’s basically approximately 100 or so booths, all selling the same thing. The whole place is also run by Asians. Well, all of Sydney is pretty much run by Asians so this was no surprise.  So I think that they are all in collaboration because here are the basic genres of booths: Australia Shirts/Sweatshirts, Jewelry, Zooyork booths, Aussie kangaroo leathermade products and keychains, weird grammatically incorrect Asian underwear, swords and flasks, and fake hair. Then there are like 10 of each of these scattered about. This is also where most of you people’s presents are coming from. Yes, Daniel, don’t worry you are getting fake hair. Calm down.

Hillsong was putting on the film and arts festival before the evening service at the SEC so we decided to go pop the scene before heading back to da ‘Castle. It was all Christianity/spirituality/Jesus themed art and films which was very cool. We stuck around and watched a few films before it got so incredibly packed we couldn’t breathe and ducked out as the evening service rush arrived. We headed back to the train station and caught the 6:15PM train back home.

TUESDAY

After a lazy Monday filled with sporadic naps and Whose Line is it Anyways?, we decided to head out to Blackbutt reserve to check out the animals rumoured to be there. So we get off the train at Kotara, about 20 minutes away, and find no signs in sight guiding us to the park. As we are walking, this old man standing at his mailbox spots us and says “Hello!!” and waves like he’s been waiting for us his whole life. So I walk over and enquire as to how to get to Blackbutt. Over the period of about a 2-minute conversation I understood two words… down, and right. 

So we head down this little path to the right between the houses and come to a dead end. So we ask another person and they tell us that we need to “take a short cut through the bush”. So we find this short cut and as we are cutting it short I see this huge lizard on the ground next to the path. Naturally, I try to pick it up and it locks its jaws on to my hand. I start screaming and flailing my hand around it’s not letting go. Just kidding. It really did look harmless though. But you never know with Australia.

We get to the reserve and see a pen filled with kangaroos and emus. The ‘roos kept their distance, but the emus strutted right over to say hello. I found a cracker on the ground and tried to feed it to them, but every time I saw the big beak moving towards my hand I chickened out and dropped the cracker.

We also saw some wallabies, koalas, all sorts of birds, and a pikachu. My favorite was the bird sanctuary (surprise surprise) where there were all sorts of tropical birds flying over our heads. This is also where the koalas were. Next to the animal exhibits there was a big pond that was teeming with ducks, turkeys, and a giant black swan. There were also peacocks walking all over the place. It was quite a scene.

Since today it is raining we decided our time would be best spent making some rainy day Ozland videos so stay tuned!

Cheers! 

Flockatoos

This weekend has been HEAPS fun!

On friday after class we all piled in Sir Commodore Norington and drove NW to Nelson Bay for a girl's beach day. I had also heard there was great snorkeling there and ended up buying some fins and a snorkel when we got there. Next to the dive shop was this little pet store, and per usual I wandered in to take a gander at all the animals inside. There were TONS of birds: finches, cockatiels, rosellas, canaries, you name it so this naturally got me very excited. 
There were also some really cute puppies that we all had to hold and pose with. After unsuccessfully trying to hold a finch the size of a peep, I decided it was the end of my visit to the pet store and we all said goodbye to our puppies and piled back in the ComNor. We drove to this little beach next to the marina which reminded me a lot of the caribbean with its placid blue waters framed with the green landforms in the distance.








After setting up camp on the beach, I  headed straight for the water with my snorkel, mask, and fins to check out what kind of obscure sea creatures this rumored snorkel hole had to offer. The first thing I noticed was the jellyfish I kept getting stung by. Not painful, just annoying. Like mosquito bites. But I did find lots of colorful fish and a Wobbegong, which is a type of bottom dwelling shark. Here's a picture, not one of mine, I wish. 




While taking a break from the sea, I get word from a local that there is a marine reserve like a stone's throw away with even more fish. 

So I get Brandi on board to come check out the snorkel situation at this other place, and as we are walking I see several unique points of interest one of which was one of the biggest spiders I've ever seen in the wild. 
Imagine a gumball. Or a bouncy ball.  That's how big it's abdomen was. Brandi was less than amused. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum we spotted a... well, not really sure what to call it or what it's purpose was. For blogging's sake I'll call it a taco van. It was basically a huge white van with a little Mexican dude on the front with the words "Dirty Sanchez" and no other indication of what the function of the vehicle was. I don't think it was a food vendor van because who wants a taco from the "Dirty Sanchez?" Funny thing was we saw the guy who was driving it and he was obviously not Mexican, so we proceeded to pose with it as he watched with curiosity. 


Okay, less about tacos and more about snorkeling. After we get in the water and we are immediately surrounded by shoals of fish, just circling us, which made me believe that they are regularly fed. We swam around for a while and saw lots and lots of fish. It was wonderful. 

mine

Afterwords, Caitlin, Laura, Brandi, and I proceeded to go check out the marina. There were all sorts of ships there, fishing vessels, tour boats, and yachts. Caitlin and I wandered off for a bit and we found this mega pelican which kind of scared me because it kind of came out of no where. 




On the way back to the beach, I see something in the distance. At first I think its seagulls. Then we walk closer. 






Lo and behold... it's a bunch of bare eyed cockatoos. It was a flockatoos. Best day EVER!! I keep seeing birds like this and try tell the Australias "Do you have any idea how much people buy these for in the US??" Everyday birds like this just flying around like sparrows, crows, and seagulls. It's unbelievable. 


So that ^ was Thursday. We missed Devin.




Now let's talk about Friday and Saturday. 

We had been planning for the last few days on going to Stockton Dunes for a camp out. So I had packed my bag with a pair of sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and my bed rolled up and held together with my big yellow belt. Pedr picks us up from our house around 5, and all fifteen of us roll out (us and the boys in our matching white Commedores, and Pedr in his.. Tonka truck?) and head east to the dunes. After parking in a lot next to the trail, Pedr shuttles us all to the center of the dunes and we begin to set up camp. We brought 40 sausages (dinner and brekky), items to make Aussies'mores, which were different because they don't have graham crackers here. 
Altogether our group consisted of: Laura, Lindsey, Cameron, Caitlin, Devin, Brandi, Daniel, Pedr, Jamie, Chris, Trenton, Brian, and myself. We spent most of the night playing around by the fire, making s'mores, getting sandy, eating sand, and enhancing social bonds. Towards the end of the night, many of us girls wandered off to bed, and three of the girls were sleeping in a tent. About a 1/2 hour after we all had lie down, we were awoken by the regular interval of Trenton yelling "HEY GIRLS IN THE TENT...SHUT UP!!!!" After this happened about 17 times I decided just to come back out to the fire because there was no chance of sleeping. 1:15am rolls around Jamie decided he wants to sleep in a hole in the sand, and proceeds to dig for 20 minutes. Then he decides that needs someone to cover him with all the sand he just dug up. So Chris and I (mainly Chris) cover him with sand just to make him go to bed. After everyone had settled down, I cuddled up to Brandi to stay warm because it got cold....fast. 

Next morning we all awoke around 7AM and had... you guessed it... more sausages. In Australia instead of using buns, we just use a diagonal piece of bread around the sausage, usually with BBQ or tomato sauce (catsup) and its real good. Laura was our executive chef this weekend, and I was executive flashlight holder (at night, obviously, God is the flashlight holder during the day) But Laura also cooked up some flapjacks in the morning along with the sausage which was just a delightful breakfast before sandboarding.


SANDBOARDING!!! 

After brekky, Pedr took us all out to the top of this massive dune, probably 5 stories tall and you could see everything in all directions. The perfect blue ocean to the east (supposedly chalk full of great whites) and nothing but sand to the west. Chris went first. Then it was my turn... I was very scared to jump off this sand face down this long steep stretch of sand. But after I made the initial leap all I could do what whoop and holler all the way down. The walk back up was another story. Two steps forward and one step back was the name of the game for some while, but was definitely worth it! 


Camping on the dunes was such great fun and next week is HOLIDAY!!!! 

Stay tuned.............