Back home at long last! ^^ Hopefully this update won't take hours because I still have to practice for Effing Piano Lessons =OO

DAY 1

We sat around on the logs upon arrival in our camp groups and were issued our *AHEM* new and pristine rucksacks which would carry all our possessions for the next 3 days. Thinking "I BAGS THAT BLUE ONE THAT LOOKS BIG AND CONFY", i ran over to start unpacking and undoing the buckle at the top of the rucksack when my nose was became sensitive to a disgustingly vomit-ish aroma which occured whenever I leaned down to put something in it. AND THEN, as I was tightening the strap, A DISTURBINGLY CREAM-WHITE SUBSTANCE emerged into my 160 degree field of view which sprawled across the side of my rucksack which looked to me like accidentally spilt yoghurt. And to my greatest disgust, I leaned over to smell it and a wave of putrid vomit-like smell-waves (o.o'')radiated into my nasal cavity and I felt like fucking Puking myself. ==. What a great way to start camp. And as you can see, trekking for 6 hours straight with that constant aroma next to your EAR is not particularly pleasant, and NEITHER is sleeping in a 1 m long tent with your tent buddy with your rucksack NEXT TO YOUR FACE. ><"

Then George and I became hopelessly confused and behind everyone else because the sleping bag had to be put into the rucksack FIRST, and while both of us had ordered a supposedly clean and efficient sleeping bag and foam mat with an inner sheet, It had not arrived yet. And when it did, we were informed that we would get the sleeping bag dirty after the day, and that certain boys from the previous group had not bothered to sleep in the bag which you had to crawl IN to before sleeping in the sleeping bag, and that they only washed the sleeping bags once a month. Which was later realized at night when I smelt it only to realize that it stank like a mixture of fingus and mouldy socks. OMFG, HELLO? DO YOU EVER WASH THIS EQUIPMENT?

On a happier note *tries to see the silver lining on the stupid cloud*, I agree with Derf abour how everyone lost at least 5 kilograms after the 6 hours straight of hiking up the nearly vertical mountain side and down it again, which proved to be so dangerous that I think that the chance of someone being thrown down the edge of a cliff on the count of the weight of his/her own rucksack is highly possible. HAHAHA the silver lining just got owned. I'll ellaborate.

First of all, when you are struggling to keep up with the rest of the group while half jogging up the mountain side, your thighs and calf muscles begin to burn like the kindlewood in the campfire. And you can't really stop because then your momentum is lost and you'll probably end up creating the dominos effect and killing everyone in your group. Secondly, when you are going DOWNHILL and all the leaves and rocks are LOOSE, the best thing you can do is hold onto that poor 1 cm thick tree starting to group on the side of the trail for dear life. I mean, Marcus was taking a "SHORT CUT" (ie, a near vertical rock acting as a water slide) and a rock the size of his HEAD got loose and starting roling and smashing down the hill and hit MURALI on the back of the LEG, after gathering a tonne of momentrum due to the act of gravitational potential energy and increase in kinetic energy combined. WTF ==. Everyone got a heart attack. And apparantly Marcus was so gobsmacked that he was frozen shitless and couldnt somehow open his mouth to shout: "MURALI MURALI THERES A GIANT ROCK READY TO SMASH YOU SENSELESS MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!!!!"

hahahahaha ! Now that you look back at it it IS kind of funny. Oh, and thirdly, when you have been trekking for 6 hours with a rucksack tightened around your waist for support so tightly that you end up looking like a woman in a corset before WW1, your hip bones become bruised and it becomes very painful to move around.

HAPPIER NOTE: Canoeing on the third day was so slow and unprogressive that it seemed almost comical at that time HAHAHA =). We all paired up with a guy because if we were divided then by the time all the guys had finished all the chicks would still be trying to push off the bank ==. So me and Daniel A had such a tiring 3 hours on the coount of me being such a bad steerer, resulting in our canoe zig zagging across the river and constantly travelling backwards for no apparant reason. Then we stopped after only 5 kilometers because we were all so slow xDD. And listening to Daniel and murali's Mr Gnow immitations was so funny I couldn't hold the paddle properly.

At night after getting sticks for the fireplace we played gladiators with the bark against eachother in the dark and made teams and randomly chased eachother. Times like these I'll always remember. And singing *AHEM* campfire songs around the fire which I underestimated after I looked down to realize that my shoe was steaming and the rubber was melting. Then for some reason half of the group went to be educated about Christ in one tent while we were supposed to be huddled together around the fire, so then Vru, George, Bella, Anna, I, etcetc just sat there talking about bands and doing the soulja boy dance. AND LAUGH OUT LOUD at Murali's pro Aboriginal Tribal dancing around the fire! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Now that I've weighted out all of the good and crap, I've decided that although three-quarters of the time was spent in misery and tire, what we learnt from it and friendships gained made up for it, and It was heaps ok I guess.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK:

Now I'll go and practice PIano =( Dammit, back to normal. Aish.

-- Lynette/Jerry