2 Crazy Sheilas

Wow have I been busy! Oh where to begin?

Well I guess I’ll start off by saying that I went on a weekend trip to Cathedral Ranges National Park in Victoria with the La Trobe Mountaineering Club. The weekend trip consisted of picking three activities of the four offered. I chose to take part in mountain biking, rock climbing and white-water rafting, and chose to miss out on the bushwalk (which I heard was a really cool one). So Friday night we (6 friends from college and I) packed up our things and met the group of 40 people in the carpark. The supposedly two hour ride (which turned into a four hour ride due to some map reading inabilities by the passenger of the car) up to the park was a little more stressful and tiring than I had thought it would be. All in all the car and its passengers made it to the park in one piece, aside from almost hitting a kangaroo that was in the road, which I found to be pretty cool due to the fact that it was my first kangaroo sighting! Once I arrived the Chisholm College (my dorm) group and I decided to sleep under the stars, where I also had another first time experience during this little adventure, I saw the Southern Cross, which is a constellation only seen in the southern hemisphere! I woke up at dawn the next morning only to be dissapointed because I heard that a pack of kangaroos came through camp during the night to eat our food and I slept through the entire thing! My friend said she woke to see one hopping right next to her head! I was pretty bummed that I missed it and surprised that I had slept through it!

Saturday I took part in mountain biking and rock climbing. Mountain biking ended up being a really awesome experience. I have never actually gone up and down off-road hills on a bike like that before. I also have never ridden a bike where the brakes were switched, the front break and the back breaks were on the opposite sides from bikes in the states. When I did find out I felt lucky because the leader told me it was fortunate that I didn’t fly over the handlebars using the front brakes going down the steep hills! The break for lunch was an interesting one as I got my lunch stolen out of my hand by a kookaburra! It just swooped in and grabbed my sandwich and bit my finger along the way, which was very unexpected and ended up being pretty entertaining to some apparently! In the afternoon I went rock climbing which was my favorite activity of the weekend. The bushwalk up to the rock seemed to be more rock climbing than I have ever done before and I’ll tell you it made me nervous for the actual rock climbing! One of the leaders told me that the rock was 35 meters high and once I got to the top of the line I could tell because the view was incredible! I ended up climbing four of the five paths and I also belayed for my leader that ended up being almost twice my weight. When he was coming back down I went flying into the air and somebody had to hold onto my harness! Rock climbing was my favorite part, especially because I didn’t think I would do as good as I did! I’m hoping to do another rick climbing trip the the club. After dinner and a sleep under the stars I woke Sunday morning and headed for my third and final activity. Rafting was a good experience aside from the fact that I expected the rapids to be bigger, but the cold water was really refreshing in the 100 degree heat! Although I had expected greater rapids and faster moving water it was a fun morning. We played games on the rafts which ended up with all of us in the water every time, but as I said I didn’t protest! After rafting we packed up camp and headed back to the city. An end to a great weekend, possibly the best since I have arrived in Melboure, or it may seem like it because it was full of new and exciting experiences!

After my awesome weekend I though all Melbourne fun was over, nothing could top “The Big Weekend”, that is, until St Patty’s Day rivaled:

Yesterday was St. Pattys day and it was also two of my friends birthdays so a group of us went out and celebrated! We all went to an irish pub (my favorite of the city so far) named Father Flanagans and drank lots of Guinness and green drinks! There was also a really good Irish band playing which added to the fun! Although it wasn’t like being in Grant County with the family it did end up being a really fun holiday!