8:53am Adelaide time
The bed was really warm so I waited to get up until around 6:20am. Last night it was so loud. I think cricket was on so people ran around screaming for a while. I was like is this for real? Also, one of the girls totally farts in her sleep. So that was also fun.
My cheese was still in the fridge so that made me happy. I went out and waited for the bus around 6:40am. I tried to connect to interne again through the library and it would work on and off for a few seconds. So that was obnoxious. It worked long enough to check which hostel I am in and see that I have a lot of emails. Also updated my Facebook status real fast. The bus picked me up around 7:05am. I was the last one to get picked up. The drivers name is JP I think. Literally when I first meet people here I have had a really difficult time remembering their names.
We drove about an hour and a half and stopped off to get coffee. The driver is studying international relations and foreign aide. That's what Campbell had studied as well.... IR, not foreign aide. i woder if its more popular here because they are so close to the Asian countries. This guy wants to do something along the lines of New Hope I think. He wants to create an organization that helps people instead of just handing out money to organizations for free. He just got back from Indonesia yesterday. Apparently he studied there for a while. He also taught English in Phnom Penh as well. Campbell had been in Thailand for a while taking tour groups. I think Australians can easily get around Asia so that's good for them.
11:30am Adelaide time
We just stopped at a super market. I got apples and a large water (so I can refill it the next few days). A bunch of people bought a TON of alcohol. Like 20 packs. I was like is this for real!?! I decided maybe I should scope out alcohol but the prices were crazy. Like one bottle of Malibu is $47 or something like that. Baileys is like $50. Even 6 packs of beer were like 15-20$. I decided against buying alcohol. For a few reasons... I don't want to have to lug it around, I don't even know if I'll drink it all, and its expensive as hell. I can drink when I get home for way cheaper than that. Plus, if I decide I really want to drink I can buy some wine for $10 from our driver. It also goes to support his soccer team so hey, good cause. Maybe I'll be sad I didn't buy alcohol with everyone else drinking so much but I can have fun without that I think still.
I don't know how this group of people will be. It'll be interesting. A number of them have come in groups as well so that won't make it easy to make friends. It'll be fine though. There are some single travelers as well.
6:04pm Adelaide time
We drove. For a really long time today. I don't really know if JP wants to talk or not so its kinda awkward sitting up in the front. But it's a good view for sure. I also feel like I can't sleep because sometimes he needs me to do things... Like pour him coffee or plug in the cord to the iPad for music... Basically it's like I'm back at Watermark ha.
When we were driving at one point on our way into Willmington, we drove between a bunch of very green rolling grass hills. It looked incredible and I would have taken a photo but the windshield was covered in rain drops, so there really was no point. There were also an insane amount of sheep on the sides of the roads. The build of the sheep really surprised me. I'm not sure why. They looked really muscular. Maybe their wool had been taken off or something, or they're different than the sheep in America. Every time we would pass by the rumbling of the bus would startle them and they would all stop eating grass and run away from the road. JP confirmed that Australia usually is never this green but that it is usually very brown. It was an unusually wet winter. So I guess it's cool to be able to say I saw Australia when it was green. I feel like it wouldn't be as beautiful if it was all brown. I can't really even picture it.
Anyway, we arrived in Willmington around 2 I think and we ate lunch. It was tasty. Fresh veggies (even avocado) and whole wheat bread and cheese and salami. I also had an apple. We all cleaned up after ourselves.
We are at a camp site. There are bunk beds for us which is nice. And a heater in the room. There are 5 of us in one room, a mom and daughter in another room, and 9 people in the other room. The room is actually pretty nice. It's similar to a hostel it just is a little trailer thing. Then attached to the 10 bed room there is a lounge and kitchen area.
After lunch we drove maybe 40 minutes to Devil's Peak. Here we got up and hiked. JP said to be careful because at the top if you slip or fall then you're not coming back. It's essentially off a cliff.
It started off really easy actually. Just a slight incline on a dirt path. Then there were more rocks in the dirt and you had to pay attention where you were stepping. There were trees and shrubs all around us, as well as HUGE boulders. The higher we climbed, the more it became like rock climbing. It was not as difficult as Laos but probably the most similar hike I've had to Laos. Maybe similar to Koh Phangan at the top a little though, not as much like Laos up there. There was literally one part where there is essentially a vertical cliff. Like you were rock climbing but without carabeeners. And, it was drizzling so all the rocks were wet and slippery.
I was the second one to the top. JP was further behind us. The girl in front of me was just sitting at the top. You have to climb through a crevasse to get to the top of the cliff/rock in order to see anything. After she came down I got up.
I was going to head back down but then JP was having people get up on top of the rock. I went up as well. And boy am I glad I did! It was so beautiful. There was even a rainbow in the distance. And it's a pretty cool experience to feel like you're on top of the world.
Climbing down wasn't great fun but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I really thought that I would be slip sliding down the mountain but I wasn't at all. It was a pretty controlled descent. Maybe I have gotten better at climbing and descending mountains on my many treks.
It was supposed to take about 2 or 2 and a half hours and again we did it in an hour and a half. At the top we could look out over Quorn and many ranges. It is 697m high and is composed of 700 million year old hard weather resistant Pound Quartzite. It says its a 2.6km return... I don't know if that means there and back or just back. Confusing!
When we got back a bunch of people rushed to the showers. I will wait until after dinner I think. For dinner we are having pasta.
One if the French girls was telling us that she had been traveling for 3 years now. But she hasn't been strictly just traveling. She has been working. She will go home soon, maybe a few months. But she has been in Australia for 2 years and New Zealand for a year. She is 30 and really is passionate about traveling and wants to get a job in tourism when she gets back. Everyone else thought she was crazy for traveling for that long. I'm not sure what I think about it. I never thought I'd be out here and I am. But 3 and a half months is a long time to me, ha. I also haven't been working though.
9:31pm Adelaide time
It's raining here. Luckily tonight were indoors in a shelter. Tomorrow night we are in a cave (in sleeping bags and swags though still I think) and then we have a covered tent we can choose to sleep in for 2 nights and then there is one night we are just out under the stars. I've always wanted to do that do it'll be cool, but I also really hope it doesn't rain because that would be an interesting, but probably not wanted experience.
JP made a good dinner for us. It was penne pasta with spinach, sausage, peppers, cheese, and a few other things in it. It made me remember how I always used to cook pasta dishes at school. I'll have to go back to that. At least it was tasty and had a good mix of stuff in it so it won't be too bad.
Then, me and 2 other girls helped clean up. 2 of us dried and another girl washed. These dishes definitely aren't super clean. But, they're probably cleaner than they were in Asia!
I took a shower as well. It was nice and warm. Very lovely. Now I'm in the room working on blogging and having a bit of a rest.
A bunch of people have been drinking for a while already. Like started even before dinner. I have very much realized that drinking is a huge social thing for me. I like to drink at home when I'm around good company. Here, I have really only drank when I've liked and felt comfortable with the people I was around. I'm not too comfortable with the people on this trip yet. There are a bunch of people from Ireland. Like everyone plus me, a French girl, 3 German people, a guy from Singapore, and JP who is obviously from Australia. I think we're picking up 3 other people tomorrow as well?
Everyone on the tour is really nice, it's just difficult to break the friend groups. It's also really crazy (well, not that crazy) how people from the same country all clump together as friends and have this strong bond. The people in my dorm are nice though.
I am kind of glad that I haven't really had Internet access. It sucks on one hand, but its also good because I know I'm coming home soon and I don't need to be talking to people from home wishing I were there (maybe) when I only have 10 days left here. In Sydney I need to make sure I stay busy. I think I want to take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains. I've heard a lot of people talk about that. I also know I need to see the opera house and I would like to climb the bridge. I'm sure there are plenty of other things to do there as well. I kind of think in the evenings I will end up being on the Internet at the hostel though.
I know right now, tonight, I probably should be hanging out and getting to know everyone but I'm just not in the mood. The alone time I have had since I got to Australia has actually been really nice. It was just the 2 days walking around Melbourne. Even though it seems like I've been alone most of the trip I really haven't. When we got toward the end of Indonesia and Jill was talking about how she hadn't really spent time figuring things out that she had wanted to figure out while she was away, it made me realize that as well. So now that that has been brought to my attention, the alone time to just be with myself and my own thoughts has been good. It hasn't been enough yet though. I've done some more writing in my private journal. I'm sure it'll get there.
On another note, I definitely want the rain to stop. Fingers crossed! We have to be leaving by 6:30am tomorrow morning. Meaning we need to wake up around 5:30am because we need to have time for breakfast as well. Yey...
No comments:
Post a Comment