10am Adelaide time
Well. Supposedly last night wasn't as cold as the night before. However, I woke up in the morning not being able to feel my big toe on my left foot. For a while there I seriously thought we were gonna have to remove it and that it was completely dead. I guess I need to wear another pair of socks tonight.
I woke up at 3:30am with a ridiculously pulsating and exploding bladder. It must have been huge. I also love how I literally never have to get up to pee in the middle of the night. Like, ever. But, the one time it's super inconvenient because its freezing outside and I'm sandwiched in my sleeping bag and zipped up in my swag, I have to pee. I tried not thinking about it and only made it half an hour. At that point I decided I had to get up and go because I was so uncomfortable. It wasn't too bad and I felt so much better.
I got back in my sleeping bag and zipped my swag back up and I literally had my own sleeping bag over my head because its so cold. I definitely was not prepared for such cold temperatures at night. I was literally using my warm breath to circulate warmth around the rest of my sleeping bag and warm me up. I think it actually worked though because aside from my toe, I wasn't as cold. Luckily, I fell back asleep quickly and only woke again at 7am when everyone else started getting up.
JP made us some pancakes and there was also cereal. The pancakes were like real pancakes from home... From a jug that you add water to, but still. None of the Thai green pancakes that aren't floury or fluffy.
I helped clean up breakfast and we all helped load everything up. We were out of the camp ground by 9:20am.
And, at 10, when I started writing this, we had just stopped off the road to take photos of a whole lot of ferrel camels. There were maybe 30 of them at least. It was crazy! I've never seen a herd/pack (?) of wild camels. JP said that they will actually fly over them in helicopters and shoot them sometimes. They were brought over from the Arab countries and they actually aren't native animals so they ruin the native ecosystem in Australia.
We have a 3 hour drive I think before we get to the place we are stopping for lunch.
Later
The place we stopped for lunch was actually our camp site for the evening. We had burgers for lunch and after clean up, we headed to Kings Canyon which was about a 40 minute drive.
The hike we were doing at Kings Canyon was 6k's. It was actually a really beautiful hike. We could see the valley from the top. To get to the top though we had to climb "heart attack hill". I didn't even think about counting the steps. It was ridiculous. Plus they were rock steps so its hard to count what is an actual step. Before we even started JP told us there is a part you get to that makes you think you're at the top and you're not... Then there is a second part you think you're at the top and you're not... And then the third part, you're actually at the top. My thighs were already burning after the first one. Ha. It was good though. And it wa probably like at least a few hundred steps.
At the top, the walk had beautiful views looking back down across/over the valley. There were obviously a lot of rocks to look at. And on some parts there were ripple marks which showe evidence of shallow lakes once being at Watarrka/Kings Canyon. Watarrka is the aboriginese name for Kings Canyon.
The area was originally a bunch of sand dunes and then they turned into sandstone. The sandstone has a bunch of different layers and its very visible on the sides of the rocks.
We also entered an area called "Garden of Eden". To get here we had to climb down built in wooden stairs. This is a waterhole that was so serene and peaceful. So beautiful. We got there right as the sun was beginning to set so it was producing a yellowy orange light across the water as the reflections of the rock and it looked so cool. They ask you don't swim in it because they wouldn't have either.
We then had to climb back up out of the gorge and up the wooden stairs on the other side to continue on the walk. Everyone was complaining that we still had 3k's left and that JP had lied and told us we wouldn't have to do any more stairs. I wanted to punch them in the face. It's so stupid because a 3k should only like like 20-30 minutes to walk. I jus ignored it and enjoyed the scenery around me.
We got back to the bus a little before sunset. It was really nice actually to drive back while the sun was setting over the outback.
For dinner we had gnocchi with a meat sauce. It was delectable. I have been extemely surprised with the food selection on this trip. It has tasted good and for the most part there has been a huge variety. Well done groovy grapes!
This evening a bunch of the Irish people got piss drunk. They were so loud. We sat around the campfire telling stories. We made up our own drinking game as well. It was called Boomerang (since we are in Australia) and it was just we did whatever with a few rules. You cant use anyones name, you cannot point, you must drink with your non-dominant hand, and a few other silly rules specific to things people in the group said often. We mostly listened to stories and played high or low. If I ever write a book, people from this trip could definitely make some interesting characters. Between the drunk Irish who only talk about drinking and the French girl with crazy stories dealing with love and sex and always saying blah blah blah, wow. Ha.
I got tired so I rolled up in my swag and went to sleep. Put on my iPod and didn't even notice how much noise they were making even though my swag was less than 3 feet from it all.
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