We have arrived back from the Great Ocean Road, where we stopped at Airlie Point, learned to surf, learned about Rainforests in Victoria, and, of course, saw the 12 Apostles. It was quite an excursion -- filled with new challenges and fun memories!
We headed out on Saturday morning and when we got to Airlie Point we split into 2 groups -- half of the group headed to the beach for a surf lesson and the other half headed to see Eagle Rock and the lighthouse on the point. The students had a great time learning to surf, some were even able to stand up on their first few tries!
After our morning of exploring and surfing we headed to our destination for the evening in Apollo Bay -- we stopped to see some Koalas in the wild too. After our detour we arrived to our backpackers right off the Great Ocean Road -- it was quaint and perfect for an aussie barbeque and for some of the students to learn to play backyard cricket!
We departed bright and early the next morning for another round of surfing and a bushwalk through Maits Rest Rainforest. It was a bit chilly Sunday morning for us, but many still perservered and we caught some great waves -- we had the beach all to ourselves at Apollo Bay, which is great when your surfing! In the Rainforest we saw new trees and plants and we learned a good bit about forestry in the Victoria area. The rainforest in Victoria are definitely different from the rainforest that we experienced in Queensland -- it was neat to see the different fauna and even to recognize the differences from both.
After our morning activies it was off to the 12 Apostles -- absolutely amazing and I know my pictures don't do it justice. I have heard and seen pictures of these limestone rocks, and to finally see them in person was magnificent! The students really seemed to enjoy the views and I'm sure they got some great pictures too!
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We have just arrived back to civilization from Lamington National Park -- what an AMAZING experience up on the mountain! We got in a bit later than anticipated on Wednesday (cancelled flight, but the students handled it well and used the time to catch up on journaling and catching up on reading for the course!)
While we were at O'Reilly's we had several group experiences together and then others that we could choose to participate in, from bird watching, a glow worm trek, or other bush walks -- the choice was ours! In addition to enjoying the many activities, I must tell you that everyone also seemed to enjoy the food -- it never seemed to stop! O'Reilly's activities revolved around food -- from breakfast we would move to our morning activity, break for tea, finish the activity, head to lunch, then participate in an afternoon activity, break for 4pm tea, then dinner at 6pm -- seriously, these Aussies know how to eat, and we definitely enjoyed trying to keep up with them! I might add that a good number of the students ate Kangaroo on our last night dining!
On our first day Tim O'Reilly, the activities director held a special session for the Giant Swing and the Flying Fox -- it was AWESOME (and I'm going to work on posting some video, so definitely check back). Tim instructed us on a few safety precautions and we were off to play!
First, I'll start with the Giant Swing -- this contraption hoisted you about 50 feet in the air and then you were released to swing -- the dropping sensation was amazing and it literally felt like you were on a rollar coaster! The other activity we got to experience was the Flying Fox -- a zip line contraption that you flew down, and for the brave you could zoom upside down! The students really seemed to enjoy this activity, zooming down several times trying to top their last zip -- it was great fun!
Flying Fox Video
In addition to flying foxes and giant swings we were also able to experience a little bit of Aboriginie culture from Douglas, a member of the Yugambeh language group. Douglas taught us how to throw a boomerang and several of the students did pretty well almost catching their boomerang upon it's return! The majority of us however were ducking and running away as boomerangs flew erradicly through the air! After our boomerang lesson we headed in for a bit of a lesson on aboriginie culture and we learned loads more about boomerangs -- there are 5 different types and they were typically used to hunt roo's and different fowl.
We also learned about some various musical instruments -- from gourds, clapsticks and, of course, the digiardoo -- we even got to play with several of these instruments too! The digiardoo was of course quite popular, and because it is custom for only the men in a tribe to play the girls did not get to play the digi in the presence of Douglas -- however, there is ample opportunity for them to try at one of the many shops while we are here in Cairns.
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Today we went to Ku Ring Gai National Park which is located north of Sydney. We were met by our three National Park Guides, David Tribe (who has been leading our trips for the past six years), John Booth, and Rea Thompson -- their knowledge of Fauna, Aboriginie history, and Australian history was awesome and we soaked in what they had to teach.
We started our journey this morning viewing carvings that were dated between 200-2,000 years old -- it's hard to tell because the Aboriginie people would continously carve over the same lines as they would share stories. It was neat to see a part of history and to also learn about their connection to the land. Aboriginie people believe very much that we do not own the land, but rather we belong to the land and there is a great spiritual connection ~ to share in a custom of feeling the spirts of the land we experienced the tradition of face painting with clay. Everyone participated in this tradition and we got some great pictures!
From the carvings we went on several short bushwalks to see ancient paintings, we learned about squiggly gum trees, spiders that spin golden webs (don't worry they weren't poisonous), and how regeneration in the bush helps certain plant species not become extinct. Several of the students tasted the nectar of a palm bush, which reminded me of honeysuckle, we also got to see Westhead Lookout -- one of the most famous look out points in Australia -- it was beautiful!
From Westhead we headed to our last bushwalk down to a really unique beach with lots of interesting rock formations. Some of the students swam in the waves, while others wandered around checking out the scenery and watching some of the surfers that decided to brave the steep trail down to the shore.
Overall it was a great day, rain showers and all!
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