Camping in the Otways

Charlotte (the student teacher from Auburn) lives in a host family that has a 23 year old son. Chris has been very nice and included us in several things with his friends. This weekend, he and a friend took us to the Otway National Park.

A view of the Otways

Chris' friend, Blake, came very prepared. Among other things, he brought a compass, map, ax, machete, rope, survival kit, bow and arrows, and several knives.

After FINALLY setting up Chris' tent.

When asked if I wanted to go camping and hiking, I assumed we would be on hiking trails. WRONG. Blake and company had other plans. Instead, we literally went bushwalking. We went down a very steep hill. Chris led with his favorite new toy--the machete. The rest of us just tried not to roll down on top of each other...although that did happen several times...

Chris enjoyed his job a little too much.

Once we reached the bottom, there were some really pretty views.

Charlotte--those arms actually pushed an entire tree over. Luckily, no one was in its way.

I totally ended up stepping in the creek while crossing on the stones, which made for a soggy climb back.

On the way back up, it was too steep for us to walk, so Blake and Chris tied a rope for us to use as we climbed.

My favorite pair of tennis shoes :( The water and terrain weren't kind to them. Right after I took this picture, I pulled them off and found a leech on my ankle. Chris had to use a lighter to burn it off. Good times!

This is near our campsite. As you can see here, some of the forest has been logged pretty heavily. We also saw a wallaby in this area, but it was too fast for me to get a picture. End of the day....we had a great campfire and stars, but neither showed up well in pictures. One thing that is interesting about the stars is that I get to see a whole different set of them since Australia is in the southern hemisphere.

All of these pictures were taken on Saturday. Sunday's adventures in the Otways are soon to come!