Speckled Green

Stupid Windows Vista can’t upgrade properly, so I have to spend heaps of time fixing up all the settings… and wondering why I can’t seem to download anything, only to find out it was my anti-virus stuffed up!! Also, very tired after camp, and not feeling well doesn’t help.
Was tiring, now that I think about it. Four days of Hiking, camping and a few other activities placed in between. My group was group 5, and it was the smallest Duke of Ed group (and one of the two all boys groups). First day we did canoeing and our group was really slow… we only completed 3km in an hour and a half. And there was still 6km to go. So, since the instructor wanted us to get to the camp site before it was dark, she decided to call in a ride for us to take us as close as they could by road to our camp site. So we had to drag our boats up an awful slope, making my shoes even more soaked and muddy then they already were from dragging the canoes around, and causing us to be rather tired. Then we had to load the canoes onto the trailers and then take them off opposite our camp site so that we could drag them down the bank again, get in them, canoe slightly further up the river to tie up our canoes and disembark to our camp site…:( very tiring.
Anyways, next day, we canoed across the river again, dragged them back up the bank again, and then played touch till we we picked up and taken to ‘Rikki’s Gate’ where we were to start our hike. After lunch, we set off with our rucksacks and were heading to Orange Grove. But, alas, we were to get ourselves lost along the way and had to start ‘bush bashing’. We eventually got to a part where we had to slide down the rock face, and Kevin Liang decided to name it after something in a game he had played: ‘The Super Happy Fun Slide’ (Note the sarcasm with which it was named, because it wasn’t a very pleasant ‘slide’).
Then we had to walk out across some fields to get to our camping site. It appeared that we were only a little bit off track, and that the back tracking and finding different routes during our hike paid off better than we thought. But then we had to cross a creek where both banks were rather muddy, and none of us wanted to get our feet muddy, so we all had a go at leaping across. What fun that was, with everyone cheering each other on. Then when we were at our camp site, looking for fire wood, Mr Benic told us to find some logs…. he never specified which size, so the twins and I went off and got some medium sized logs, which we dumped at the fire place. But then we had to work out how to make them smaller so as to be easily placed on the fire…. which we decided not to do. We just put the whole things on the fire.
Next day was our big hike, and along the way to ‘Riverside’ via ‘Peach Tree’ using the Gee Arm North Trail, we saw a few other groups who were hiking towards where we had come from. Along the way, despite several of our group lagging behind, we managed to make a good pace, with our group forming into two packs: the fast people at the front (e.g. Kevin Zhu (the short one), Daniel Lamp, me and near the end Kevin Liang) and the not so fast people 50 – 100 metres behind us.
Eventually making it to our camp site, going pass the group who were absailing that arvo, we set up again, had a game of ultimate Frisbee, found some firewood, and then got ready for the night.
Next day was absailing for us. All of us had a go, but some (Sathey and Hasshan) couldn’t bring themselves to go over the cliff face (ironic that they were the only curries in the group…?). Anyways, it was fun. Too bad we couldn’t go a second time because we had to rush off to get to Base Camp before 12 so as to repack our bags and repack the tents into their bags. Lunch was interesting, wasn’t it?? Hotdog with pack of chips and can of soft drink (Note: All the food for camp was Aldi Brand). But some people didn’t want to finish their chips, so they were giving it to me. Sean was just being dumped with chips as well, so I decided to help him out (by eating some of his chips as well). So both Sean and I were full of chips by the end of lunch. And at the last ‘talk’ by the camp, where we thanked them for a great time, Dietrich from group 9 stood up and gave a whole hearted thanks to his instructor etc. It was quite funny really. Personally I thought that he was really thanking the instructor (and teachers) for putting up with him for the camp (or Kapilan, either way). Still, good fun, good memories….
Camp was fun. At mainly cereals as food source for 4 days (I think I’m going to regret that) simply because a) that’s almost all they gave us (fruit and vegs as well, but very little meat) and b) I did NOT want to do a No. 2 in those toilets (they were the waterless variety, you know, a whole in the ground with a toilet bowl above it xo). So I just ate stuff with less dietary fibre (or so I think!!). Rucksacks are heavy, but spread the weight better than I thought (my hips still hurt from them though…). Leg muscles are still recuperating. Feet are getting better. Shoes… I need new ones soon I think. Wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been worn out quicker now.
In other news, I’ve decided to upgrade my computer’s OS to Vista Ultimate. Apart from wasting 3 hours of my life waiting for it to install, and then a further 2 hours fixing up all the problems associated with it, it seems to be going quite well. Now’s the time, though, where I wish I had the brains to have got at least 2GB ram for the comp instead of the Vista min. of 1GB… Still works anyway, just slower than with XP. Got to get back into the hang of music practice and school soon.
New internet coming my way?? My mum is supposedly upgrading our internet to ADSL2 with (wait for it) Telstra BigPond (there, that’s the only thing wrong with it). 2.2MB/s max line speed, with 25GB on/off peak download….. not the best deal for $100 a month, but still ok, none the less (especially when we can’t get cable in our area ). Least, that’s what I think the new plan is… don’t know the details, as my mum organised it while I was off at camp, and I won’t be able to find out the details till ’10 working days’ have passed and we get all set up, or something.
School Stuff is Busy?! Yamaha fest, Band workshop, reports being written, Creative Arts fest, flute ensemble stuff to work out, and school homework/assignments/life to get back into… it’s time’s like this you need a Minty!! lol