Wednesday, May 21, 2008

giant snakes, biting ants and cane toads

may 15, 2008
new life pastures
10:15 PM

as we prepared to leave this morning, we realized that we had a lot of leftover food in our possession, including milk and yogurt which we couldn't take with us. carl suggested we find some campers to give it to-so i went on the hunt for hungry looking campers. i found a woman who gladly accepted our donation, but found our situation amusing. but she was grateful for our food and made her toddling son tell me "thank you."

spot-o continued for the rest of our drive, with jim and chris attempting to keep score. that proved difficult when i would smack him for an un-yellow car, giving him a free hit, or when he would cheat. =)
"carl i don't think our female students should return home with your handprints on them." -jim, after carl smacked my leg leaving a handprint, since i had moved my arm out of the way.

some exciting sights of today included the giant mango (which reminded me of an easter egg) and the giant snake. we stopped for lunch in townsville, but amy and i enjoyed leftovers from our dinners the nights before. since we didn't have to buy lunch, we felt that there was no reason not to have ice cream. my macadamia nut and chocolate mud cone was quite yummy.

after all arriving back at the bus, we went on an adventure up castle hill, which overlooked the town. despite the sign that clearly stated, " not suitable for buses, trailers, trucks or caravans" carl decided that it didn't apply to us since we were a minibus with a trailer. after many speed humps (not bumps!) we reached the top to discover a bus zone! we couldn't help but laugh! we were 61 days excited.

later in the afternoon, we stopped at a swimming hole to cool off. since my swimmers were packed, i waded in the stream. i was doing well keeping dry until i sat on a log covered with biting ants which were quickly covering me-not a pleasant sensation. in my haste to remove the painful insects, i became more wet than i intended.

favorite things to drive by-sugar cane, banana trees, plastic bag trees, yellow cars that i see first

finding the camp turned out to be an adventure as well-carl appointed me as his navigator, but even between the two of us, we drove up and down the country road several times (including turning around several times) before finding new life pastures. faulty instructions and lack of clear signs made it almost impossible to locate, but carl seemed to like have someone else to blame for not finding our destination right away. =)

dinner was quite satisfying-roast beef, potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and peas all covered in brown gravy. dessert was mulberry cobbler and custard.

this camp was quite helpful in allowing me to check off things from my cultural experience check-list. tonight i was able to "pet" a snack (even though it was dead-but jim said it could count), and hold a cane toad. hunting for cane toads provided several entertaining breaks from our rounds of nerts. jim and i remained the winning team, to the dismay of the other players: carl + tyler, reneca + chris and meagan + joel (which became meagan + sean during the 2nd round.) a fun way to end the day.

white water rafting tomorrow!! i can hardly wait!











1 comment:

.justin said...

BE CAREFUL!!!
there is an evil demon creature in the palm of your hand that could turn and attack at any moment!!!

AAHHHH!!!