Good On Ya, Grampians!

feet are back on the ground, for now.

So, we're back from a Sunday to Wednesday extreme camping trip to the Grampians National Park! Lead by the "Outdoor Guru" who is actually the most amazing, informative, knowledgeable, active, intense, nice, jokes, everything good you can think of 60 year old man who knows this rock scape like the back of his hand, and an actual pirate.

So camping, right? Easy, peasy. Until they tell us that they don't use tents. This is what we slept in... and yeah it does get cold in Australia... two pairs of leggings, sweatpants, t-shirt, two sweaters, two pairs of socks on my feet and one on my hands, scarf, headband, sleeping bag completely covering my face, spoon train. We survived somehow...

So other than sleeping outside, we climbed, abseiled, belayed and lowered each other up and down cilffs from 20 to 42 metres high and climbed walls from grade 5 to grade 18 levels (by Australian standards) ...if that means anything to anyone!

I'm running short on time so here are some pictures to get a bit of a feel of what we did!

 Just so you know.. this is school. This was a field lab for practical evaluation for our Theory and Application of Rock Climbing class. It was probably the coolest thing I've done thus far and the people in our class are all really cool too. I also think my calling might be rock climbing and after our next "field lab" I might have to start getting serious about this sport....

Anyways, it was a great week and a reallly great experience although I'm so pooped I feel like a bus ran over me. I'm off the rocks for now and back on the ground at home to get a couple short hours of sleep because in the morning I'll be back off in the air on my way to Thailand until April 5!

Sincerely,
AUS