actually so much has been going on that i have had absolutely no time to post blogs or pics or anything like that. ughhh… exhausted. but in a good way. so. right. well first off i haven’t been surfing in like a week, partly because we went camping last week but also because i wiped out sorta bad last sunday and i’m a little discouraged about goin back into the water. here’s the tale. it was a super crowded surf due to amazing weather and a holiday weekend, i would say about 20 surfers to our general area. and that’s freakin heaps compared to having like 6 around me normally. so obviously i don’t really know how to surf so when this huge wave started takin me down i just tried to stand up on it. unfortunately there is surf etiquette… much like skatepark etiquette in that you don’t snake people if it’s their turn (or wave.. whatev). oops. i accidently did that. so the dude tries to not squish me with his board and puts his hand on my board to push me away. this makes me fall off, then underwater i got my arm stuck in his board leash, then got owned by like 3 waves in a row… yeah. i was done after that. cool bruise tho.
it was more colorful a few days ago.
anyway, yeah last week we went camping in Fingal Heads. i use the term ‘camping’ loosely because it’s not like any camping i have ever done in my life. We slept inside a small church (praise God cuz it was freezing at night) and were up at 6 am for bootcamp, i mean workout. nah, it really wasn’t that bad, i just had a bad attitude for the first 2 days. but our ringleader Kyle, who is like quarter aboriginal and knows LOADS about his culture and past, took us around and showed us beautiful areas and cool bush secrets. it was so funny cuz he would tell us something and then stop partway through if he remembered and say “aw, i shouldn’t tell you that.”
we learned about certain indigenous plants and practical uses for them. i made rope out of straight up tree insides. i think it’s called wick or something. it was soo awesome!! they use it for fishing line and it’s super strong, better than fishing line you buy at the store, it just takes a while to make.
we started our “bush training” and hiked this beautiful trail in a jungle area.
and i jumped off a waterfall into the COLDEST WATER I HAVE EVER BEEN IN IN MY WHOLE LIFE!! my body actually burned after i got out.
that was a funny day actually, we thought we saw blood along the trail so kyle starts tracking it since he knows what to look for. long story short, we split cuz we thought it felt dangerous and looked wrong, only to find out later that it was fake blood from a scene in someone’s movie. haha! how freakin random!! that night we’re hangin out at the house with Kyle’s extended family, the in-laws, outlaws, kids and whoever, when someone brings this huge python to the backyard. they call them carpet snakes here… anyway this sucker was at least 4 1/2 ft long!! so we all touch it and hold it, but not until afterwards do i find out that it was just some wild snake they picked up off the ground… not a huge difference or anything, but i just assumed someone who’s carrying a snake is its owner. silly me.
we went kayaking in a river that i think has canals to the ocean, because it was tidal and we went out at low tide…about the time where bull sharks are prevalent in the area. these are the ones that will attack if something is in their area just cuz they’re territorial. that was when we discovered that Kyle wasn’t playin around about not fallin out of the kayaks. this same day we went wading through hip deep mud and also stalked stingray. we ended up spearing one and taking it home (it was kind of sad cuz he didn’t die right away and when we went to look at him in the hold, he was belly up and he just sorta coughed at us.) but it was cool because we only took what we would use and we ended up eating it the next day.
its really squishy and… i don’t know. fishy. not somethin i crave fo show. oh good times in fingal. also in fingal we did intercession and prayer for our saturday outreach in Nimbin, aka the amsterdam of Australia. but that is a whole other blog in itself.
cheers!
