I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it!

Let me just tell everyone that climbing a mountain rated "strenuous hiking" is exhausting...but amazingly rewarding! We got on a bus late last night and drove to a camping ground near Mt. Warning. We arrived and piled into cabins where we slept for a total of four hours. In order to see the sunrise while hiking the mountain we had to wake up at 3:30am to start our journey. The crazy part about hiking this mountain was that the hike to the trails (at the bottom of the mountain) was the worst part! We had to hike 5km from our cabins to the trails...all up hill, on a concrete road. Doesn't sound to bad in writing...but let me tell you that there wasn't one person who wasn't in pain and complaining about their calves. Never the less, we continued and made it to the trails eventually. By this point we had split into two groups, my group had about nine people in it in the beginning.


Only traveling by the light of our flashlights we started the 9km hike up Mt. Warning! The highest vantage point in NSW! Along the way we saw some amazing creatures that couldn't be captured in a picture. My favorite were the glow in the dark worms and other various illuminated bugs. As soon as we turned off our flashlights there was a glow from the rocky walls around us of little illuminated bugs. The trails were narrow, rocky, and very wet but we stuck together and made sure no one got hurt. Our group was encouraging and a team but unfortunately two of our group members had to turn back. The trails were getting harder and the lack of light made each step more dangerous. Because we could only see by the light of our flashlights we had a little adventure off the path. At one point we though we were following the path and had to climb over a huge slick boulder (in the middle of a waterfall) to continue on the path...we were wrong. The path didn't proceed on the other side and we had to turn back and get back on the trail. Most people fell but no one was hurt and we all laughed it off once we made it back to the trail. Soon we had been hiking for hours and the sun was peaking over the mountains around us. We stopped at an overlook to see an amazing view of the sunrise. Mt. Warning is the first place in Australia to see the sunrise...and it was breathtaking!



Our first view of the sunrise!

 




The girls at sunrise :)

 




One of my favorite pictures of the sunrise :)

 

Continuing on our hike we were all getting tired and our muscles were starting to give out but we were so close and couldn't give up now. When we turned the corner we could see the last stretch of our trip was to climb up a vertical rock wall using a chain rope to help us keep our footing. This was my favorite part! It was a pretty far climb to the top of the peak but my group made it and we couldn't have been more proud of ourselves! The view was phenomenal! We spent about an hour up top before we headed back down the mountain which took us about three hours to climb.


This was the top of the mountain where we had to climb up the chain! My favorite part :)

 



We made it to the top...ahhh the view is indescribable

 



Love this picture :)

 




The group I made it to the top with!

 
The hike down was a little easier however, worked completely different muscles. Along the way we stopped and took a lot of pictures of the beautiful rainforest and mountain ranges. Did I mention their are leaches in the rainforest?...it was nasty and we check each other frequently and caught them all early on...I even had one in my shoe when we got down the mountain. As we were hiking back we saw a lot of wildlife that we couldn't capture in pictures and to be quite honest the pictures wouldn't have done the true beauty justice. There is no picture that can capture the feeling you get when you get to witness some of these outstanding views, no picture that can capture the emotions that go through your body once you complete a challenging task that you gave your all and no picture that can capture the beauty of the sounds that surround you in a rainforest. I am beyond proud of myself and my group for showing that mountain who is boss!



The leach that was in my shoe...not cool

 


Part of the trail we had to hike...this was an easy portion but pretty

 



The detour we took on our way up when it was dark, you can see the big rock...remember it is slippery and has running water over it






Gorgeous trees!

 


A really cool elbow tree that we saw :) It was a nice resting bench!








Our group on the hike back down the mountain

 



 


Our group resting in the middle of the road...we were almost back to the cabins!



 Its not the mountain we conquered, but ourselves!

Happy Valentines Day from the Land Down Unda!

My valentines Day Flowers!!!

Thank you Alex Basham for surprising me!

Valentines Day is a day not only for couples but for all loved ones. I think we should all be thankful for the loved ones we have in our life and take today to tell them how important they are to us. We live in a busy and stressful world where we take advantage and often times forget how lucky we are. Not everyone in the world has a mother who loves them, a father who is proud of them, grandparents who support them, siblings who pick on them, aunts and uncles to visit, cousins to play with, and friends who love them. So I would like to thank all of my family and friends for loving me unconditionally and being there for me through the best of times and the worst! I am very thankful that I can share my journey with all of you :)

On another note...Today was pretty interesting...In class we learned about the Indigenous Australians and some more history of the land. After class we headed out for out field trip. First we stopped in town (Lennox Head) to visit an Aboriginal Area. The sight was used for ceremonies for the initiation of boys into the Bundjalung tribe. The area of Lennox Head was once called the Bundjalung area when Australia was organized into kinship's instead of states.



The ground is slightly caved in, this is because the aboriginal people could sit along the edges and watch the people in the middle. There was also trails that lead to other areas like this one that all had different uses. Some were for the men and others for the women.

 After visiting the land and learning a little about the Aboriginal people we headed off to a Naval Museum. Here we learned about how the Europeans come to Australia and the impact they had on the land. We also got to walk around and read all about the wars from the Australians view. It was full of miniature naval ships and other artifacts from the different wars.

Steering the ship!

Australian Navy Flag

HUGE torpedo

The walls were covered in war memorabilia and each war was labeled :)

Some medals from various wars

I liked this newspaper headline! There was a whole table full of newspaper articles about various wars

Diesel Engine

Scuba Diving Suit



Scuba Gear



Next we loaded the bus and went to the Thursday Plantation to learn about the medicinal tea tree oil! Once we arrived we watched a short film on the history and production of tea tree oil products. Then we got to use free testers of tea tree lotion, face wash, lip balm, and much more. There were plenty of products to buy and some good sales! I got a few things for myself as well as some gifts.





SOOOOOO much tea tree stuff




Some of the tea tree products I got :)



Outside of the plantation there was a maze. (I got lost with the professors daughter...and it was super hot outside..and on top of that the entire bus was waiting on us to leave lol) There was also a lot of art work and some trails in the surrounding area.


Shoes between wooden planks...I though it looked pretty cool




Little kids!!!

 The last place we went on our Field trip was the Byron Bay light house! It was a beautiful view! We could see for miles out to see, Julian Rocks (where we dove), sharks and turtles in the waters below, and we stood on the most Easterly part of the Australian mainland!


The light house at Byron Bay





The BSU Group on our Field Trip!




Most Easterly Point of Australia!




The light house was beautiful and the views were phenomenal!




You could see Julian Rocks where we dove from the light house!




As we looked down at the water we could see small sharks swimming and sea turtles! These were the same kinds of sea creatures we saw while diving

 It was a long but exciting day and when we got back to camp we had a group breakfast for dinner...french toast, bacon, sausage, muffins, and backed cinnamon apples! It was delicious and we were all very hungry after all of the hiking and walking we did :)

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Love with all of your Heart <3