Jr Girls + West Coast + Update

So much has happened over the last couple weeks. I will try to get down as much of it as possible. 

After I got back from the East Coast I had a day off and then it was straight into Jr Girls. This year the Jr Girls and the Jr Boys camps were running at the same time. So we were completely separate camps but running at the same time out of the same site. It went really well. Jr Girls was a fantastic camp. The girls were so cute and well behaved. We really had a pretty easy week. I was Cabin Leader Support for the week and I didn't really have too much to do. There were two of us in that role and the kids were so good that the leaders really didn't need too much from us. I think the boys had a few more issues in their camp with misbehaving kids and tired out leaders. The theme for Jr Girls was royalty. And the Jr Boys theme was superheros. I was a bit sad to miss out on the superhero camp actually. But royalty camp ended up being pretty awesome, so I can't complain. Both supervising teams did a great job and the kids really enjoyed the week. 

Something cool they do here for some camps is that the parents come to pick their kids up in the evening around supper time. And then the leaders stay until the next day. So there was a whole night for the staff to hang out and have fun. We went bowling and then had a fire on the beach. 

Directly after camp on Friday the Gates family came and picked me up and took me to spend the weekend with them. They live in Burnie. I got to do so much that weekend, it was a really good time. On Friday they took me to watch some tennis. I had never watched tennis live before. It always looks a bit boring when you watch it on TV. But when you are actually there, tennis is quite entertaining to watch. I really enjoyed it. Then after tennis we went to Guide Falls. Unfortunately it was pretty dark by the time we got there so I couldn't get any pictures. But it was really nice. I am hoping to go back again sometime before I leave, which shouldn't be too difficult because it is really not very far away. When we were walking back to the car along the road after checking out the falls, I almost stepped on a snake. Well, not really. I saw it a couple steps away. It was big and black and just hanging out on the road. I was quite calm about it. I pointed it out, and it kind of slithered off into the grass. They were quite impressed with me. Especially after I told them the story of my last snake encounter. It was in Canada back when I was somewhere between 14 and 17. I can't really remember exactly when it went down. But I was out for a walk with my family and didn't notice the little, harmless garter snake in front of me until I was practically standing on it. I screamed, flailed, and ran. And in my mad flailing I managed to punch my mom. I hit her pretty hard and I have never lived it down. Whenever the subject of snakes come up, there is some mention of the time I saw a snake and punched my mom.

We didn't stay all the way until the end. But I'm pretty sure this guy ended up losing.

This guy ended up coming in second place for the whole tournament. He was very good.

David shone his light on it and I managed to get a photo on my phone as it was escaping.

The next day we went on a day trip to the west. It was a full day and I got to see quite a bit. After breakfast at a lovely cafe we went to Boat Harbour. It was a bit windy and cold when we were there, but still quite nice. Then we stopped at Dismal Swamp. Which is a Blackwood sinkhole. Its actually a really beautiful place despite the name. I think they realized the name was a bit off-putting, so they renamed it Tarkine Forest Adventures (at Dismal Swamp). The trees there are huge and the forest is quite dense. I really liked it. Then we had lunch at a beach in Marrawah and headed to West Point and spent a bit of time watching the waves. Then we had our longest stop of the day in Stanley. We climbed the Nut and did the walk around the top of if. It was really beautiful. It was pretty warm, but there was a nice breeze on the top of it that made it not too bad. On the way home we stopped at Dipp Falls and the Big Tree.

Boat Harbour from the look out. 

Boat Harbour from the beach.

Jellyfish.

They have this slide at Tarkine Adventures. It sort of snakes down through the trees. It was pretty cool. And they try to make it look like it is a really good deal too. Only $2 a go. But to go you have to pay a $20 park entry fee. So it is really $22 a go. Which is too much to go down a slide.

The forest is so dense and stretches on quite a while. The trees are also quite tall. I took this from a platform that was quite a ways off the ground.

This was our view while we had lunch at Marrawah.

West Point. It was quite windy so there was a cool spray/mist coming off the waves. 

The path going up the Nut in Stanley. This is about 2/3 of the way up.

If you are not up for the climb, there is a chair lift option. 

The view from one of the lookouts on top.

The bottom of Dipp Falls. There was a top part to the falls as well. It is actually a bit bigger. But my pictures of the bottom part turned out much better. 

The Big Tree. 

This is Pegg's Beach. We stopped here briefly on the drive home. You can see the Nut way off in the distance.

The next day we went to watch a cricket game in Exeter and then continued on to Launceston for the afternoon. It was one of the hottest days I have had here so far and it was nice to spend it at the Gorge. Launceston is no where near the beach, so when its hot everyone heads down to the Gorge to swim. I must admit that the water in the basin was pretty gross. But it was still quite nice on such a hot day.

I found cricket pretty interesting to watch. It was crazy hot out though. Luckily we were in the shade where it wasn't too bad. It seems that people here either love cricket or couldn't care less about it. There doesn't seem to be much in the middle.

The Gorge!

There are tracks that go all around the basin.

There were a whole bunch of these guys hanging out in a bunch of places around the basin.

I was more than a bit skeptical of this claim. I guess I didn't take a picture of the chair lift span, but lets just say I have been on much longer chairlifts at the Kimberly ski hill. 

After I got back from the weekend I had a bit of a break for a few days. I went to Latrobe with Tamara, Laura, and Elizabeth (Hannah is at school now) and had a look for a platypus. We didn't manage to find one, but we had a good time and I did get to go to the weirdest shop I have ever seen before. It is called Reliquaire and it is this crazy, giant shop that is absolutely filled to the rafters with stuff. And it is all split up into themed rooms. Some of them were a bit weird, like the doll room or the one with all the marionettes. But some were really awesome. Like the one filled with toys and board games or the mirror/laser room. You weren't supposed to take any pictures. But I may have broken that rule and took a picture in the room with the lasers and the mirrors. It was too cool to go undocumented.

I have also been to a board meeting in the last week. I have been invited to attend all the board meetings while I am here. So I will do that. And I have started to learn how to run some of the activities here around camp. Well, I have started to learn one of the activities. The last couple days I have been training on the giant swing. Its going well!

Probably the craziest thing that has happened in the last few weeks is that one of the board members who was out for the board meeting last week showed up with a car for me! I hadn't even met him before that day. But he just rocked up, introduced himself, and handed me the keys to his car. It was insane and I am so grateful. I have been out by myself a few times and I am starting to get the hang of driving on the other side of the road. I guess I have been here long enough and been in vehicles often enough for it to start to feel normal.