The Girls in Brisbane

Some shorter and longer anecdotes from our trip to Brisbane:

 Sunday.  No appetite but navigating Brissy seems Sinch.  Warm day, bed and book- just perfect :)

Monday.  Lounging in deck chairs surrounded by that humid spring heat watching the rainbow playground clamber over the soft fall.  Fake beach a solid mirage amidst the city.  Skyline BRISBANE Skyline.  Yummy all day breakfast omelette 7.50.  Thongs digging into my feet.  :D ^.^ :P

Tuesday.  Getting lost in the car. Griffith uni.  City cat 33 degrees, 3 hours, putting me to sleep.  Appetite :) kebab $4 at West End

Wednesday.  The queen street mall and we're hummingbird shopping. Our eyes flit from store to store and we walking but never stopping.  Aromas of at least seven kingdoms in a marvelous food market- a bubbling yummy concoction that's too hot to touch.  

South bank is just as lesuirely as always; like a cool breath upon a harried soul.  Even though my feet feel like over grilled fish we meander through QAG(the art gallery) until my eyes are permanently wide and my elbow are getting cold from the air conditioning.  At night we experience some night life on boundary street at the beach burrito.  Warm air and frozen margaritas, that's the life.

Thursday.

Busy streets, to a gigantum Moreton Bay, whipped green toilet water rising beach less towards us in the most disturbing fashion.  A cute water park; slides and mushrooms. 

Hell in circles past Roma Street and all I wanted to do was get out and take a picture of the spectacular blue storm clouds behind the sky scrapers and cathedrals.  Unnatural as though it was trying to pass for a cloudless sky to those city dwellers so focused on their work.  And still it was dark as though you could fall through it into some new dimension.  Stuck yet as the rain begins on the right side of the river traffic jams hard, all the cogs locked into stasis.  An object slams my window and turning I watch splinters of white dart away.  The size of my fist shattering a second time on the black road.  White ice.  A rageful motorist launching their fury off the bridge above at me.  Or not I find mere minutes later.

Smashing onto my side of the car is everything mother nature can throw.  Fist sized balls of ice sound like viking hammers.  Thrashing trees and twigs thwack the windscreen.  Rain sloshes and splashes on every side. Stuck still.  Red brake lights sneer at me through a wall of Grey and we might as well be stuck in a cyclone.  A tiny tin car, fragile glass windows just being hammered by divine fury.  Please don't break.  Please don't break.  Please.  Its not like I can hear anything over the storm.  Can't go forwards, can't go backwards, no way to go around.  My sister almost two in the backseat awoke in terror.  I masked my panic and helplessness with those reassuring adult smiles that lie and lie and lie.  There was nothing more to do.

Like countless others even as the storm eased we were blown off course, battered driftwood far from home.  You're always told: "Don't drive through floodwaters" but we had nowhere else to go.  In my mind I replayed images of dirty rvers in the road just like that one about those cars that rose u predictably.  A branch like that once carried on the flood or one larger, dangerous half a tree swept down to pummel the exhausted refugees.  Finally, tsunami, flood or cyclone I used to watch cars picked up like toy boats sickenly turning upon their side, or drowned under in waters to unknowable to fear.    The fuel light again shone.  My eyes were skewered when I glanced right, the shattered shards of the plastic window guard crushed beneath its onslaught.

Perhaps chaos could describe what we saw through the dropping rain.  The trees had to have been  savaged to provide such a litter along the streets.   A tin shed and a corrigated patio- one slumped exhausted on the path and the second a twisted traffic stop.  But over the panic that fluttered every heart - why what had occured- a steely layer of boredom grew at the unmoved tail lights before me.  Stuck somewhere new but stuck fast, not even the rain left to convince you that peak hour requires patience.

Is there anything that can make you feel better after such an experience?  Strangely the devastation around us.  We pass into a new street and there a typical two storey hotel faces mournfully south.  The top floor windows smashed right in.  One two three four five six.  Busted blank holes.  And its not the only one. We pick them here there and everywhere, glass joining the leaves upon the street.

To the north the clouds are angelic.  The fluff and catch the last of the sun, rimming a perfect blue.  A tease.  Then south that steel grey sheeted the sky still in warning.  Go home it screamed while you can.

Then.  Blackout across eighty two thousand homes.  The city still burns over the river, painting the night sky red.  Top side of the street well light, packed with hungry people with no way to cook for themselves. And then like a slammed door across the bustling footpath the lights stop.   Supreme darkness has taken the lower end.   There you just glimpse the writhing of bodies.  In the dark they move the same as us.  But it is inky there and so we turn back.  These traffic lights are on, shiny green.  Yah, go!

Dragonskin: City Rail to Campbelltown

Besides only just catching the 8:03 train we were excited. Between Central and Campbelltown there was about an hour to kill.

On the third carriage and just before Strathfield I submit to being tagged with sharpies in bemusement. VIRGIN in capital letters is written by the girl with a shaved head and SLUT on her arm. My companions also get SLUT and it seems that a tagging frenzy has begun. I become a member of Hayden's army in open rebellion against Flynn's forces. Several others see our uniforms and leave their marks on our arms.

The city rail is clogged with us all in matching shirts, clots of hiking packs lounging across double seats. Anticipation hums beneath the surface and mingles with the efficient static of the train like a badly kept secret .

We see scarves of many colours on our journey down the train. They all bear the purple script saying "Maddie xx" down their arms and we're searching for this mystery girl who could complete our team. Pushing through the narrow doors my sleeping roll gets stuck again and again then finally releases me into the shifty ledges between cars. At stations we play leapfrog, rushing from one carriage to the next in a search that seems fruitless once we reach the first carriage. Is this some elaborate hoax?

Finally back on the third carriage we find her- not exactly what I was expecting. The script and her movement down the train had put in my mind the image of a small, lithe girl terribly excited, enthusiastic, entirely sociable. Instead we introduce ourselves to a farm-girl, heavy set with similar thick-necked companions. But here we have it-the completion of our half-abandoned team. Sure enough we're in, its done and my two friends lose their interest.

They slouch so much like gear, no doubt worn out from a sleepless night upon our other train; oh well, they're sluts and have been this way before. But me-m I can't stop looking at that first word on my arm and am filled with buzz; I can't sit still. Out of my pack I pull a precious, terrible prize. Fire-engine red its an amazing opportunity- to meet new people as a scrawl my name across their skin.

Dragonskin: 4 days, a 1 000 teenagers, one forest. Can't wait for next year- a birthday, easter and Dragonskin all at once :D  

the Challenges: great and small

My name is Sarah HP and I’m a Venturer Scout which means I have special abilities.

They’re supposed to be secret but, I think I can trust you.

I can leap off cliffs and survive. Just Imagine it for a second… You are teetering on the edge of a precipice. So high that below you the people are like ants. Your heart pounds, your knees shake, your hands clench and you lean back…

Over the edge you’re just… floating. You can see the rope that holds you as you safely abseil down the rock face.

That’s my real secret: I’ve learnt how to abseil.

Thanks to scouts and school excursions I’ve have the opportunity to do things that are a little wacky, but also fantastically fun!

Thus last holidays I led a four day hike over more than 70km along the Great North Walk. We started along the picturesque Hawkesbury River and pretty soon figured out it was harder than we’d thought.

It was the five of us against nature. Joe, Eli, Lachlan, Stephany and I all teenage venturer scouts ready to face this adventure. So hard that within the first ten minutes there were already whining children at my heels:

“Sarah, why’d you have to pick a hike with so many hills?” Oh yeah, oops.

On the plus side the brush was bursting with brilliant blooms, it was like somebody had emptied a flower kaleidoscope upon the hills. The views were spectacular after we’d dragged ourselves up 100’s of metres to the ridge-tops. They were a sweet reward for our efforts.

But there were still greater challenges for us upon this hike.

On the second day Stephany sprained ankle an ankle and the next day we lost her for a number of hours, but that all paled next to our final day:

The last day of our journey and we were so close to our victorious descent into Yarramalong, our endpoint. When…

Joe broke out in hideous fiery rashes. They spread across his skin, burning, itching and unstoppable. We had no antihistamines. No phone service. Panic set in for all of us: What if you were helplessly watching as dangerous rashes spread over your friend? Would you know what to do?

Eli and Lachlan heroically sprinted the 2kms to Yarramalong and called up for antihistamines. Steph and I were left to look on as the rashes got angrier. Can you imagine the feeling when you’re itching, almost as much as Joe was, to do something (anything) yet you can only wait.

After what felt like hours Eli and Lachlan came back to us. Help was on the way. Joe was just tough enough that he could walk so we stumbled onto the main road and fell with relief upon our emergency anti-histamine carriers. We hopped in the cars not even a k from our end point, not quite finishing as victoriously as we’d imagined. But everyone was safe, finally.

And with that happy ending here’s the moral.

 My four day journey was also a metaphoric journey of discovery. A challenge conquered. Everyone should be challenged because it is by challenges that we learn and improve.

So to better yourselves I challenge you, all of you, to take every day as an adventure for yourself. Make the most from life, grab every opportunity and be the best that you can be.

Thank you.

** Tonight Orara High School had five entrants (of six) into the Coffs Harbour Club Lions Youth of the Year competition of which I was one.  The speeches were tremendous and above is mine, given to a room of teachers, parents and most importantly Lions members.  Thank you to Lions for the opportunity to speak to you all.  It was a fantastic night :) 

Around Australia 2007: Days 4 & 5

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th March 24-25/3/07

BUNYA MT

This campsite in the Bunya Mountains is pretty good (except for the fact that there are no showers.)  We went on this really quite interesting walk.  It came out into a beautiful lookout.  We walked past plenty of grassland that quickly turned into a lush rainforest. 

Evan Harry + I rode our scooters down the slope over and over again.  It was fun.  We also caught up on some school work. 

On the next day we drove to Paradise Parking and walked all the way to Dandaba.  Evan, Mum + I were going to go to a lookout when we saw some feathers from a dead bird and two metres further along the track there was a bog fat snake, so we didn't go to the lookout.  At Dandabar we had lunch at a cafe and resturant and we also fed the King Parrots.  Then we walked back with bribes from Mum to get us there. 

An note at the bottom says:

We fed the King Parrots and they made claw marks where they had sat to eat the bird seed. 

To the side, Mum, who has her own version of events posted on her blog, has written a note aswell:

great diary writing, Sarah.  It is very descriptive and interesting to read.  Remember the fun you had riding your scooters at Bunya Mtn + the yummy Bunya nuts that we ate. 

Around Australia 2007: Day 2

Day 2 Thursday 22nd March 22/3/07

Dear Diary,
How peaceful it is here! It is lovely except for the fact that almost everything is now dirty.  After two days without washing I hope the next place we stop at has showers!  I am particularly worried about my feet. 

Today we went on a beautiful walk through an old cedar forest.  There was a big cedar with a diameter of 133cm and a height of 48m.  We also did a walk of 200m which came out to a lookout on pinnacle point.  From there I could see Mt Warning, the plug of what used to be a giant volcano.  There was a big bowl made by mountains and you culd really imagine the mountain range once being a volcano.

Later on when we were back at the campsite and had lunch Evan and dad went on another walk to a waterfall called Evan's Falls.  I stayed back and did schoolwork.  Before it got dark I read a little of the French book that mum showed me, deciphering it with the mini dictionary.  I have learnt quite a bit of French now!!

The Borders NP

Of course!  The ancient volcano crater that encircles Mount Warning is still etched in my mind.  Though I must say any French I'd learned must have been negated by my German lessons in year 8...  J'taime?