Climbing Mt Keira

So today was a gorgeous day once again, after we had a run in with some rain this past week. A group of us decided it would be great to climb the mountain that sits behind our campus. There are trails and it is a popular "to do in Wollongong" thing. There are roads that go up the mountain and there are what we call "man trails" that go STRAIGHT up. And we took the latter. The hike up was quite a workout, but fun and so cool at the same time. We walked through "temperate rain forest", saw plants nothing like on the mountains at home, and literally climb UP a riverbed. We were quite the explorers. The view at the top was breathtaking. First we stopped at a cliff off of the path and then hiked up to the very top where the lookout is. The sky was blue and you could see all the other mountains, the city, people playing cricket in a park, and the beach. They even have a little restaurant at the top with a patio right beside the lookout. There were cheaters at the top who just drove up for lunch. A really cool thing is that there is a tradition that when a couple gets married they hook a lock to the lookout fence (with there names or something engraved in it) and throw the key over the edge. The way down the mountain was a different story. We started down the road to meet the trail in the middle so we wouldn't have to try to jump down the steep rocks we climbed. However, none of us had seen the entrance to the middle before. So, we started on a trail that took us back up a good 20 minutes before we met the down trail, with aching legs. Along the way, we seemed to have walked through grass invested with leeches (we had been warned before going and I had been on the lookout the whole way up). LEECHES. I do not do well with blood-sucking creatures. The minute I saw one crawling into my shoe my entire leg started shaking. The boys helped me get rid of them, but the fear was still there. I quickly picked up the pace (they found it hilarious that my motivation to run was to avoid leeches). I literally ran down the rest of the mountain, not stopping until I reached the road across from the entrance at the bottom. I have not run up or down endless stairs like that since soccer conditioning. One of my friends was amazed, "Look at her feet!" Once we were back home I was exhausted, and a nice shower in my tiny bathroom felt great. On another note, tonight we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the movie theatre (practicing my Australian spelling). I thought it was great! I really want to read the books someday. That is all I have for now! What a day! Tomorrow should be another sunny one at the beach! :)

One of the views from the top!

Zane and I

Before conquering the riverbed