Jordan, ‘10

I’m walking through a rock forest, climbing the bodies of aboriginal spirit animals, and sleeping in a gap formed when a giant Emu kicked it to capture a raven.  I see a Lord of the Rings worthy landscape from a jutting cliff hanging two hundred feet in the air.  I spot a tree turned white by the high concentration of sulfur-crested cockatoos among its branches. 

My weekend in the ancient land of the Grampians, a large national park in western Victoria, proved to be a successful muse for my restless imagination.  The trails, waterfalls, rocks (from which I got quite a few glimpses of the grey, rainy sky when I slipped–back first–on them), and the animals were spectacular–out in full parade, more for mother nature I think than for us.  And she should be proud of her work there.  The trails are long and winding and wind-blown, everything is in proportion to its grandeur and life is simpler.

 

Aboriginal cave paintings…

Mackenzie Falls–we had to climb down something almost as steep as the rock face. 

The gang–everyone who went on our little adventure.  I’m fourth from the right.

This is the view from the cliff where the picture of the gang was taken!  Holy Gandalf!

I don’t really know how to elaborate on the beauty of that place–that other-world–but I hope that what I’ve written and the pictures I’ve given you are enough to tempt your wanderlust. 

 In other news, I got a really short haircut on Thursday.  And I have nine days left of class, including today.  My first final is next week and then the exam month begins.  Yay for me! 

 Get lost, on purpose,

Jordan

I saw this burned dead tree and I had to capture its energy in a picture…it’s even more beautiful with the grey slate sky.

Quotes of the week:

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” –- Miriam Beard