Last weekend was the first trip in my Outdoor Education class. We went to this place called Meebum-bia. Basically it's just a bunch of land owned by these two farmers who let people hike and camp on it. It's out in the middle of nowhere about 2.5 hours north of Lismore. The whole trip was great! There were 25 people in my group, which is really big, but everyone got along very well and we didn't have any complainers. This first day when we got there, we played some get-to-know-you games and other fun games. One of my favorites was called the Smurf game. Basically it's freeze tag, but when you're frozen you have to yell, "Free me, free me!" like a smurf, and then in order to be free 2 other people have to hold hands, dance around you and yell, "Be free, be free!" Trust me, it was fun. If you can imagine a bunch of 20+ year olds running around like little kids, you'll get the idea. At Meebum-bia there are high and low ropes courses in different places all over the area. We spent some time doing group activities on the low ropes course first. The ropes courses are thick wires between trees that you're supposed to balance on in order to get from one place to another. So we did a bunch of working together as a group and learning communication and trust and things like that. Then we started to hike. What a hike! We went straight up the side of a very steep hill/mountain. It was a bit scary because my pack was heavy so I was afraid if I leaned back, I might just end up rolling back down to the bottom. Fortunately, everyone made it up. When we got to the top we got to do the high ropes course. We wore harnesses and were strapped on to a wire above us so we couldn't fall to the ground, but it was still pretty hard and kinda scary. Some parts were really high. Hopefully the pictures will help describe it. We set up camp, ate supper, then played games and told riddles by the campfire. The next morning we played some more games (yes, we played a lot of games, maybe that's why I had such a great time). One thing we had to do was to get all 25 of us to swing across on a rope to a really small plank of wood and squeeze everyone on without touching the ground. Half of us had our eyes closed and the other half weren't allowed to speak, but we were able to do it. Then it was navigation time. Later in the semester for our next trip, we go for a few days and have to navigate on our own, so this was practice. I'm slowly getting better at reading the map and compass, but although I really like it, my patience is short. (Luke knows what I'm talking about). It went pretty well, and when we got lost we saw some kangaroos so it was worth it. After everyone got found again, we did this thing called the Flying Fox. I was the first to go on it. It's pretty terrifying. I climbed way up this enormous tree to this tiny platform when the guy hooked me up to a pulley on a wire that runs out over a small valley. Imagine being strapped to a telephone wire and swinging across it very high up in the air. Anyways, after I finally jumped off the platform, it was great! We did all that stuff that day and still had the longest hike ahead of us- back down the hill and up another long but not as steep hill. We got to the next campsite just after the sun set. Most of us walked out to a field and watched the stars- without a doubt the brightest I've ever seen stars. After supper we played this game called Mafia. It's difficult to explain but there's lots of strategy involved and it was great fun! One reason I loved this trip so much is becuase we had such a diverse group. Probably about half were American, but there were also Aussies, Sweedish, Spanish, Austrian and German people, and I just love all of them. The last day was the day for the Free Fall. Before I did that we had to do another high ropes course, but this time we had to so it tied to a partner. It was really really tough and painful, but my partner and I were successfull. The free fall is probably the scariest thing I've ever done, but maybe the most fun too. That being, said I don't think I'd do it again, and I don't want to go sky-diving ever either. I have a video of me jumping off the top of the huge tree super-man style and screaming bloody murder. I can't wait to show it. Anyways, it was all down-hill from there. We hiked back down to the parking lot and went home. I watchedthe sunrise that morning too and saw some more kangaroos- whoo-hoo. I can't think of anything negative at all about this trip- it was so great, and it felt really good to be active and hiking again.