The bus picked us up at a reasonable time in the morning and I was highly amused by the Australian student reps that were coming with us. Whether they mean to be or not, they are funny. The journey pretty much followed this huge winding road called the great ocean road for three hours, so anyone that was hung over did NOT have too much fun! The scenery was beautiful however, and the weather has been incredible here every day so far.
I don't know if you can imagine (because I didn't take a picture) sandy coloured coastlines with azure water all around...
When we finally arrived (and after some precarious corner turns on a cliff edge in the coach) we arrived at a relatively nice hotel. Was this the hotel we would be staying in? No! Of course not. We had a nice little cheap hostel all lined up for us, wooden planks for beds and all. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that bad I suppose... not for two nights anyway. The scenery was generally very nature-ry and beautiful, and there were so many different types of bird.
What struck me most about Lorne (that's where we were) were the birds. White cockatoos with yellow pop up bits (the type you usually only see in pet shops in the UK) living in huge colonies in the trees, and waking us up with a screeching chorus in the morning. Parrots as well, and magpies, and parakeets, and more cockatoos.
The first day of the tour was mainly the journey, a meeting where we received information about orientation back at Deakin, and getting to our rooms. It was Tuesday, the next day, that would be the busy and fun one.
The morning had an early start- our first activity was scheduled to start at 8, breakfast at 7, so it was whatever time before that you could pull yourself out of bed. Although judging by how uncomfortable the beds were, it was relatively easy... We were split into different groups by wristband colour which is always fun. More icebreaker stuff! Yay! >.>
I opted to go for mountain biking along the coast between 8-10am, surfing 1-3pm, then beach yoga 3-5pm.
Surfing was great, but super tiring. I managed to catch a wave a few times, but its much more difficult than it looks! I almost stood up twice, but never rode one unfortunately. I was moderately jealous of the Australians and a few Californian students who seemed to be pros and kind of just swooshed over the top of us others from time to time. I had chosen the beach yoga because I thought it might have been relaxing after the surfing... I was completely wrong. It absolutely KILLED me! Even more than the surfing had! Damn yoga.
The day was long, but interesting and fun. Unfortunately I got minorly sunburnt on my face, which I really didn't appreciate.
Dinners were good, one night was a typical aussie BBQ! I wasn't sure if I was eating kangaroo or not, but I sure as hell didn't care! It was tasty!
Finally, we got to wednesday. An early start once again- and even though we were getting on the coach to go back first thing in the morning, it would take about 9 hours to get home because we were doing a coach tour to this place called the twelve apostles, with some stops inbetween.
I mean, the twelve apostles were cool and all, but they were just kinda lumps of rock...
I was really glad to be back to familiar, albeit for a short amount of time, ground. However, it wouldn't be long before I was busy again...
Tune in next time, to Enrolling with Jenn!
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