hiking in australia

some of you who know me may not know that one of my biggest fears is rocks. specifically, wet rocks. i know this sounds ridiculous, but rarely have i encountered a rock that i have tried to step on that has not tried to make me topple over. even when we were in south africa, we did a hike up a rocky gorge to the top of tabletop mountain. now, the going up is no problem. and if i may toot my own horn, i am pretty adept at climbing rocks, but coming down is a whole other story. as we were coming down the gorge, annette asked me for some water, and that one teeny tiny question forced me to lose what focus i had and i rolled down the gorge. not once or twice, but 5 times. all i could hear was annette saying, "oh, oh" over and over. i was rolling down pretty slowly with all my limbs splayed about, but still it felt like i may never stop. i was fine in the end, just received a gash on my right arm and some bruises (my ego probably the most bruised). but this just illustrates how i am constantly facing a losing battle with these damned rocks.

despite my fear of going down rocks and crossing wet rocks (my absolute nemesis), i decided to do a hike in lamington national park that involved a river crossing. i figured that since i would be on my own, it would be a good time to face my fear and cross that river like the tough girl that i am. and that would have been all fine and good if there was just one river crossing. but there were 8. to be honest, i did not do the first crossing very gracefully, but i was able to maintain some semblance of standing (and oh how proud i was!). but when i got to the second crossing, panic set in, and instead of stepping on the wet rocks, i just walked into the river, up to my knees in the water. at this point, i thought that the worst was over, but alas, ther was another crossing about 500 meters up the trail. now this time i could not just walk into the river, because i could not see how deep the water was and i did not want to swim, so instead i had the bright idea of crawling on all fours across the rocks. and that is what i did for not just this river crossing, but for the other 5 that were there to meet me. yes, i looked like an idiot, but the rocks did not get the best of me (at least not really)!



i was hoping to see koalas on this hike, but all i saw was this sign...




my wet legs and muddy feet after my step into the river




undaunted by the perils that i have faced crossing the treacherous river




the treacherous river




the hike was peppered by many small waterfalls...i hiked down to the bottom of the waterfalls and to the river




as i was walking, all of the sudden i saw this blue lobster...i have no idea where it came from or why it was there...but it kept me company for a bit before scuttling off...so pretty




weird looking tree that i encountered...it was so tall that i couldn't even see where it stopped as it went into the clouds...almost like jack's beanstalk...i should have tried to climb it and see what was at the top





pretty berries...i just liked the way they looked against the background of the green leaves