Happy EARTH DAY & Teresa's Team ORANGE Expedition Experience

ROMEO's Team Orange ... end of Day # 7 ... Mikie, Chris, Amy, Benny, Pecky, & me

... what a GREAT team!! ... WE MADE IT!! ... RIGHT ON!!!


Happy EARTH DAY Everyone!

I had hoped to post this update before a bunch of us headed away from the national base to do our Water Training on the Snowy River & the 9 day course we finished a couple of days ago with about 150 students (year/grade 9). I am finally able to post it here at a shopping mall in Melbourne that offers free wireless. I headed to Melbourne on the train with 7 other Outward Bound folks, so that I could meet up with my dear friend & Seed Mate Ruth for the 2 day break we have in between courses. We met up yesterday & had a lovely visit as well as catching an enviro film festival ... where we saw The Last Valley (a documentary about the East Grampians Old Growth forests that have been getting chopped down by clearcut logging operations, we also saw Who Killed the Electric Car (very excellent!) ... & Baraka (WOW, what amazing cinematography & music!!). I'll meet up again with Ruth for lunch & to visit in the afternoon before I head east on the train back to Bairnsdale & then onward to Buchan, the town closest to our mobile base at VS (Victoria Snowies).

My OBSERVE course experience was full of all kinds of learning ... predominantly insights on how year 9 kids operate, a variety of things for me to contemplate, and challenges to sort out in order to connect with the students at a level they can relate to and that encourages them to work together & with me. I also got to see how Nick (my mentor instructor) covers the numerous aspects of delivering an Outward Bound course over the 9 days we were out with the year 9 students.

I'll try to collect more of my thoughts from my OBSERVE & my upcoming ASSIST and will share more details with you once I am back near Canberra. Nadia, as it turned out, for Earth Day, we were out on the Snowy River, paddling & dragging our river rafts amid the splendiferous steep walls of the Snowy River gorge ... the reflections of the gorge walls, trees, sky, & clouds on the water were a most glorious sight that I enjoyed on Day 2 of our rafting expedition when my raft was at the front ... & we were able to see the river in its stillness and reflective beauty! I had the participants in my raft singing a couple of my favourite songs that I learned with my Seed Mates (O Maley and In Na Ney Capuwona ... not sure about the spelling on these :) ... & we also sang Happy Earth Day to You, to Me, & to Gaia!!

It was great to talk with you last night Nadia & be able to finally wish you a Happy Birthday ... WOW ... 21 yrs. eh? ... I am soooo glad you are able to enjoy this b-day over in Germany :) Be sure to find some Black Forest Cake & some excellent ice cream to celebrate your special day ... you deserve all kinds of yummy treats and delightful experiences ... I wish all of this for you & more as you go forward with your 21 years and the wonder-full adventures that still await you in Germany, Spain, & wherever else you go while you are in Europe!

Happy Earth Day & Happy Earth Month everyone! Wishing you peace and warmth wherever you are and the time to get out & enjoy some of our Dear Gaia's glorious landscapes and beauty-filled places. If anyone can get out to Elk Island or the Rockies anytime soon, I'd love to hear from you & what you saw/did while you were out there :)

That's all for my mini-update and now for the start of my Expedition Training update that I had written up before I left for the Snowies but hadn't been able to post until now ... ENJOY!

~~~

Teresa's Team ORANGE Expedition Experience

The biggest news on the EXPEDITION front is that I MADE IT ... despite my very, very sore feet & knees and weary body, ... I WAS STILL STANDING !!!

We had 7 days of major hiking/bush walking, the last two days were especially FULL ON! The last day our ORANGE group navigated our way for ~ 18km to arrive at our final meeting up point.

Definitely the most gruelling endeavour I have undertaken in my life!!! ... & with the help of my ORANGE buddies ... Mikie, Chris, Benny, Pecky, Amy, Margot, & Elle ... digging deep ... dwelling in my heart, ... breathing through to be free from suffering, ... seeking ways to be healed ... and be at peace ... I/we prevailed over all the challenges we undertook :)

Day #1

low clouds/fog in the valley below as we started out for the first leg of our Expedition (March 8, 2007)

Teresa on day #1 of our Expedition


splendid green landscape of National National Park

on our way to Hospital Hill ...

feathery clouds dancing about in the beauty-full blue sky

Benny & Chris using their excellent naviation skills to sort out features in the landscape to get us to the top of Hospital Hill

Mikie, Amy, & Claire Peck "Pecky" resting for awhile before we ended up evacuating Margot down Hospital Hill

Mikie, our cool dude in his light blue "sunnies" ... Mikie helped me in many ways through the course of our Expedition , thanks heaps Mikie :)

ROMEO orange team ... sunset at top of "spot height ####" one of many spot heights that we ascended to reach our Expedition check points and move on from knoll to knoll (hill to hill)

splendid sunset over the mountains in Namadgi National Park

sunset splendour ... Team Orange's colours radiantly revealed

sunset pastels

Day #2-7

I'll share more of the nitty gritty once I am back at the National Base near Canberra ...

~~~

Teresa's & her ROMEO Team Orange tramping mates at the end of the Expedtion ... we're still smiling & still on our feet :)

Mikie & me ... my best hiking buddy :)

Christopher & me ... my other great hiking buddy :)

ROMEO's Orange team ... HARD CORE!! ... & looking GOOD after 7 days & ~90 km's (not sure what the finally km tally is, I will figure that out & update my numbers after I am back from the Snowy Mountains).

I'll be in touch again after May 12th when we return from the Snowy Mountains down here in the state of Victoria ...

Be well my dear friends & family,

Hugs 'n' Bugs, love,

Teresa

ROMEO's White Water Rafting adventures (March 6th)

ROMEO's white water fun on the Murrumbidgee (March 6, 2007)

Hello my dear family & friends,

I have enjoyed a restful couple of days off & it was great to catch up with a few of you over the telephone today ... I went to the "tip shop" yesterday with Benny & Jean-Michel... to the store called Revolve, the place at the Canberra landfill where they sell reusable household items that people drop off instead of sending them to the landfill ... Revolve is run by a non-profit organization. I found a couple of small tables/shelves to use in my room for nightstands for $13, plus a couple of small lamps for $5 ... and it turns out that both of the lamps actually work :)

Also, I have great news on the Bronze Medallion front ... Benny & I did our timed tows back on the 21st of March after our second day of Search & Rescue training. We were both successful in doing our timed tows within the acceptable 3 minutes & 15 seconds :) YIPPEE!! Another competency success and a great affirmation of the improvements in our swimming abilities. Krisette, our Bronze Medallion assessor was quite pleased with the improvements in our swimming strokes and our ability to lower our swim times for the timed tow & the 400m swim.

There's been a few other assessments that I have been signed off on ... for setting up a Rock Climbing anchor system and belay set-up and almost all of the same for the Abseil set-up ... I'll be working on a few small details for the Abseil set-up during the upcoming Year 8 Course Experience that I am on Back-Up for the next 11 days ... it also looks like a few of us that are stationed here at the National Base during this Course Experience will be able to work on getting our Driving Qualifications (Provisional) signed off with the 4 wheel drive (4WD) "Troopies", also known as Land Rovers, by the 6th of April as well :)

We have a total of 3 Course Experience sessions that will provide us with opportunities to do our Back-Up, Observe, & Assist internship activities. This first session takes us from March 26 to April 6 (I am on Back-Up with Chris, Elle, Amy, and we have Owain/"Frodo" and Krisette as our mentors, along with Belinda, our Course Coordinator (CC)). Our second Course Experience happens April 17-27 (I'm scheduled to do my Observe at this time) and the third runs from May 1-12 (I'm scheduled to do my Assist at this time). For both the 2nd & 3rd sessions, I am scheduled to be down in "The Snowies" and will have my RDO's April 28-30 down in the state of Victoria as well. I'll be connecting with my Melbourne Seed Mates to see what kind of plans we can make to meet up & reconnect over those last 3 days of April ... looking forward to meeting up with as many of the Melbourne mob as I can. So Ruth, Glenda, Dot, Hans, and perhaps Basil who I have heard is out that way for the year ...? if you are reading this posting anytime soon, please send me a note & let me know if you are around and able to meet up during my days of April 28-30.

~~~

FINALLY ... a chance to share my update on the whitewater rafting adventures we had a couple of weeks ago ...

As you already saw a couple of postings ago, we enjoyed a great day on the water with the canoes & our instructors Eva & Owain/"Frodo" on March 5th & then on March 6th, we headed back out with them on the Murrumbidgee River & the rafts ... Here's some pic's of the fun we had with the white water & the big rocks that added to the challenge of navigating/negotiating our way along the water ... we often had to bounce around, push off of the boulders in the river, and even hop out to get our rafts unstruck and out of the jams they got into with the big river rocks and the moving water pushing us against these rocks & other hard places ;)

simple raft inflating technology at work ... this technique actually works rather well & everyone can get in on the fun!

Ned, Teresa, Kate, & Zohara paddling along in the Blue Dolphin


... here we go, trying to avoid the big river rock in the middle of the river ...

oh no! ... we're jammed up against/on the rock ... time for Teresa to hop out & pull/push the raft away from the rock ...


... the raft is free to float again ... time for Teresa to get back in ...

no more rocks in this stretch ... now we can paddle all together again!


Owain ... "Frodo" ... one of our moving water instructors

Ned using his hand to push us away from another rock

lean back & keep paddling everyone! ... thanks for your help Frodo :)


in the clear & paddling along the deeper waters again :)

the rowdy rafters (Jean-Michel, Emily, Chris, Margot, & Pecky) having fun IN the rapids after their floatila of backpacks was carried away with the current ... our Blue Dolphin crew got the packs out of the current & onto the nearby shore for them :)

this group really put the new self-bailing rafts to the test ... there goes Emily in the white water rescue position ... feet first down the river ... Pecky must have already headed downstream ...

Mikie & Eva (our instructor in the yellow life vest) leaning back while "Clare Bear" (aka Saunders) & Tanya have fun trying to keep paddling as the water splashes up on them in the front

paddling together to get past the rocks

here they are again ... paddling hard & staying focused ... nice close-up Benny!


portaging with the rafts to get past the big sink hole boulder (to portage = to carry the rafts & our gear on land to get around the big obstacle)

last pack sails down to the water to be loaded up after portaging ... all our packs were thrown down to the water where Owain/Frodo loaded them onto one of the rafts, we loaded ourselves into the rafts a little further down the slope where we could access the shore directly ...

That's about it for my white water rafting picture update ... thanks heaps to Benny & Chris for all the pictures they took during our flat water & white water adventures ... their pic's have helped me share our ROMEO white water stories so much more clearly than words could ever have done. I figured it would be too difficult to get pic's with my camera since it is not waterproofed & because our days on the white water especially have been quite full, with not a lot of time to muck about with taking pictures from shore. I did manage to get some pic's when we were on the flat water but it's sooooo great that I have these other pic's to share with you from our excitement on the moving water FUN!

I'll be in & around the national base during our first Course Experience session that runs March 26 to April 6 and then we have a 3 day break over Easter, YIPPEE!!

Coming up on the evening of April 6th, I am looking forward to going with some of the OBA gang to the Cirque de Soleil's "Veraki" show that has just come to Canberra ... then it looks promising for me to meet up with a couple of Seed Mates over the long week-end during the National Folk Music Festival that happens in Canberra, YIPPEE!! ...

kt & Marie, please give me a call or send me a note so that we can firm up these plans :)

(02) 6235 5764 (phone room in our apartment) or
6235 5743 (apartment kitchen phone) or
6235 5700 (main reception, Sandra can try to search me out during office hours)

I'll be in touch again a little later on in the week. Until then enjoy the coming of Spring back up in the northern hemisphere & please add a comment to my BLOG or send me a note to let me know how you are doing ;)

Be well my dear friends & family,

Teresa

p.s. I'll try to get my Expedition update onto my BLOG sometime this week ...

p.p.s. Belated Birthday greetings to you Shelley ... so sorry I missed you in my earlier b-day wishes ... I had also hoped to call you yesterday but alas time got away from me & the time difference had me able to call you when it was already too late to catch you up ... I'll see if I can squeeze in a call at an appropriate time sometime this week as well ...

White Water Rafting & Expedition updates (coming soon) ...

Hello Everyone,

Happy St. Patrick's Day ... & Happy Birthday Mr. Dec!!

Just a quick note to let you know I finished off my posting from the tail end of the Climb & Abseil sessions we had at the end of February, plus the Super Hero fun we had for Chris' birthday. I also included some pic's & stories from our flat water canoe fun in Canberra & a few pic's from the Murrumbidgee River here near the OBA national office.

Soooo, scroll down a couple of postings, ... have a read & enjoy the pic's ...

I'll be in touch again tomorrow with the white water rafting & expedition updates. The biggest news on the EXPEDITION front is that I MADE IT ... despite my very sore feet & knees and weary body, ... I WAS STILL STANDING !!!

We had 7 days of major hiking/bush walking, the last two days were especially FULL ON! The last day our ORANGE group navigated our way for ~ 18km to arrive at our final meeting up point.

Definitely the most gruelling endeavour I have undertaken in my life!!! ... & with the help of my ORANGE buddies ... Mikie, Chris, Benny, Pecky, Amy, Margot, & Elle ... digging deep ... dwelling in my heart, ... breathing through to be free from suffering, ... seeking ways to be healed ... and be at peace ... I/we prevailed over all the challenges we undertook :)

I'll be connecting with you again tomorrow during the day ...
... in the evening, I have my "timed tow" for the Bronze Medallion assessment ... do pass along your positive energy my way for this final swim assessment :) I'll let you know how it goes after I've done the tow.

Gotta go see if I can catch a ride into Tuggeranong to get another swim practice in tonight ... Benny & I went in last night ... Despite the major fatigue we were both feeling from our 7 day Expedition workout, we managed to have a good swim & I actually felt quite refreshed after immersing myself in the coolness of the swimming pool water for half an hour :)

Be well,

Teresa

Teresa's 400m Bronze Medallion Swim results ...

splendid image of a "Julia Set" ... which is part of a Mandelbrot Set ... which is a mathematical formula that reveals a great deal to us about the patterns of living organisms

~~~

March 7, 2007

Hi there Dear Ones,

I've got great news ... ... I DID IT!! I managed to swim the 4 x 100 m of the freestyle, survival backstroke, sidestroke, & breast stroke in the required 13 minutes for my Bronze Medallion!!!!!!

YIPPEE!! YAHOO!!

What makes this news even more amazing is that Benny & I did our swims under some compromised conditions. Upon arriving at the Tuggeranong swimming pool, I learned from Benny that a swim meet "Carnivool" was going to be on from 10 a.m. onward, & when I looked around the pool, I also finally realized that the pool was set up as the full length competition pool ... that's 50 METRES LONG, instead of the 25 metres that we have been practicing on!!!!!

A few minutes later, ... Krisette (our OBA Bronze Medallion assessor & instructor for many of our other courses so far) arrived ~ 9:30 a.m. & we basically had to get ourselves ready to do our swim assessment right then, which meant no warming up for Teresa. Soooo, ONCE I made a quick trip to "the loo" ... I hopped into the pool, in the lane to the right of Benny, & Krisette got us started ...

... THEN ... about half way through, after I finished my 100m of freestyle & 100m of survival backstroke, the lifeguards were lifting the lane dividers across the front end of my lane but I was able to keep swimming along ... diligently keeping myself a short distance from the lane divider as I did the siedstroke. It wasn't until we were done our swim that I learned that Benny acutally had to swim under the lane dividers that had been pulled across his lane & that I had swam along a huge diagonal of the pool since I was keeping the divider on my left as I did the sidestroke!!

For the remainder of our swim, I found myself swimming in the middle of this competition-size pool in lane #5, with a significant mob of people gathering as they awaited the start of the "Carnivool." At one point, I actually had this exact thought & wondered how bizarre it must look for all these onlookers to see only a couple of people swimming in the middle of a pool ... I think I even considered the notion of how cool it would be if they were to start cheering us on :) Then, I snapped out of this thought when I heard Benny cheer me on as he was swimming back to the end we started on & I was swimming in the other direction ... I cheered him on as he went by ... It wasnt' until after our swim assessment was over that I was able fully realize how bizzare that situation was ... since Ben had started out in lane #2 on my left but when he swam past me, he was in the lane to my right, & then as we were finishing up, he somehow ended up back on my left!!

FORTUNATELY, despite the challenge of spanning each 50m stretch (& the mental challenges that went along with that for me), I was able to keep pushing forward ... my saving grace was the beautiful "mantra like" song called "Metta Sutra" which I have been singing to myself during swim practice since our first Bronze Medallion timed swims ...

Metta Sutra

May you dwell in the heart ...
May you be free ... from suffering ...
May you be healed ...
May you be at peace

May I dwell in the heart ...
May I be free ... from suffering ...
May I be healed ...
May I be at peace

May we dwell in the heart ...
May we be free ... from suffering ...
May we be healed ...
May we be at peace


THANK YOU ... THANK YOU ... THANK YOU ... Kristen & your Threshold choir mates ...
... for sharing this most splendid & healing song with me at your choir rehearsal that I came to in Santa Cruz last November :)

It was extremely helpful to have this song to focus my attention on ... amid the laboured breathing & mental challenges that arose as I sought out a glimpse of the wall of the swimming pool or the change in the painted lines on the bottom of the pool indicating that I had made it to that side :)

Singing "Metta Sutra" to myself was also a life saving stratey for me when I did the 3.3 km run for our Fitness Test ... it helped me continue forward without stopping & kept my mind from convincing my body that it would make more sense to stop & let my lungs keep up with my heart, instead of pushing forward. How amazing, the way the mind works!!

By the way, I included the picture of the Julia Set above because it has a very similar affect on me visually as does the singing of "Metta Sutra" does for my whole being .... & because I wanted to share it with you to ... ENJOY!! All of this is part of Fractal Geometry, one of the very splendid topics of conversation & DVD watching that I got plugged into at the first monthly potluck I went to with my dear friend Mair. Hey there my Potuck Pals, I hope all is well for you back home & that you are enjoying some warm, comfort foods at the monthly potlucks during the winter months :)

~~~

BRIEF ASIDE ... also, Maureen & Mair, you may want to watch one of the following 2 Google Videos I came across last week at one of the next potlucks ... they are both ~45 minutes ... I haven't actually watched both of them yet but the first 15 minutes of the first one were most excellent & I thnk the second one will be quite interesting & thought provoking as well ...

1. The History of Oil (Robert Newman) ... one man theatrical production with a great comedic delivery all kinds of interesting & thought-provoking views of historical record keeping, as it pertains to oil ... all lighting for the production is provided by a couple of stationery bikes near the front of the stage!!

2. Global Dimming

I can't quickly relocate the link for either of these videos but you can search them out on Google ... but once I do, I will add them as links on my blog :)

~~~

As for the Timed Tow ... Benny & I weren't able to get that one done today, since we had to be out once we finished our 400m swims, but Tanya did hers Tow while we did our swims, since that's all she had to do ... sooo, Benny & I will do our tows in the next week or so. Which gives us a few more opportunities to practice & work on our towing :)

Today was a most excellent day because of our swimming accomplishments ... it would have been quite a deflating thing to deal with a non-competent time while also being quite tired & lower in energy following our 2 big days out on the moving waters. It's been great to share my story with folks here & I am very pleased to finally be sharing it with you too!!!

Also today, I was able to successfully connect with a few of you over the phone ... YIPPEE!!

Jill & Ethan ... I am soooo happy to hear that you have firmed up your dates for your adventures Down Unda!!! It was great to catch up on the phone with you today Jilly Peanut, I am soooo glad you were also able to pick up the phone in time while I was leaving my message on your answering machine!! I am really looking forward to seeing you both down my way in August :)

Cheryl, it was great to reconnect with you over the telephone as well. I am ever grateful for dear friends such as you & JIll, & the many other dear, sweet, kind friends & family I have in my life :) All the best with your writing and navigating yoru way through the big statistical maze that you have to sort through for your dissertation. You can do it ... "just keep swimming", "just keep swimming", "just keep swimming" :) Enjoy your week-end in Santa Cruz & please pass along big hugs to Kristen, Claudette, & Isabel (& Gabriel too) if you are able to meet up with them!

Laurelie & Colleen, sorry I missed connecting with you on your cell phones & at home today ... hopefully I'll be able to give a call at a decent hour over the next two days ... just not sure how long our Expedition Technical Training will go ... I'll do my best :) Know that I am thinking of you & looking forward to hearing how you are doing!

It is now time for me to get ready for bed so that I can get a FULL night's sleep. It's been great sharing these latest updates with all of you ... thanks heaps Nadine & Liz for your encouragement for my swim today ... IT WORKED!!!

Over the next couple of evenings, I'll try to add the update & pic's from our rafting over the whitewaters of the Murrumbidgee River ... we have 2 days of EXPEDITION training here at the OBA National Base & then we are off for an 8 day Expedition through the Namadgi National Park area. SO, I won't be plugged into cyberspace or on the phone during that time.

Be well & please let me know what you are up to. It will be great to see your e-mail notes after our return from the Expedition on March 17th, when I have the 8th & 19th off :)

Hugs 'n' Bugs, love,

Teresa

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY in advance Brent, Uncle Alvin, & Mr. Dec ... I'll call you during my time off after the Expedition training to share my birthday greetings over the telephone :)

Moving Water & WHITE WATER Fun on the Murrimbidgee River (March 5 & 6, 2007)

Guess Who Had Great Fun Out on the Murrimbidgee River over the Past Two Days???

... ALL the ROMEO's & our Instructors ... that's who!

March 5, 2007 6:50 a.m. ... I downloaded pic's from Chris' waterproof digital camera last night & here's a few to give you a tast of what our day was like yesterday on the moving waters of the Murrimbidgee River with the canoes ... I've also got Benny's pic's from our day on an upper stretch of the Murrimbidgee for white water rafting ... We had AWESOME FUN & GREAT CHALLENGES to stay in our boats and steer clear of the many rocks throughout the river channel :)

Claire Peck "Pecky" & I navigating through some rapids :) (March 5, 2007)

the BIG challenge for our group during yesterday's canoe fun, was getting past "the boiler" drop off!

Here's Elle & Margot attempting the big drop ....

they ended up capsizing, just as Pecky & I did about 20 minutes earlier!!

The past two day have been ... great fun!! ... & full of all kinds of water :)

After lunch, there was more canoeing fun to be had with my next paddling buddy Zohara ...

the really big rapids ... we played in these for the rest of the afternoon :) (March 5, 2007)

... Zohara & I handling the really big rapids in great form :)(March 5, 2007)

we handled all 3 runs very well ... but at the end of our 2nd run on the big rapids, we ended up tipping over on the right ... I got video footage with Chris' camera of the water getting into the canoe near Zohara's right knee before we tipped over!! (March 5, 2007)

... both days have been absolutely AWESOME & GREAT FUN!! I found myself doing things out in some very fast flowing water that I never would have imagined being able to do before :)

March 6, 2007 ... ~11:50 p.m. ... I am going to be doing my Bronze Medallion swimming assessment tomorrow morning with a few other folks & tomorrow night, perhaps attempting another redo if need be, depending on how I do with my times ... keep the postive & happy thoughts going for me to swim within the times I need for success in these two timed competencies, so that doing it tomorrow won't be necessary.

I must finally get to bed, I am pretty tuckered & the very tasty chocolate birthday cake that Jean-Michel baked up for Elle's birthday (which is tomorrow) was quite excellent & the sugar high has worn off enough for me to finally feel more of the weariness in my body. All in all though, the past two days have been totally excellent. I am feeling amazingly comfortable in the canoes & rafts, despite my anxious moments in the pool swimming for extending periods of time in deep water ...

Missing you all heaps & happy to share some of my whitewater fun with you before heading to bed. We had another full day today, with even bigger water, WHITE WATER to be sure ... & river rafts!!

More pic's & stories from today's whitewater fun sometime tomorrow on my day off ... :)

Hugs 'n' Bugs, love,

Teresa

more Climb & Abseil fun ... plus Chris' "Super Hero" 20th b-day, & Flat Water Canoeing updates (Feb. 22-March 3, 2007 update)

Teresa up at the Northern Orrorral Ridge Abseil site (Feb. 23, 2007)

~~~

Hello my dear family & friends,

I had started this update a little while back, I have finally been able to finish it off & can now share it with you ... then, once I have some lunch, I will work on the whitewater rafting update & of course all the nitty gritty about the 7 day Expedition that we just finished on the 16th of March ... ENJOY!!

...

Feb. 22 & 23 Climb & Abseil days ... I already gave you an update on the climbing session we had on the 22nd of February & here is a little glimpse from our abseil session the day after that ... a pretty relaxed day, where we got to practice setting up aseil anchors and the belay/abseil rope systems ...

view of the Orrorral Valley (Feb. 23, 2007)
close up of some of the great rocks in the hillsides

Orrorral Valley continued

Teresa enjoying the great view from up high (Feb. 23, 2007)

Also, here are a couple of pic's that Benny Kaiser got of me doing my "cut away rescue" on our High Ropes Course assessment day ...

we had 4 min. to get "clipped in" to our patient in order to be deemed competent for this assessment ... I was quite successful with a "clip in" time of 2 min. 54 sec. & was back on the ground 4 min. & 8 sec. after I had first headed up the ladder (March 4, 2007)
Teresa on her way up the 15m pole to get hooked on to the top line

~~~

Feb. 24 - super hero day for Chris' birthday which was on the 23rd but we were away from the national OBA base for our training at Booroomba Rocks & NORA that day ... here's a few pic's of the ROMEO Super Heroes that we created ...

ROMEO's in our Super Hero attire :)

"Poodle Girl" (Tanya), "Super Amy", Zohara, & "Turtle Girl" (me) with my Super Hero sidekick, who else but ... "Sherpa Dog"

"SUPER CHRIS" ... the birthday boy

"Rainbow Girl" (Pecky) & "Zinc Man" (Mikie)

It is truly amazing how easy it was to create a Super Hero costume ... the main items you need are thermal long underwear or other tight fitting long leg wear and underwear or shorts that you wear over top, plus a cape of some sort, I used my torquoise turtle sarong that I brought with me ... any any other accessories that you add to make the costume complete :)

Mikie, Chirs, & Jean-Michel ... with the birthday cake creation J-M & Mikie whipped up this time ... I helped a little too but mostly offered moral support :)

It was a tasty cake enjoyed by ALL!

~~~

Feb. 25 & 26 - I ended up with two extra days off last week over the 2 days training Environmental Management training block, since I have the background I do in ecology and impacts on the natural environmental of various user groups such as campers, hikers, etc. This is what is known as Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

So I enjoyed the extra time ... On the 26th I went for an early morning swim with Kira & Belinda, two of the OBA staff who have been keenly training for various swimming events. I had a great swim, it was an excellent way to start the day energized & ready to get things done. Although, by the afternoon, I was kind of tired & should have had an afternoon nap ... so the day wasn't nearly as productive as I would have liked.

I was able to study for & do my Caving Exam, one of a couple of exams that we can take whenever we choose ... I also managed to figure out a few things with my computer & the music I have on the external hard drive I brought with me. It turns out that the Macintosh computers don't have the same set up for Real Player, but I have now figured out how I can listen to more than one tune in a row without having to search it out each time :) Once I can sort the same thign out for Windows Media Player, then I will be very pleased since Nadia (my younger sister) had so diligently saved a bunch of my CD's as wmv files ...

Feb. 27 & 28 - FLAT WATER CANOEING out at Lake Tuggeranong (25th) & Lake Burley Griffin (26th)

We got out on the water on a lake in the suburb of Tuggerangong, which is one of the closest to where we are here in Tharwa for our first day of flat water canoeing.

Our second day took us into the center of Canberra to the west end of Lake Burley Griffin ... thanks to Chris' water-proof digit camera, I can share some pic's with you from these times on the water :)

Flat Water Canoeing on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra (Feb. 28, 2007)

Chris & I heading toward the big fountain (Feb. 28, 2007)
another canoe of ROMEO's having fun under the fountain!
Chris & I making our way to the fountain's falling waters (ours is the canoe clsoest to the fountain... what a GREAT way to cool off while paddling about!

playing "Tug-of-War" with our canoes, I am at the back end of the canoe on the left, Tanya is at the front (notice the Parliament building in the distance, with the white metal spire)

enjoying the mid-day thunderstorm & the big rains that fell upon us in the middle of the lake, I am in the middle with my blue rain jacket :)

Chris & I contemplating the finer points of flat water canoeing ...

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In addition to the great fun we had out with the canoes, I went for a float down the Murrumbidgee with Lisa, Pecky, Tanya, Jean-Michel, Megan, Ali, & Peter last night ... what a great thing that the river has risen so much and we could do this ... from when we first arrived until about mid-February it's been so dry & the river was so low that you could walk across it & only have water up to your knees at most as you crossed the small stream running through the middle of the river channel. For the first half of this float, I moved along with only my kick board & motored myself along with the current ... it was a little precarious making my way over the small rapids we came across, fortunately, I only ended up with a little scrape on my knee. I made sure I got a hold of the small inner tube that Ali had been using to tote the little cooler that was brought along, this helped me float over the next patch of small rapids without rubbing up against any of the rocks below :)

March 1 & 2 - RDO's ... into Tuggeranong with Claire Peck to get things, I finally got the outback Aussie style hat that I had wanted to get my previous time "Down Unda" & then for a swim. It was nice to have lanes to ourselves in the middle of the day as we did ... we also stopped in at the "Op Shop" or "Salvo's" ... that's the second hand or thrift store that the Salvation Army operates. I found a couple of pairs of "board shorts" and some fairly new bedding for my bed plus a wool blanket now that the evenings are somewhat cooler than when I first arrived.

Lastly, here are a few pic's of the Murrumbidgee since the rains have been filling the river ...

we were able to walk across this point with water barely over our ankles just a month or so ago!!


... & the very excellent spirals of rocks near the Murrumbidgee River that I had discovered on a quiet little walk to the Murrumbidgee to see the higher waters & finally get pic's of this splendid rock art ...




... plus a spiral like flower blossom of a local weed species ...


... & another work of river art by the same folks who created the rock spirals (& the medicine wheel that I saw between these two pieces of nature art

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More to come tomorrow since it is another day off & I have heaps more to catch up on with sharing of my OBA adventures ... from the more recent white water rafting fun we had over a week ago ... & the BIG seven day Expedition that we got back from 2 days ago ... which we have been recuperating from since then to let our bodies rest & heal from the very big days of hiking, navigating, bush walking & bush whacking, as well as getting more familiar with the nuances of OBA expedition practices ...

Big hugs to you all & hoping you are all well & happy wherever you are,

Teresa