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