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Vacillating between:
Estuans interius
ira vehementi
in amaritudine
loquor mee menti:
factus de materia,
cinis elementi
similis sum folio,
de quo ludunt venti.
Cum sit enim proprium
viro sapienti
supra petram ponere
sedem fundamenti,
stultus ego comparor
fluvio labenti,
sub eodem tramite
nunquam permanenti.
And
Count me out, when it's clear
that I, find it hard to say.
And you, find it hard to care.
I wanted to see something that's different,
something you said would change in me.
Wanted to be, anything different,
everything you would change in me.
Got this way, upfront but never true.
God I'm wrong, it's just the way I am.
Crashing down, any chance you hear.
Caving in, any chance that you, could see inside of me.
So yesterday we did Claustral Canyon, just outside Sydney proper. This is an 8 hour canyon, from start to finish, not counting drive and prep time. Michael, the neighbor guy I’ve been going canyoning with, is leaving for Canada in 2 days, so this is his last canyon for a while, and I’m always up for it. We arose at 6 am and drove around yawning at each other for a while, and then arrived on Mount Tomah, the tallest mountain in the Blue Mountains at just over 1,000 metres.
Our destination was Claustral, as in ‘claustrophobia’, out of respect for the section of canyon referred to as the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’. The Black Hole is home to the three abseils (Americans read: repels) in Claustral. Claustral Canyon is probably the hotspot canyon for keen canyoners to hit. It is relatively easy to get to and the most beautiful. Do understand, this is also a level 4 canyon, with running water. The threats of hypothermia, drowning, getting lost (we are in the middle of the bush), flash floods, and things of this nature are high. About 2 hours into the canyon, I’ve been terrorized with the tales of the deaths of the previous 5 people to kick it in this desolate place.
Anyway, we’re walking along the ridge on the way to the saddle, where we will dip down into the canyon, and a frigging lyrebird runs across the trail in front of us. These birds are really rare ground dwelling birds that can mimic anything (including a 35 mm automatic camera shutter). In Michael’s 30 years of doing canyons around Sydney, he’s seen two. Good start to the morning. We walk for a while longer before we get to the first pool, which you have to swim through. Out come the wetsuits, and the 15 minutes it takes us to get them on. We arrive at the Black Hole, and I start to get nervous. I’ve done wet canyons before, and I’ve done abseiling before, but this was my first trip doing abseils in a wet canyon, with water pounding down on me as I’m lowering myself down these 10-20 metre cliffs. You take a step over the edge, and your first thought is, ‘oh please let my anchor hold’, but then you can’t even worry about this ancient log that’s supposed to hold you up that has scars from so much use, because you’re trying to not slip down the 80˚ wet incline. And when you slip, which of course you do, you have to think ‘ok, just let yourself hang upside-down over nothing with water rushing up your nose, but don’t you dare let go of your brake hand!’. Quite the adrenaline rush. The three abseils are all right after one another, but because it was only Michael and myself, we only had one rope. As a result, the going was kind of slow in between pitches, but that just gave me more time to appreciate the beauty. By the end of the third pitch, we were well into the heart of the canyon. We were standing in a metre of water, with the roar of the waterfalls behind us. The canyon is only a metre wide, and the only light is filtering down from 60 metres over your head after having made it through a tangled mass of tree ferns growing out of the sides of the sandstone cliffs. And cutting into the sandstone there were these iron deposits, these really thin layers of sedimentation from millions of years ago, that zigged and zagged their way across the walls of the canyon. The place flash floods fairly often (always make sure you go to this canyon when there is zero chance of rainfall), so there are boulder fields and fallen log fields all through the canyon. In several places, the water was too deep to walk, and there were obstructions in the way, so you had to throw your pack into the pool below you and then jump after it, hoping that you weren’t right on top of some hidden menace below the surface of the water. A couple other little waterfall places are right in the middle; they’re not bad enough to necessitate an anchor and an abseil, but they are too far to jump, or too shallow. So a lot of these places have handropes, left there by previous canyoners, and you down climb carefully over the waterfalls. One of these waterfalls claimed a man’s life just recently – he got his foot stuck in the crack between two boulders in the middle of the falls, slipped on his way down, ended up upside-down, with his head below the water level of the pool below. The force of the water prevented him from righting himself, and he drowned before his friends could get to him. (As a side note, Michael told me this story after we made it down the falls, merely advising me prior to the activity to not place my feet directly in the crevice.) Lots of little tricky places, where you have to crawl through small spaces under boulders, and climb through cobwebs and things like this.
I mentioned the lyrebird, right? In 30 years, Michael’s seen 3, now? Also in those 30 years, he has never, not once, seen a leech. He’s done Claustral a huge number of times, and fifty other canyons, besides. In the 8 hours we were in Claustral, Alyssa picked up 4. Two of which were apparently the red-backed or racing-striped or some such leech, which excited Michael to no end, cause they’re supposedly rare. The first one was really big, and was on my shoulder. I only noticed him when he came off, and I put my shirt back on, and Michael observed a rather scarily large quantity of blood smearing all over the back of my shirt. The other three were fairly innocuous, and were pried off my ankles with a pocket knife. These also bled outrageously, though, as all leech wounds do. (Leeches introduce an anti-coagulant into your blood system when they feed, so when they come off, blood goes everywhere.) What other wildlife was there? Michael decided I was good to have on these trips, cause all the animals you rarely see, we saw. There were the leeches, the lyrebird… We saw a dead snake, black with yellow boxes. There was a live thing that I called a snake, but was apparently a legless lizard. There were big crayfish, a random freshwater fish swimming in a pool, and some tadpoles, which I caught, just for fun.
Anyway, after climbing down, through the waterfalls and abseils and stuff, you always have to go back up, right? The last 2-3 hours of this trip is a 1,000 m climb out. And it’s frigging hot. And you have to carry a soggy rope and wetsuit.
But oh, the fun! This was the best canyon I’ve ever done, hands down. Longer, harder, tighter, more water-y, more fern-y. Covered in blood (not just from the leeches) by the time we got back to the car, and so sore I couldn’t bend over to take my shoes off. I loved it. And when anyone ever makes it down to see me, this is where you’re going.
So a cute guy smiled at me today. I was in the car, being driven back from a most wonderful Italian dinner, and we stopped at a light. There was the most attractive middle to late 20-something guy walking along the side of the road. Alyssa’s window is rolled down, naturally, in this 40 degree weather. Guy looks right at me, and smiles. I smile back, one of those close-lipped, crooked smiles, and his smile gets even bigger. I have time to take in his nicely defined biceps, their tawny color, his sandy shaded hair, and his rather tasteful wardrobe, before our light turns green and we zoom off.
Why didn’t I throw myself out of the car?
You know people say it's impossible to touch your elbow with your tongue?
And then they say that 70 % of people who read the above statement will go off and try it?
I have been sitting here for hours pretending to study for my micro final which is now in... 2 hours, extremely unmotivated to study.
But guess what? I can touch my tongue to my elbow!
Pretty legit, right?
But only on my left side.
How could he know?
I look at him with my head lowered, lips parted,
through my eyelashes caked with blue glitter.
My heart thunders while his stops.
How could he know?
I remember.
I can feel his skin pressed against mine, moist where we've been lying entwined for too long.
I can feel his breath playing over the skin at the base of my neck,
his hand thrown carelessly over the curve in my spine.
He always sleeps, after.
My hair drapes over my face,
and I move slowly to tuck a lock behind my ear.
The movement disturbs him ever so slightly, and he opens his eyes.
Until next time.
Dream: Ron, Sean, Andie, Jesse, myself. Walking along a fairly secluded river, very green and kinda soggy. We pass a group of people that are dismantling a car, salvaging parts. Carry on walking, get to a bend in the river, find something that looks like a giant dumpster. This is apparently what we were looking for. Mike is already there, and he and Ron start going through the stuff in this container, pulling out what we want. Most of the stuff seems to be old, but pre-packaged, food. Lots of bread. They pull out loaf after loaf of pre-packaged bread, discard some loaves that are yucky, and throw the good ones to myself and Sean. Jesse and Andie have scrabbled around finding wooden planks and something we can use for wheels, and have erected a rudimentary transport system for the bread. Sean and I stack the loaves on this wheely thing, and we all start to walk the bread back up the river until we get into town. Scene change: Ron has short hair, but a rat tail thing in the back that's up like a ponytail. We are in the city, trying to get into a bar to get a drink, but we spent too much time with the bread and all the bars are closed. Our last option is to go to a bar where Ron works, he thinks he may be able to get us in tha back. We go there with the bread, but the lady is just finishing cleaning up the place and won't let us in. End.
Tasmania: Alyssa is going to Tasmania!! Jesse and I have our last final on December 1, and we are flying from Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania on December 2. We'll be there for a week, and are going to rent a car and just travel around and see all there is to see! Plane back is December 9. Round trip ticket = $150. Not too shabby, eh?
Party: Went to a party! I don't do this often, as everyone knows. Kinda lame that way. But last night was a pirate themed goodbye party for all the international students. Tickets were $10, and you get two 'free' drinks. Manuel, Jesse, Silke and myself wandered around Sydney for a while, had a pizza and a bottle of wine, nice views of Darling Harbour and the opera house. Showed up at the party place a couple of hours late, in time for the real party to start. We were there from about 10 til about 2, when the last bus left for home. Soooo much fun! Blaring music and dancing til your feet hurt. And lots of guys and girls that don't really know each other practically getting it on on the dance floor. I still do not favor beer, so happily occupied myself with vodka and cranberry and vodka and lime. I wore a tie to the party (I was a well dressed pirate), and it was used as a hook for people to grab me with an pull me around. I had lots of different dancing partners, and names weren't needed because I had a string around my neck! Convenient, question mark? Our group generally consisted of the original 4 of us, the Mexican boys, Bonnie, a couple girls that remain nameless, and Patrick and Steve, the two guys from the bushwalk a couple weeks ago. It was good to see them again. Pat danced with us most of the night, and I greatly enjoyed his company. Steve, I think, enjoys being hot and takes advantage of that to go find all the ladies. I saw him a few times, and we were dancing in the general vicinity of one another. I got a thumbs up a couple times and some winks. (Guys, what does this mean??) Caught the bus home, in bed by 4 this morning. Woohoo!
Canyon: Oh man. Jealousy would ensue if I actually had pictures of this canyon. Luckily for you guys, it was a wet canyon, and I don't have dry bag, so I couldn't take my camera. Michael, Al, Martina and I went to Rocky Creek canyon last week. It was a 6 hour slog through a sandstone canyon filled with freezing water. No rope work, but the water was deep enough that we were swimming in some parts. A couple of places the only way down was to stand on some rocks and hurl yourself off the rocks into the pool below (hoping it's deep enough...) The sides of the slot canyon part were overgrown with ferns and greenery of all sorts, and the light filtered down from the top... it was one of the funnest things I've ever done. The girls had a good time, I think. They were a little unprepared for the physically demanding aspects of the trip. Martina fell through some deadwood at one stage, and got all scraped up. She later did a faceplant into the dirt and wore a mask the rest of the journey. Al had bad luck with her shins, and managed to find all of the fallen logs in the water when we were swimming by running into them. We stopped for lunch a the end of the canyon proper, and paused for a bite to eat before commencing with the climb out of the canyon. The first bit of the climb out was about 1 km long patch of steep as hell ground, so overgrown you really couldn't see anything. Michael told us the start for this climb was over this 5 foot boulder, cause everything else was too crowded. So the girls and I moved over to this boulder and were trying to figure out how to get up it, cause there's no handholds or footholds, and the start is actually from about a foot of water. Al and Martina give half-hearted attempts, and then stand back, intimidated. Not to be undone, I actually manage to get my foot on the top of this boulder. My leg is about on the same level with my neck, now. But there is nothing to grab onto to pull myself over the top, so I lean over and try use my busom as a point of contact for hauling my rear onto this rock. (Sorry, minimally graphic for the uninitiated.) It actually works. Yay for being extremely flexible an having the chest to perform this amazing acrobatic feat! By this point, the girls are laughing ridiculously in the tone of laughter that says 'like hell I'm gonna be able to do that!'. Michael is standing back laughing in general because he lied! After watching me spend 10 minutes doing this, and getting stuck, and making progress an inch at a time, he leads the girls around the bend where they manage to scrabble up a bank under some trees. It was during this episode that I pulled a hamstring. Soreness ensued for several days. I am ok now. Thanks for asking.
Love!
Don't you love it when you are so busy that you don't have time to check your email? Especially when being that busy does not include homework? I just had my first weekend like that. Yay!
Friday night we went to a Black Seeds concert. These guys are a reggae band, which normally I wouldn't be into enough to go to a concert, but Jesse said they were awesome, so 7 of us ended up going all on her word. It was Jesse and myself, Wiebke, Bonnie, Silke, Manuel and Alex. Germany, the States, Korea, Mexico, and Spain all represented in a group of 7. The best part of the evening, though, was trying to understand everyone else's English. For example, Bonnie, from Korea, had difficulty understanding Alex's Mexican-Spanish accent. Lots of fun trying to understand one another. The concert was at 8 at the Metro Theatre in downtown Sydney, and didn't get out til like 2 am. There were 8 guys in the band, and their instruments included things like a trombone, trumpet, sax, and xylophone. Pretty awesome.
That next morning I got up by 6 to go catch a train to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, to do the Echo Point to Ruined Castle bushwalk. We arrived about 10.30 at our destination and began a 14 km bushwalk through the valley under the Three Sisters. The views on this hike were some of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. It was stunning. The terrain varied, from rocky outcroppings we had to hop over, to completely encompassing jungle-type ferns with aerial roots we could swing on. Who is we?? Again, we ended up with a group of 7. Matt, the only one from Sydney, and the leader of the bushwalk club on campus. Audrey, from Switzerland, only other girl on the bushwalk, code name: Kookaburra. Alain, the born-in-Germany-of-Welsh-decent-raised-in-the-UK-now-lives-in-Sydney guy, who has circus training and can unicycle and juggle and all that cool stuff. Code name: Mr. Itchy Beard. Andrew, from Colorado(!!!), lives in my apartment complex, code name: Mountain Sheep. Patrick, also from Colorado (!!!), who was really really awesome and has the unfortunate code name of Toilet Guy. Steve, from Pittsburgh, who has amazing taste in clothes and is possessed of a pair of the most blue eyes I've ever seen. And me, from Colorado, good ice-breaker for groups of people who have never met one another before. Code name: mother, due to a misunderstanding during initial conversations on the train. I apparently have 60 kids.
So, that was us. We got on really well, and stopped for lunch atop a spot in the middle of the park called Ruined Castle. Relatively difficult to get to, but once you're at the top...
You can see everything, going every direction. You can see for miles, off to the end of the valley. Pics on fb, again. It was an amazing spot, and one I would like to take certain people to if they ever make it out here to visit...
We all fell asleep on the train ride back, and it was nearly 8 by the time we rolled back into town.
That night was a party at a friend's house just across the street. Rather than a shower and sleep, which I really wanted, I headed off to this party to go say hello and hang out with people and see about a drink. Also, perhaps, because Steve and Patrick were supposed to be stopping by...
Anyway, while I was there with Hayley and Liz and Jaz, I actually drank a beer! The whole thing! Anyone who knows me realizes what a feat this is for me.
Went to sleep relatively sober. The others went downtown to a bar, I think, but I was exhausted and wimped out.
Woke up Sunday morning only to head out again, this time to Lane Cove for a birthday party for one Diesel James. Got to see Annette and Les, and all the James's. AJ found a bike for me, which is super exciting, cause now I can transport myself around Sydney without having to rely solely on the bus transportation system.
Stayed in Lane Cove Sunday night cause I worked for Helen all day Monday, from 8-6. Let's just say I have a newfound respect for people who watch babies all day, every day. I was shattered after a 10 hour shift! Stayed the night again with Les and Annette, and had the most amazing food thing called Fisherman's Pie. Wow.
Anyway, kinda short tale of Alyssa's fun-ness over the last few days, but honestly, my inspiration is kinda lacking tonight. Back to classes today, already have more work. I just wanted to record this stuff before I got too distracted with class again.
Only 4 weeks left in the semester! Woohoo!
