1/2 Sleep Over, Grampians, and a Walk About

Traditionally at my school here in Melbourne, they have a school sleep over for the year 1 and 2 students as a way to prepare them for camp in years 3 - 6. Typically the sleep over has been on a Thursday night but this year it was decided that it would be held on a Friday night.  Unfortunately once it was moved to the Friday night I was no longer able to sleep over since I'm out of town most weekends and this one was no exception.  I took part for as long as I could, then I quietly snuck away.

The children arrived back at school at five pm and once they were safely signed in they went off to the "Jumping Castle" in the oval.  I never saw the fun they were having there as I was helping keep people organized in the hall (gym) and location of the sleep over.

At about 5:30 everyone met back in the hall and the children were divided into four groups for their four rotations before dinner.  I was supervising the "snake man" but there was also fruit salad making in the staffroom, the jumping castle, and fun games on the oval.  The snake man was crazy but he had a ton of animal (snakes, lizards, baby crodiles, frogs, turtles etc..) for the children to touch, hold, and learn about.  Some were so scared at first but with time they became less frightened.  I think the snake man was a real hit though. I managed to take about 150 pictures of the children but I won't post them here.  The snake man made sure he took a picture of me though holding two lizards.

After the rotations were over we all met back in the hall for dinner.  The kids were pretty stoked to have pizza and there was plenty to go around.  Dinner was finished off with dessert - fruit salad with ice cream.  From there they started the disco.  At this point it was 8 pm and I snuck out with the children not sleeping over.  There were seven of them and we headed to the library to watch a DVD until their parents came to pick them up.  Once they were all picked up I took a sneak peak into the hall and then said goodbye to one of the teachers.  I didn't want to do a big goodbye to my students because as far as they were concerned I was already gone when I left with the non sleeping over kids.  I was sad to go but I knew there was no way I could get on with my weekend away on little to no sleep.  I hope the rest of the night was good, and I'm sure I'll find out all about it when I get back to work tomorrow.

Anyhow I headed home on public transportation and it took me close to an hour and a half.  By 10:00 pm I was home and packing for my adventures to Hall's Gap and the Grampians.  Early Saturday morning I was picked up by Naomi and her boyfriend Tim.  Our first stop was Ballart to drop Tim off at his parent's place.  From there Naomi and I headed to Hall's Gap.  We checked into where we were staying and visited the information centre to get the low down on where to hike in the Grampians.  We then set off for our hike up to the Pinnicale.  It was a lot of up hill climbing but the views from the top were well worth it.

From there we continued on the loop past lakes, canyons, waterfalls other interesting rock formations.

 It was a great hike and a wonderful way to see more of the State of Victoria.  I was really thankfully to have Naomi show me this part of her state (it's about 3 hours away from Melbourne by car).

When we got back to the car park we were greeted by KANGAROOS!  Nancy B it wasn't just Tim and Tam there were at least ten of them just eating the grass.  We actually saw a lot of Kangaroos in Hall's Gap.  We saw many momma kangaroos with Joey's in their pouches.  Some of the Joey's looked pretty big though when you look at their feet hanging out.

Can you see the feet hanging out?

Once we were done looking at the kangaroos we picked up some beer and headed back to the caravan park.  We relaxed at the edge of a field and watched more kangaroos eat, hop, and lay around.  I don't think I could ever get board of watching them.  From there we headed for a nice meal (kangaroo was on the menu but there was no way I could eat it after admiring them for so long).  I enjoyed an Aussie fish.  We then walked around Halls Gap and headed back to our little cabin at the caravan park.  It was a really great day.

This morning we were up early and went for a good old fashion Aussie breakfast before heading back to Ballart to pick up Tim.  We snooped around Ballarat for a bit before we headed back to Melbourne.

Ballarat

Once back "home" I headed out for a walk about in my neighbourhood.  For those that know me I've had a bit of an icebreaker merino wool addiction.  It had been quite a few weeks since I checked out the factory outlet so to no ones surprise I ended up there.  Some how I managed to buy more stuff.  I then walked over to Brunswick Street and then to the Rose Street Market.  I managed to pick up a few photo prints at the market along with another change purse (yes, this is another addiction that I have).  From there I picked up a few groceries and headed home.  On the way home I snapped a few photos of the Brunswick Street area.

There is a lot of graffiti on the streets around Brunswick street

Brunswick and Johnston Street

Looking north up Brunswick Street

This evening I started looking at what I've accumulated over the year and how I'm going to actually get it home.  I feel like I've spent most of my money on traveling around Australia on my weekends and school holidays but looking at all that I need to bring home I've spent a lot on "things" other than traveling.  I haven't bought much for others yet either which isn't so good because that only means there will be more to take home.  I think I will be heading to the post office to be mailing something or another home.  I hope it's not too costly.

Anyhow that's the update for this week.  I have several things on the go for the upcoming week and I'm still trying to get to Wilson's Prom this upcoming weekend.  I can't believe I leave Australia in two weeks tomorrow, and I'll be home in Vancouver two weeks Wednesday.  Where did the time go?