Late Night Beach Exploration

Tuesday was another full day of classes. I got a lot of work done in the library between my lectures and tutorials, so that was pretty awesome. Before leaving I saw Mark, who needed another girl to play on their basketball team, so I signed on right away. I was pretty pumped because I was originally supposed to play, but thought the team was full. It was going to be a bit of a hassle though…I got tickets to go to a NAIDOC [National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committe] dinner at 7:00 with the Girls and the game was from 6-6:30. Oh well…I really wanted to play!

Basketball was really fun…the girls on the other team were kinda girly and not that good, so I schooled them. Someone had to do it. Though I felt kinda bad stealing the ball from them and massively blocking one of their lay-ups…but it was awesome! We ended up beating The Boys’ team…by a lot. Wilko ended up getting a pretty sweet black eye from Hoarey’s elbow.

I caught a ride up with Dario, Mark, & Alana to Orion, had a 5 minute shower and ran down Orion Hill to the Zest Function Room at UniBar for the dinner. I was just in time! They were just beginning to serve the entrée...fresh damper served with cherry tomatoes, camembert cheese and grilled mushrooms and onions. I didn’t think it was too appetizing…kinda slimy. The main course was really, really good. On the menu was Mixed Vegetables (squash, pumpkin, etc), Crocodile & Potato soup in a tortilla shell, Roo Diane: a kangaroo steak served with a creamy mushroom & onion sauce, Grilled Barramundi: a type of fish covered in plum blossom sauce, a Vegetable Bake with grilled polenta and macadamia pesto and cold pasta salads with onions, tomatoes, and carrots. Dessert was a tropical fruit salad served with wattle seed ice cream over the top. Everything was really good, especially the Barramundi. There also had coffee and tea for everyone…I definitely took advantage of the coffee. Lately, I have had quite the obsession with the drink…just can’t get enough coffee…with heaps of sugar and cream of course! They also had an indigenous art exposition, an auction of donated items, a raffle, door prizes, and live bands after dinner.

We checked out before the bands started. Bowzer, James, Sam, and Gemma picked Kelly, Lisa, & I up at the bus stop in front of UniBar. We were off on a late-night beach exploration. First we had to pick up Jimmy before heading to the first location. All the roads around Lismore are quite curvy, but the people around here show no mercy…they keep on the gas…and kill my stomach at the same time! Bowzer & Company are always off on these crazy adventures, finding secluded beaches or laying out on air mattresses on lakes watching the stars and hanging out. May sound kinda creepy, but we have hung out with Bowzer before & he checked out alright. The Girls and I had planned to go out with them a few different times, but it never ended up working out until now.

The first place was in Murwillumbah. It was a caravan park (camping grounds) that was along the beach. We followed a trail up to a lookout point, where we laid against the side of the hill, looking at stars. Since we were not near a city, the stars were really bright! I think I saw about 20 shooting stars while we were there. It was kinda scary though because if you fell down the hill, you would drop off into a lot of rocks and eventually into the ocean. Out in the water you could see The Three Sisters’ Rocks, a group of 3 massive rocks. We tried taking a few pictures before heading farther down along the narrow, narrow path. It took us to a quarry of flat rocks that jutted out into the ocean. It was really awesome standing there, having the ocean on three sides of you and being able to feel the water mist up onto your face. It started getting cold so we hiked back to the cars and onto the second stop of the night.

The next mission was to try floating an air mattress on the lake in Lennox Heads to look out at the stars. We were also going to try fitting all 8 of us on 2 air mattresses. Before we left Uni, we packed a bag with a change of clothes in case we fell in. The first one started sinking after Bowzer, James, Kelly, and Gemma were on because there was a hole in the side. Bowzer was determined to make this operation work so we went back to the car, filled the hole with a patch and pumped up the second air mattress. We didn’t end up using both mattresses cause it was getting really cold and windy and a few of us were too chicken to try it out. Maybe another time when it was warmer and you could actually see the area around you.

It was hard work trying to get everything to work out, so before heading home we made a third and final stop at Mackers [McDonald’s] for some food. We ended up getting home to Orion sometime around 3:30 am…probably didn’t actually fall asleep until sometime around 4:00. I was real excited and looking forward to class at 9:00 am…Not!