Survival Camping - Part 2

So after catching and cleaning our dinner, (yes, now i can pull guts out of fish successfully and without the slight bit of squeamishness.... fish oil is good for the cuticles, right?), we also collected water from the stream to purify by boiling it over the fire... and had a delish dinner of trout ramen!

Day 3: After a very restful night's sleep (seriously, i slept so hard that i drooled all over the hoodie i was using as a pillow) aided by earplugs (take that, crazy howling creatures!), i was ready to conquer day 3... we took our backpacks and decided to hike across the creek and along the Highline Trail to find a place so i could construct a shelter...

After scanning the area to make sure i wasn't going to build where i would get crushed by a dead tree falling over or flooded by a river of water when it rains, i set to work dragging over fallen timber for the framework....

Cutting some boughs for the next layer creating a windbreak and waterproofing....

And harvesting ferns to cushion my sleeping area and plug up holes in the shelter for waterproofing....

Then comes the fire circle (well, semi-circle) along with a handy dandy wall for reflecting the heat into the shelter.... pretty spiffy huh? :) Aaaaannnnnnnddd.....

After stuffing my emergency blanket up top to help catch the rain.....Voila! A first rate, kick butt shelter that i think even Dave & Cody from Dual Survival would be proud of! i did it all by myself, and just in time for the rain... it rained for a good 45 minutes and we stayed dry and cozy! i was so stoked with my success that we opted to make our final night's camp here...

While dad went down to the creek to catch the rest of dinner, i got a first rate fire started in record time!

Our last lovely dinner...

Then settling in for the night... now if only i could have done all that the first day! I had such a rockin' shelter that i didn't want to leave... i'll have to save learning how to set snares for another trip.... and although there was one squirrel who ventured close enough to have a close call, i didn't have to shoot anything (which i was secretly glad.... i can live on fish)... We did see one deer and a flock of wild turkeys, but suprisingly not as much wildlife as i expected...

So all in all, after my shaky start, i felt successful in my quest and feel like i may have stumbled upon a bit of mojo in the process... i definitely feel like i would be an asset now, especially if i was hiking and encountered an unexpected injury or weather change... and the best part of it all... My manicure held up in spite of dirt, splinters, fish guts, scales, and sharp objects....i didn't even break a nail! Kudos Heather, (my nail chick)... you rock!

Mojo Quest : Survival Camping- Part 1

Well, i survived my the first endeavour in my ongoing mojo quest!





It wasn't exactly how i envisioned it, and ended up evolving slightly, but i was pleased with what i learned and accomplished all my goals except for hiking 5 miles each day... here's how it went:

Day 1: we picked a campsite up on the rim and with the daylight hours winding down, i set upon my first task - making fire! after collecting some pitch and old man's beard from the trees to use as tinder, i finally got a spark to catch using a sweet knife my brother lent me for the occasion, a flint, and a magnesium block which i have decided i will never be without in my pack!
Next task was learning how to set up my hammock, which i had never used before... i did get dumped on my butt the first time i was gingerly testing it after dad convinced me it didn't need a knot at the end of my 9 hook (gee, thanks dad!), but after quickly remedying that, it held fast and was quite comfy!

Unfortunately, the night was much colder than we were prepared for and after trying to make adjustments to the hammock, and stuffing extra socks in my ears to block out the gentle chainsaw-like snoring coming from the other hammocks, i wussed out and climbed into the smallish backseat of the jeep wrapped up in my not-so-quiet emergency blanket.... just as i was finally starting to drift off in some semblance of REM, a heart-attack inducing, massive howl ripped through the night in THX surround sound!!!! I nearly peed myself, it sounded so close! now i have heard my share of coyotes and i swear, if that was a coyote, it was on steroids and rabid! it startled me so badly that i didn't even want to raise my sock stuffed head to try to locate the source of the fiendish sound.

Needless to say, that shot of adrenaline was enough to pretty much keep me awake til dawn, when i set to the task of relighting the fire in the dampness the the early morning....after blowing through an entire book of matches with no success (that's what i get for cheating ;/) i finally got it going with my flint again, just in time to save face before my parents roused from their hammocks.

Day 2: We went back to town to better prepare ourselves for the colder weather and decided to relocate camp to a slightly lower elevation.... we decided to set up camp at Christopher Creek and to distract me from my discouragement, dad showed me how to make my own rod, and find bait (locating and digging up earthworms!), and catch fish from the stream! Yep, just call me Tom Sawyer.....

AND i actually caught SEVEN fish!!! the largest of which was only about seven inches, but it was sustenance and there was no shortage of them i could have done this all day... that was the most fish i ever caught in the shortest time ever... yay, for dinner!

Back to the blog... Mojo Quest!

Well, it has been so long since i last blogged that i may no longer have anyone interested in reading anymore, but anyhow here goes....

I have been trying to get out of a somewhat darker place in my life that i not so fondly like to think of as "the pit of despair", which has also coincided with the loss of my mojo.... now since i do not have an Austin Powers time machine type contraption to find said mojo, i am left to my own devices...

My most recent idea (walking across the state of Arizona, south to north, by myself) in my mojo quest was met with a less than enthusiastic response and so it has evolved into this: finding a scenario that will still challenge me, but at the same time hopefully not result in my immediate demise.... and so Survival camping it is! I'll be spending 4 days & 3 nights hiking and camping in the wilds on Arizona, far enough north to locate a water source....
my goals on this trip are as follows:
hike around 5 miles each day, navigating by compass, locate food & water (NOT via the local Walmart) and set up camp
-learn to make fire without matches, lighters or your normal incendiary devices (by various means)
-build a temporary shelter from whatever i find in my vicinity
-find and purify water
-catch, clean and prepare fish for sustenance
-find other things to eat as supplied by Nature... perhaps to include a rabbit, hopefully i won't have to resort to bugs... I'm no Bear Grylls...

i basically want know if i can take care of myself if i got lost or stuck somewhere without anyone or any of the usual comforts of modern living... now i fully expect that there may be tears and much frustration since i am not a normally patient person, but it's no fun if it's too easy, right?

As much as i would like to do this by myself, i understand the wisdom against such solitary adventurism (yep, i think that might be a new word) and so Mom & dad are coming along to offer their experience and make sure i don't end up wandering off into California, but i was clear as a 5 year old to them: "I wanna do it MYSELF!" so i hope to only need them in the most dire of circumstances... such as 2 and a half hours of trying to make fire and having nothing but bloody hands to show for it...

What have i done to prepare for this endeavor? well, naturally.... i got a manicure.

Pictures (and perhaps video) to follow in my next blog of my amazing (hopefully!) success!

a sort-of post...

i'm killing some time in sydney before our 9pm flight but i don't have any pics with me to post, so i'll do a quick run-down of the past few days from off the top of my head...

we arrived on saturday and didn't have to get off the ship til sunday so we spent the day meandering around The Rocks which is an awesome area right next to sydney harbor where they set up a marketplace on the weekend...

sunday after we got off the ship and checked into our nice little hotel, we met up with my friend jeremy (from PCC) and his wife and they treated us to an awesome and generous day! They took us out for lunch at the top of the sydney tower (amazing view!) and then took us all around the Darling Harbor area and thru the Queen Victoria building... it was fantastic and so fun to catch up!

After they left chris & i finished up our evening by going to the Sydney Aquarium, which had a very cool shark exhibit... we had pounded the pavement all day so we were happy to be off our feet the next day when we did our Blue Mountain and cave tour.

We got a lovely tour of some countryside ourside of sydney and i even saw 2 (live!) kangaroos by the side of the road... the big dark colored one seemed like he was trying to race our bus :)

i'll blog more and add pictures when we get home... see you all soon!

Fizzeled in Fiji but nearly vivacious in Vanuatu...

Days 19-24

So this year, we missed out on Sunday, October 18th. That’s right, no typo… we skipped that day entirely because we crossed the International Date Line! Woohoo! A monumental occasion! Ok, maybe not really, but it was kinda weird and cool to have crossed the IDL and the Equator on this trip, neither of which we had ever done before. We finally played some paddle tennis yesterday (super fun) and even got our ping pong on as well. I did my 5 miles around the deck like I usually do on our sea days (while Chris reads and counts laps for me) and we had a nice relaxing day for Chris’s birthday.
We arrived in Fiji on Tuesday and frankly, we were both a bit fizzled out. We docked in Suva (the capital) which unfortunately required a bit of an expenditure of funds to get anywhere to see most of the points of interest. The excursions from the ship were quite pricey for this port, so we decided to save our funds for OZ and found some bliss in a super cheap internet café ($1 per hr!!)
At the Sail Away Party, we ran into Anthony & Phillipa, an Aussie couple who are actually the only couple younger than us on the ship. They have been on vacation for 9 MONTHS! We are meeting up with them today to slaughter them in paddle tennis and then hang out tomorrow night when we get to Cairns. They know of a great Irish pub and we dock at 5pm so it should be a fun way to spend the evening.
They totally spanked us in paddle tennis yesterday but we beat them at Pictionary and had lots of fun doing Scattergories too! You would think I’d be particularly good at word games, but it was quite a bit harder than it sounded!
On Thursday, we hit the island of Vanuatu and did an excursion (pretty cheap) to the Mele’ Waterfall and Gardens. It was very pretty and well worth it with nice little walk up to the falls where our guide pointed out mango, avocado, banana and coconut trees. The falls were gorgeous and Chris especially had a blast jumping around in the water.
UPDATE:
After a DELISHious! aussie BBQ in the ship we've hopped off and found the internet café in Cairns with Anthony & Phillipa so here I am and here we go! So excited to hit the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow!

ready for Rarotonga... and Am. Samoa

Days 16-19

On Thursday, we were ready and rearing to go for Rarotonga. We bought a round-trip ($7 each) on the bus and took it about ½ way around the island to a little roadside stand called “Fruits of Rarotonga” that was right across from the best snorkeling beach on the island. We could see lots of fishys in the shallows before we even got our gear on. (I was a bit more hesitant because the water was slightly frigid!) But snorkel we did to our hearts content and then just relaxed in the sun, soaking up the sounds of the surf and the tropical air.

When we had enough of that, we decided to walk the beach awhile back towards town and just pick up the bus wherever we got tired. We walked quite a ways (still carrying our gear) till we ran out of beach, then some more up on the roadside… we got out our map thinking maybe we were close enough to just walk the rest of the way back into town, but were dismayed to see how little progress we’d actually made despite going several miles… definitely time to catch a bus! Finally a bus came by and we got a nice tour of the rest of the beautiful island on our way back (funny to see everything in English again… I’ve gotten so used to not having it everywhere else) and after picking up some postcards and such, went back to the ship and collapsed.

I’ve been hitting my “I’m done” point the past few days, since it feels like we’ve been gone so long and some of our prettiest places are behind us, but I’m sure I’ll catch my 2nd wind as we get to Australia. Chris could pretty much do this forever, but I’m more tied to home I think… and the kittys! (yes, I miss my babies very much). I think smaller doses of vacation are good for me… or maybe I could handle more if we were at least bringing everyone with us!

Anyways, we docked in Pago Pago, American Samoa yesterday. Chris got super excited when he spotted a McDonalds AND Mt. Dew. (I think that instantly made it his favorite place so far :)) We decided to hop on a funky jacked up bus (by which I mean that it was the highest off the ground of any ones we saw) for a tour of the island since there wasn’t much in the way of beaches and we didn’t have time to get into the interior. We saw the areas hit by the tsunami… sad to see the destruction, but glad to see that it was far from destroying everything. Mostly parts of a few villages that were closest to the ocean. Everyone was quite friendly and always waved to us as we went by and it looked like relief efforts were well underway.
That’s all for now…. Hugs and love to all….

Bora Bora, not the least bit boring

Days 12-15

Well, I started feeling a bit under the weather on Saturday night and ended up fighting a cold (what the heck?!!) the past 3 days, but that wasn’t gonna stop us from enjoying beautiful Bora Bora! The remedy? Dope up on Dayquil and ride cruiser bicycles (single speed) all 19 miles around the island! :)

The road was relatively flat aside from one giant hill that we pushed our way up, and no one ran us over so it was quite a delightful ride! We spent just under 5 hours with many photo stops along the way of course, and when we were done so was my energy… we headed back to the boat where I completely crashed out for the rest of the night… didn’t even wake up for dinner! So worth it though, plus I needed to save my energy for the next day because….

We went ashore again and decided to hit the high seas (ooh, something new! Ha ha :) and rented ourselves a little motorboat! Shortly after receiving some basic instructions and a map, Captain Chris (yep, my husband) had us gliding across the crystal clear water to drop anchor at our first snorkeling spot, called the Coral Garden. It was awesome… I was doped up on Dayquil again and had no problems since I was breathing thru my snorkel (and not my nose)! Lots of colorful fish and I saw the biggest eel I have ever seen in my entire life… Chris was in another area so he missed it but it scared the crap outta me! It went into some coral before I could get a shot, but it had to be 3 or 4 feet long and really big around…:0

We clambered back into our little boat and beached ourselves up on a motu for a little break, then went back out for more snorkeling… it was so serene both under and above the water… when we finished our little expedition for the day and had the boat safely returned without overturning or shipwreck, we discovered we had both fallen prey to that scourge of the seas, what I like to call “Crispy Crack”. :) Despite numerous slatherings of sunscreen, we both got a bit broiled right above our bum line (you know, above the shorts but below the shirt). Thank goodness for aloe! :)

I wiped out again for the night and chris went up on deck to check out the poolside Polynesian BBQ, complete with roasted pig… sweetie that he is, he took pictures of the food :)
Yesterday was Raiatae… honestly, we didn’t do much here aside from blow the rest of our Polynesian francs on soda for chris, postcards and such… we didn’t have time to explore the interior which was the more scenic part of the island and there weren’t really any beaches that we could get to. We needed the rest anyways, so we just relaxed and played cards the rest of the day. I know, vacationing is so tough! Tomorrow is Rarotonga in the Cook Islands so I’m excited to explore a place visited by some friends (Yep, that’s a shout out to the Scofields).

Looks like we’ll still be hitting Pago Pago (American Samoa), but they say we are a little ways from where the tsunami hit so we wont see the devastated part unless by our intention. I’m really looking forward to getting to Australia, so it will be nice to have a calmer pace before we go full steam when we hit the Continent.
Miss you all muchly!