| A fresh faced crew who are not quie sure of the adventures that lay ahead of them. I had the privelege of a soldier and a nurse as the two other leaders which was very reassuring. |
| Joey - confidently following his compass bearing. No camp seems complete without a little "geographic embarrassment". |
| Nymboi-Binderay National Park |
| In January, 2003, I led a school group of 7 studentsfrom the local Christian school into very rugged country - the Nymboida River. This river is well known and respected by white-water canoeing and rafting enthusiasts for its big rapids set in breathtaking gorge country. This park is located about an hour's drive west of Grafton in Northern NSW. At a brief planning meeting the night before I was a little nervous as thick smoke hung over Grafton and a total fire ban had been enforced. We were in the middle of a very big drought. |
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| The trek down into the river was very steep and rugged partly due to a few of us (and I'll take some blame here) wandering into the 'wrong' creek bed - but hey, it was fun. In this section we lowered our packs down by ropes before helping each other down. |
| We seemed to be hopping across slippery rocks for ages. Here the group negotiates a creek crossing in the heart of the Nymoiba river. |
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| I snuck a shot of Kayleigh screeding off her tent site - her dad had just been doing a lot of concreting at school so we found this very amusing |
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| Around the corner from our second campsite we were met with this glorious gorge. This was the highlight of the caomp for me. Somehow a morning of bruised legs and soggy clothes faded into the mists as we set off into what looked like a scene from Lord of the Rings. THe sheer cliffs turned off at an angle at the bottom to make a very cool solid rock slide - which begged to be tried out ...heh, heh, heh |
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| We found this little cave in a cliff. I could lay down fully in it. Note how low the water level is from normal - we were experiencing a one in fifty year drought. |
| Woooooohoooooo!!! (In the interests of protecting a mother's sanity - this UFO's name will not be revealed) |
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