i love georgia smith... www.gsmithy.blogspot.com

i'm getting yelled at to update so here it is. note that you can click on all the pictures to see them bigger. got back from the grampians on tuesday and we've been chilling since then. today i tanned by the pool then went for a jog on the beach. what a hard life. yesterday emily went to work (she is now a proud employee of pretzelmania at the nearby mall) and i met her there so we could see a movie with some friends. i'm really proud that i managed to make it there all by myself, i was a little afraid that i wouldn't be able to find the train or i would get on the wrong one or get kidnapped or something but i did it! we saw "the last song" with miley cyrus. it was surprisingly decent. almost everyone cried.

anyway, the grampians were AMAZING. we left right after a half day of school on thursday. grampians national park is six hours away from here. we actually drove halfway, three hours to keith, south australia, and stayed there for a night at emily's aunt and uncle, robin and chris's, cattle farm. it is tied for the highlight of the trip for me (the other would be the last hike we went on). it's such a beautiful area. we built a big bonfire and ate dinner (all the food was from the farm) under the stars. emily and i asked chris some questions about the meat industry and cattle farming because we are both doing research projects about it after reading "my year of meats" by ruth l. ozeki. luckily he has only free range cattle. the next morning we woke up and ate breakfast outside. connor and lachy did an excellent job cooking the bacon and eggs on the grill.

emily, connor, lachy, and i all piled into the back of chris's pickup truck (called a ute here... i don't know why either) and he took us on a tour of the farm (something like 5000 acres). it was warm and sunny, and the landscape is amazing. i also had my first kangaroo sighting. it was so exciting... emily then practiced driving all around the farm and i went on a walk with her mother and robin. we walked all around the property with two of the farm dogs. one of them decided to herd some sheep for us and wouldn't stop.



we left on friday around noon for the national park, another three hours away. on the way we stopped at a park and stretched and played on the playground. the verralls stop at this same park every year.



we stayed in a little chalet in the park at the base of the mountains.



there were kangaroos EVERYWHERE. there were also emu, wallaby, gecko, and kookaburra sightings.





the trip was so fun and relaxing. we hiked the mountains every day with the best hike being the last (and also the longest). somehow connor ran up the whole thing. another good hike was to mackenzie falls, a big waterfall. there were quite a few waterfalls in the park and we saw three.








one of the afternoons was spent in the historic nearby town of stawell where every year a huge running competition is held. connor was in it and took third place in his heat. i say one of the afternoons because i don't know which one it was... it was weird but really nice and relaxing to never know what time it was or have internet. emily and i each finished a few books. i was kind of sad to leave but it's great to be back in brighton, too.