I had a pretty adventurous Friday and Saturday this past weekend. I spent pretty much all day Friday bushwalking (Aussie for "hiking") up in the Mt. Coot-tha Forest just outside of Brisbane. Then on Saturday, I had my first training session for the Dragon Boat Regatta.
Mt. Coot-tha
Our group of 6 girls decided to go hiking in the beautiful eucalyptus forests and rainforests of Mt. Coot-tha, so we took about a 20-25min bus ride up to Chapel Hill where the trailhead to the lookout point began. When planning the trip, we didn't realize how steep this particular trail was going to be and it was essentially a straight shot up the side of the mountain. The trail was less than a mile long, but took at least an hour to climb it. Definitely felt accomplished after reaching the top. There was actually a cafe and a restaurant on the top of the mountain at the lookout point that had a bus stop and people were able to drive there with their fancy picnic lunches and nice clothes. Meanwhile, we had just hiked up the mountain and were all sweaty and tired, but our picnic overlooking the whole city of Brisbane was much more rewarding.
We chose a longer and easier path down on the Aboriginal art trail that featured a number of paintings, tree carvings, and rock formations. On the way down, we saw some really colorful birds and you could really tell when you were walking from eucalyptus to rainforest because of the stark change in vegetation. It was amazing the difference a couple hundred meters could make! We reached the bottom and eventually ended up at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens where we got popsicles before catching the bus ride home.
Dragon Boat Training Numero Uno
So I signed up to compete with my apartment complex's Dragon boat team: Dragonest. I had no prior experiece, but decided to try anyway. And I'm so glad i did. It was a good work-out and a lot of fun. Plus, everyone on the team is super nice and all of them except Hannah and I are Australian, so it's nice to reach out of our little group of Americans and meet other people. We have a few more training sessions before race day on August 16th so hopefully we'll be able to get all of our strokes in sync before then.
