Wednesday, January 28, 2004

After two years at the top of the Xbox charts, Halo has finally proven the wise Confucian adage, "All other games can just piss off and die."
Wow, I've got a lot to say in this entry, don't I?

Well first off, [sorry about the lack of detail, my brain still hasn't turned on..or off...for that matter] Emu gulley rocked.

We have to have the coolest, most uber-friendly/helpful/surprising group ever

Now, I'm sure that when the other CLP [Community Living Program, you could call them roll call groups] groups get back, they'll wish to contest this, but hey, they've still got another six hours [it's 4:31pm now] and they haven't done the night hike yet.

The night hike.

From the first look, it was pure evil.

From the look back, it was a difficult exercise that really showed a person's character.

I don't know what the angle of the incline was on those washed out hills, but they looked like almost vertical cliffs, from every angle you looked at them.

It was really weird, after we slid own, with a stretcher on this weird slide, we hit the first of many climbs.

Because of the rain, most of the hand-hols had been washed away, leaving what appeared to be a hard, dry red-dirt surface.

It was insane, but everyone leant a hand and we got the person on the stretcher up beatifully.

The surreal part was when we got to the very top. I climbed up on to the lever ground and it was like, 'stepping out of swimming pool' feeling, you know, out of underlying harm's way.

And then it was, 'why are there two feral camels standing a couple of metres away from me? ...and why are they looking at me funny...'

In that night, you could see that everyone's mindset had changed.

Once you were up, instantly you turned round to make sure your mates knew where the footholds were, to give a hand.

I'm sure the guy in charge would be proud.

The whole camp was based on the Anzac spirit. Now normally, I'd put the last two words in quotation marks, but that would trivialise it, and I don't want that to happen.

It's true like that guy said, when Aussie's come under pressure, we stick together.

I mean, everyone helped everyone else. There was one bit where we had to make our way around the walls of this water tank to the ladder on the other side, with out our feet getting wet.

[six inches of green/brown water on the bottom]

It was really...well, you could say inspiring or beautifully surreal, when I climbed up this rope to get through the tunnel and to the tank.

The whole way Dave Wardle was shouting 'C'orn Liam, that's right, yeah'

and other encouragements followed.

That wasn't the last of it. I got into the tank and I found Rhett, Matt Dave and Alex Godfrey all standing in the ankle deep smelly water.

Godfrey points out the handholds to me, and I grab on and go to make my way around, and suddenly he sits me on his shoulder and carries me all the way round, pointing out the holds as we went.

Task|Team|Individual

We'd all been given the task that, if we fell in the water, it was our duty to make sure we didn't make the handholds slippery by getting back on the wall.

These guys could have easily made their way to the ladder, but they stayed behind and made sure every last one of us was out and dry.

The same sort of self sacrifice was in it the whole way through.

Now I'm sure most of you out there are scoffing at this, thinking about what a daft idea it is.

Quite frankly, I'm going to say it in the politest way possible, keep your anally retentive self-serving attitude to yourself. You ain't gettin' much further in life.

Thankyou.

The little activities, such as the Tunnel Rats of Vietnam that I mentioned before, really provided a base for us.

We did those activities, and then we hit The Kokoda Track

Pure mud, pure clay mud.

Me and the other tall guys [dare I use my australianism and say blokes?] were sunk up to our waists, and it was a real problem if we wanted to go anyway but forward.

The whole way through, everyone was making sure that the person next to them didn't end up face first in the peat.

Rhett was a total legend.

Years 8-10, I basically thought he was an idiot. I took him up on face value and sunconsciously put him as a hick.

Looks like the title I placed on him should be stuck to me.

On retreat, he showed part of his true character, at Emu Gulley, we saw his core, and seriously, he was a total legend.

I'll update more later, it's hot now and I have to do the dishes. Oh yeah, first real day back at school tomorrow.
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