Mountains, Camels, and Expensive Dinners!

The family barbeque on Thursday night went great! Pretty much the same as our American variation, except they favor sausages (made from various animals beef, pork, or lamb), kebabs, and mignon over burgers and hotdogs. But the bs-ing, wine, beer, and laughter is exactly the same.

The grub

Chef Sam

John (Kellianne's dad) and Miss Milla

Kellianne and Dianne

Poor Jaiquen got sick right before the barbeque started and so was on couch patrol for the evening.

It was definitely a good night!!!

The next day was SOOO busy! But friggin' awesome too! Lots of memories. Speaking of....

Dude! Have you ever wanted to find out JUST how out of shape you really are??

Try climbing a mountain on a whim.

Actually don't. Cuz you may or may not die.

Anyway, we climbed Mount Gillen on Friday, 9/24 early in the day. It was so tough, but entirely worth it! And I definitely learned how out of shape I am. Sam and Kellianne were bopping on up the mountain like it was nothing, and here I come, 30 feet behind them (but never quitting!) wheezing and puffing and trying to psyche myself up mentally for what I was doing.

Mt Gillen. The beginning of the trail. Looks easy, huh? Don't be fooled.

Determined.

"Iron Man... You've got this..."

The last stretch was just breathtaking! Made you forget you can't breathe!

It was really pretty embarrassing, because halfway up the mountain I'm giving myself this internal pep-talk: "Devyn. You got this. You OWN this. This is absolutely nothing, because YOU. ARE. IRON. MAN. Not the superhero guy, the friggin' awesome muscle-y dude who wins the Iron Man competition and laughs at mountains like this. So come on, Devyn. You are a rock star. Think of all the people that couldn't do this..."

As fate would have it, right as I'm thinking these immortal words, I look up the trail to a steep part and see a family coming cheerily down the steep path. A man, with a tiny baby strapped to his chest, followed a ways behind by the mom and 2 little girls about 5 and 6.

Maybe.... just maybe.... "Excuse me, sir? Did you go all the way up?"

"Yeah! It was great! Gets a bit gnarly at the top with the rock climbing."

"Um... Did, uh... Did the girls stop half-way or so?"

"Ah no! They went all the way to the top! They loved it!"

You could almost hear the whoopee-cushion sound of my pep-talk deflating. But then it became a gauntlet that had been thrown down by the little doe-eyed, mountain-climbing girls. They did it. Therefore, what kind of adult would punk out?

Booyah.

Kellianne and I on the vertical portion. I LOVED this part!!

Look how eroded the path was in places!

The higher up we went, the more gorgeous the views and colors became. Truly, by the time I reached the top, I forgot about the fly that buzzed around my face the whole time, the fact that my right lung had collapsed, and the smell of the rock wallaby poop that was sticking to my shoe. Instead, I was blown away by this:

So worth it.

Sam and Kellianne

We had to hustle down the mountain after a walk around the top, because camel riding was due to start very quick. Which meant no breaks the whole way down the mountain (except for the 2.5 times I landed FLAT on my butt due to the combination of wearing street shoes and being on gravel basically at times). Its a good thing downhill is easier!

After quick showers and a change of clothes, we arrived at the camel ranch in the nick of time. Jaiquen and I hopped on Trillion, the lead camel, and we were off!

Locked. Loaded. Ready for lift-off.

Jaiquen's so excited!

We stopped mid-ride for a photo op against the awesome background

So cool.

The gate for the cattle station we rode through

Milla was so excited to "go see camool!"

Some of the views

Me and my homegirl, Trillion

 After the ride we once again took off like bats outta heck for dinner at Overlander's Steakhouse. It was a cool atmosphere but EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!!! I tried a tasting appetizer of a small piece of camel, emu, kangaroo, and crocodile (just for the experience) and that alone was 25 bucks. A little piece of me died when I saw those prices. So, I stuck to "bangers and mash" for dinner, which was one of the cheapest meals coming in at 20 bucks. Ouch.

But the company was great, so I can't complain. AND I've tried 4 new types of meat!

From the left is emu sausage, camel, crocodile vol-au-vent, and kangaroo. Camel was best, but I wasn't a huge fan of any of it.

From left is Irene, Jamie, Sam, Kellianne, Milla (can't see her in her chair), Jaiquen, John, Dianne, me, and Sue.

Well, that's all for now! More later!

(Hopefully.)