Kangaroos, Koalas, And All Things Deadly: CU Kick Off Camp

It was another fun weekend which I got to spend at the Christian Union Kick Off Camp! It was held up in Cardwell, a town about half way between Townsville and Cairns. Think about 2 ½ hours. We (Shane, Michelle and I) left later in the afternoon Friday and got there right in time for introductions and kick off! It was way fun just getting to camp out with a bunch of friends and hear some mighty encouraging words from our speaker.

On a side note, if you ever forget your pillow while camping, I have found that a spare sleeping bag makes an acceptable, if not rather lumpy, substitute.

I got the privilege of meeting up with some friends I have made the past couple weeks through Uni and Christian Union as well as making several more. One in particular was another representative from the U.S. of A. over in Minnesota. That was awesome getting to know her a bit and I found out that she is one of my classes! Definitely going to be connecting up later on after camp.

Five Mile Creek

Saturday afternoon we drove a little ways down the road to Five Mile Creek, a pretty fun little swimming area. The water was incredibly clear in most parts and they had a substantially deep section that we could jump into by launching ourselves off the rock ledge above. That was so much fun and a good respite from some potentially rather hot weather!

On our way back from the creek, a small group of us decided to drive a little further into town and stop off at the pier. Everything looked relatively new everywhere we looked and apparently the town was more or less whipped out about 5 years ago by category 5 Cyclone Yasi.

While the group of us were hanging out on the pier, we were surprised to be graced by the presence of not only a Loggerhead sea turtle but also a glimpse of a Dugong as it surfaced! Apparently it is quite unusual to see one as they are fairly endangered at the moment and Shane and Michelle, despite being native Aussies, had never seen one before! I would say we were pretty lucky with that one!

The evening was finished off by an around town “Photo Challenge.” We were given a list of picture ideas, an hour, and instructions to go about town and photograph what we could. It was so much fun and might I just say that our group was fantastic at coming up with ideas! I think by the end we got all by two of the photos completed and a good amount of good laughs and memories to go along. I will now leave you to be entertained by a fantastic display of some of our photos....