My last week volunteering

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Well that's the hard work over and done with! My last work was indeed a hard slog, not so much the work... although the week was varied, including planting, mulching and watering at Cape Schank, near the lighthouse on Monday Afternoon. Tuesday was spent pulling out huge quantities of ivy from a wonderful national reserve park in Rosebud, and we went to Arthurs seat at Lunchtime giving fabulous views of the sea and the town below us, which was beautiful. I confess I took a sicky on Wednesday, as was feeling very run down and worn out on Wednesday, but then got myself together again for two wonderful days weeding and weeding and weeding, oh and more weeding on a wet and windy Thursday and a gloriously sunny Friday! Whilst in the mornington Peninsular we stayed at Highfields reserve, near a village called Rosebud we were next door to the Park's Ranger, who was looking after a small Joey in his back garden, I must confess she was lovely and I would have brought her home if i could have caught her!!! At night we had to literally dodge the Kangaroos to go to the bathroom, located outside, and once inside we had to dodge the spider who lived in there, which did not please me at all!!

The hard slog was getting through the week, another different volunteer leader and another group of people to meet and names to learn all over again made it a bit of a tiresome week, sounds funny maybe but having to go through the "Hi I'm Lorna and I have been in Aus for .... blah blah blah" spiel annoyed me this week... I have felt very unsettled, mainly because it has been different places, people and team leaders every week for the last three weeks! My mood also wasn't helped by the fact that I couldn't wait for the weekend...I was hoping to get to meet up with Janey, a uni friend who lives in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne....meaning I just wanted friday to arrive!

But Friday finally did arrive, I got myself down to my hostel in St Kilda and had a decent shower and washed my clothes and did all the boring stuff! Saturday I met up with Janey for Brunch and spent the day catching up with her, then we got ready and went out with her and some of her friends (Nikki, Bekky and Tim) I had a fantastic night, some great Crepes for dinner washed down with a large quantity of beer, followed by a decent quantity of Gin and Tonic (by everyone I think!) A great night thoroughly enjoyed!

Far too early the next day, I had to go to the Airport and take a flight to Gold Coast, the airport is in Coolangatta, I had been warned that I probably couldn't have picked a worst time to go there, as this week is the beginning of "Schoolies Week" A month long party undertaken by 18year olds, in their thousands who descend onto the gold coast to celebrate the finishing of their exams! Fab for the Kids, not so fab for anyone else who wants a holiday! Lucky for me, for some reason, the kids didn't fancy Coolangatta this weekend, I guess they are all causing mischief in Surfers Paridise... a huge beach strip north of Coolangatta.. phew! to top off the weekend, the sun has also shined for me today, meaning I could finally get some shorts on and get a bit of sun on my dazzlingly white pins! So I've had a gentle day of walking along the beach, stopping for an ice cream, did a bit of shopping and generally had a chilled out day! So here I am, I have to get a bus and train to Brisbane tomorrow, where I shall then be starting a three day tour on Wednesday back to Sydney, whereupon I will then begin the two week camping trip to Uluru to Darwin by coach....

So I have a busy few weeks ahead, but this is the bit i have been looking forward to for the last three weeks so I am very excited at the moment! I shall keep you informed on my progress!

So bye for now, Love, Lorna xxx

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Photos

A job well done
The volunteer group proudly stood with our huge pile of weeded ivy!

A Joey!
Ahhhhhhhh

Lorna and a lizard
A blue tounged lizard no less...