Melbourne Cup Day!

Such a beautiful morning!  And oh yah, I had to get up at 6 so I could go on the 18km hike from Kelly Caves to Hanson Bay and back.  Michaela, Nina and I were the first people in the park, even before the rangers.  The hike to Hanson Bay seemed difficult and we saw no animals at all.  It was a beautiful hike though.

This is the cave a horse Kelly fell down... hence the name Kelly Caves.

My two lovely hiking partners.

The incredible view.

Don't know the name of the flower but it's pretty.

The stinky lake we passed.

Finally at Hanson Bay.

On our way back we seemed to have made record time, I wanted to get home a.s.a.p. We saw three Rosenberg goanna and one tiny echidna that was super friendly.  The walk back was fast and was much more exciting, despite are aching feet and sweaty shirts.  Our finishing time was 3 hours 59 minutes and 42 seconds; yes that is the exact time. 

The river walking back.

Our feet were black and our shoes were filled with so much sand we could have built a castle with it all.  An early shower was not out of the question for us.  After the showers it was a quick snack and we were off to the sanctuary bar to watch the Melbourne Race!

The bar is quite amusing.  It is in a giant shed with a dirt floor and dusty old fridge.  And how could I forget the dusty Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary propped above the fridge with ‘Bar’ written into the dust.  Best and only homemade bar I’ve been to. 

I of course immediately opened my bottle of wine and started snacking on everything at the table.  Even though it was only two o’clock and the races start at three, none of us had any trouble keeping ourselves amused.  Claire and Stephanie kept taking my phone and looking through photos while snapping a few here and there of themselves.  The boys stayed close to the bar counter and the girls stayed close to the food and laughed at everything.  When the races started everything got pretty intense; most of us had made random bets on which horse would win.  I don’t remember the name of my horse but it got second place… I won $2.75 that day!  Stephanie and I went outside after the races with Zack and Brandon to pass around a football.  The four of us had such a good time running after the ball and pushing each other to the ground.  My catching skills are great, my kicking skills could use some work though.  At one point I was about to kick the ball and Maggie (the cutest mutt in the world) knocked my leg out from under me and I fell straight to the ground.  That’s when everyone started laughing hysterically; I had a pretty good laugh at myself too.

Multiple screams kept coming from the shed, so out of interest and safety we went to investigate.  It was Claire and Nina having a competition of who could scream most like a female koala, people here are very interesting. 

Sitting around the two tables we got everyone to play the drinking game King’s Cup.  What a glorious game this when you get even the adults to play it with you!  There was a sheet of rules the dictate what each card in a deck means; 7 is touch the floor, 3 is you drink, 2 is pick someone to drink, 10 is never have I ever and the first person to pick up the last king must drink the glass of alcohol in the middle.  The glass is filled with everyone’s drink, which in our case consisted of cider, beer, bourbon, and wine.  I thankfully never had the opportunity to drink this concoction.  

The night continued with a new round of King’s Cup and lots of loud music, after this though we all went outside for a lovely bonfire.  I helped carry the mattress that was thrown on top of the monstrous flames.  The sky looked so unreal that night that I was in total awe.  Having a fire in dry season always runs the risk of sparks that catch things on fire.  The grass around the fire didn’t take long to become miniature flames.  I helped stomp them out… in bare feet.  My feet were totally fine no doubt but I got a little too close to the fire and later that night learned that I had singed pretty much all my hair.  Don’t worry mom it’s fine now; a deep condition has helped make my hair smooth again.  Although I was defiantly not happy with the prospect of having frizzy and burnt smelling hair.  The night finished with me taking a skinny-dip into the freezing cold dam and warming by the fire.

This photo has not been tampered with at all... that is the real sky.

The night was another night on the island that I will look back on as a faun memory.