He just poked the fire!

 We had our bags all packed and ready to head out for the train station at 8:00 AM, but like always our morning got away from us. Instead of being on time and leisurely walking to the train station we were literally running to miss the train to Katoomba by only one minute. But we soon found out we weren’t the only ones that missed the train to the Blue Mountains! The only bad thing was that we were going to have to wait for another 45 minutes before the next train came. We were able to get ahead of our teacher to let him know we were going to be on the way and he informed us we’d have to take a taxi to the location once we arrived. This wasn’t news that we wanted to hear. In no time we were boarding the train and headed towards the Blue Mountains. Riley finds it so easy to relax on public transportation that he took a nice little snooze, although I did join him a little later. After I realized we were out of the city and into the country I kept my eyes on the scenery. We passed through a lot of small towns that look interesting and fun, so I started a list of places we could look up and explore later on hopefully. Once we were in Katoomba it was easy to hail a taxi and get to our destination. The rest of our group was waiting outside the shop called Scenic World which we had been inside the first weekend in Sydney, not too special except for the railcar that takes you across the valley. Our group had been there less than 10 minutes so everything worked out perfectly. We were able to finally meet up with the rest of our cabin groups for the weekend and get assigned into our first hiking group. Unfortunately we weren’t together, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. We knew we’d be able to meet new people and still have a good time. So our groups were off. This was actually the same trail that we had taken the first weekend, just backwards which meant we’d be climbing up the giant stairway instead of down it. The beginning of the trek wasn’t too bad since we were so caught up in meeting people from our new groups. We were able to see a few good trees and vegetation along with the Three Sisters off in the distance.

Three Sisters to the left

We barely saw each other throughout the day since we were in two different groups with other groups in between us. The bushwalk didn’t last long though since it was only about 6 km, which is about 4 miles. The beginning part was more enjoyable than the latter part since we had to conquer the giant stairway.

Riley noted that you can't bring dogs, use the toilet, or start a fire, but you can fall off a cliff if you wanted.

One girl in my group took it upon herself to count the stairs but lost count after about 400. I think there’s a little over 900 constant stairs and let me tell you that’s not easy! Someone in Riley’s group decided they were going to hold water in their mouth for the whole trip up. That obviously meant no talking for them! But after the stairway ended that meant our trek for the day was over and we were beyond excited.

Lauren's group for the first day!

Riley's group for the first day! If you think that is Riley's backpack then you're wrong.
 Its just the guy behind him. Optical illusion I know!

 Quite a few of us were out of shape to say the least. That also meant we were that much closer to dinner, but first we had to go grocery shopping. Each cabin group of five people were supposed to plan a menu for lunch and dinner. Riley and I had thought ahead and brought PB&J sandwiches for lunch everyday as well as snacks, but other people hadn’t been as smart. I was able to convince my group that it’d be easier if everyone was on their own for breakfast and lunch and then we’d just buy the ingredients together for dinner. Riley wasn’t so lucky and ended up spending a total of $65 for five guys. Which if you think about it isn’t bad for a whole weekend of meals since it was about $13 per person. Just about everyone was making pasta for the night since it’s the cheapest and easiest thing to make! Riley and I are both used to cooking every night so we quickly took charge in our separate kitchens and dinner was ready in no time! After eating and cleaning up we quickly realized that it was only 6:30, dark outside and we had nothing to do until 8:00 PM campfire time. The girls in my cabin decided we should go join the guys since we could hear them laughing all the way in our cabin anyways. We had a few good laughs with them but mainly we were just waiting for time to pass. Obviously people aren’t used to having no technology or anything to do in general since they were all complaining how bored they were. Riley and I thought it was a great way to bond with each other since we literally had nothing else to do. And bond we did! After one long countdown it was finally campfire time and we all gathered outside. A guy from Riley’s cabin had attempted to start a fire in their furnace and had unfortunately failed. This was brought to the teacher’s attention and he made sure him out in front of everyone. This was quite hilarious since our teacher is awkward at best. We recapped about our day’s journey and then were informed we were going to have to introduce ourselves. However, this was no ordinary introduction, we were going to have to state where we were from, what we’d show people in our hometown if they came and a passion that we have in life. You would be surprised how many people said they have no passion, but I think they were just either too embarrassed to say or weren’t thinking hard enough. Riley said his passion was bowling and he’d take people to do the Krispy Kreme Challenge in Raleigh if anyone visited. I said my passion was kids and teaching as well as having my own classroom someday, along with Cookout being where I’d take people if they came to Goldsboro. I also said that Goldsboro was the 81^st most dangerous city in the US which people thought was funny. After the fire we were pretty chilly and gathered back in the guys’ cabin to see if Jason could redeem himself in his fire making skills. We soon realized we were all too tired to talk and made our way back to our own cabin. The girls cabin turned into quite the sleepover since there is one room with a queen bed and then a room with 2 bunkbeds. In the guy’s cabin they all drew sticks to see who would get the big room, with Riley as the winner. However, none of the girls wanted to sleep by themselves since we’re all scaredy cats. The girl from Cancun thought she would be brave enough to sleep in the room by herself but once the lights went out she busted through our bed begging for someone to sleep with her. Soon we had a fifth person sleeping on the couch cushions in the middle of the room!   

All of us!