Today's exciting adventure!

We had a busy adventurous day today. First we hiked to a nice waterfall and then we went to a beach and went snorkelling. There is an Australian family (all adults) on holiday staying in the same unit as we are staying in on the weekends and they had the plans to do this trip and invited us to join them.

We drove to a place where we would start hiking to the waterfall. We had three local men who volunteered to be our guides. It was quite the hike! Lots of slippery rocks and tree roots. We were all so hot from hiking uphill. I wonder how this hike we did today compares with the Kokoda Trail – a lot shorter obviously, but in terms of difficulty, I'm sure it must be up there with it!

Here's a photo of us at a pretty easy part of the hike.

We were all very hot from hiking uphill so it was a relief to get to the amazing waterfall at the end of it and have a swim in the cool water.

After that we drove for an hour or so and went snorkelling at a place called East Cape and I saw lots of pretty fish. We saw a sailing canoe that had a blue tarp as its sail!

Here we are on a pier at another place.

It was a good, fun day, although now I have sore muscles from the hiking!

Three day hike

I survived our three day hike! We left on Monday and came back today, Wednesday. We stayed overnight in two villages. So what was it like? Well, while hiking my shirt was wet all the time with sweat! We had some beautiful views and walked through a rainforest area. I had bandaids on my feet preventing them from getting blisters.

Some of the tracks were steep and slippery, which was hard work when going uphill, but it was even harder going downhill because there’s more risk of falling. Our local guides always told us “Wokabaut isi isi, nogut yu pundaun” (‘Walk slowly. No good you fall down’). Our group’s tally of falls was: 1st day – 3 falls, 2nd day – no falls, 3rd day – 10 falls! We had a good laugh at ourselves when we fell though! Nobody got hurt either, so that was great.

I had a good time when we were in the villages, talking to the people and showing them some photos that I brought with me. They really loved looking at my photos.

Here’s some pictures of our journey.

Hiking along:

Me with a nice view:

Having a rest at a creek and getting my feet wet:

One of the houses we stayed in:

Me with some kids looking at my photos:

Hiking

We have been going on hikes every week and they have been progressively getting harder. Today we went on a big hike all day. We left at 9am and came back at 4:15pm. We had a long break for lunch, plus lots of rest breaks too.

We hike around the top of the mountain and we are blessed with the most beautiful views as you will see in my pictures below.

Next week we have a hike carrying heavy backpacks, and on the week after we have a three day hike, which probably sounds a lot worse than it is. We will only be hiking for about three hours each day and then spending time in a village and sleeping overnight. We’ll have to carry backpacks on the three day hike with all our gear.

Hiking photos:

Me and the view:

Me hiking:

Me and another nice view:

This is me during our lunch break today: