I saw my shooting star!!
Ooh la la....I caught abt 5 of them over the weekend. :)
That's one thing I can cross off my list....but I'm adding another item..

10. I wanna see fireflies.

Have gone from GLAM to TAK-GLAM over the weekend, and it was really fun!
Friday was the Young Adults Ball, and the whole table really made an effort to dress up.
Pictures say heaps more, so will post pics once I get them from Anna, Amanda, Davina & Eunice....my camera is HOPELESS, so I didn't even bother. :P

Then, Saturday morning, it was onto to what I was more excited about - camping up in the Grampians!
Roll call for 3D/2N camp - Anna, Louis, Brian, me
Roll call for 1D fishing road trip - Darren, Amanda, Chester

Had a late start which included breakfast at Brunetti's, which was yummy, but it was very strange how I could barely pick my way through half of it....hm......
Louis' car, Nixim was packed with stuff cos I packed the whole kitchen into 3 Ikea blue bags.
The drive up was smooth and uneventful...stopped at Ararat to touch base with Darren's car.

Then we arrived at Halls Gap and contemplated booking a site there, but it was still pretty much civilization - with ice cream parlours (with the yummiest REAL ice cream), children's playground on the camping grounds, supermarket etc etc etc.
So, we decided we would really rough it and go off in search of some ulu pandan spot

- 15kms away from any mobile phone reception,
- where it's so dark that u cannot see people approaching (creeeeepy),
- where u have to fan yr food with one hand and eat with the other, because houseflies rule,
- where turning on the heat means setting up the fire,
- where u look up and the multitude of stars tell u that the earth is indeed round,
- where washing up means wading into a creek,
- where the toilets are holes in the ground,
- where the sun wakes you up by shining into your tent.

So, the ulu pandan spot was all cool.
We set up tent and then went to explore Mackenzie Falls....climbed 1.04km down and up, AGAIN! I've been down there, but Anna and Louis hadn't, so off we all went.

Then, guess what....we realised that because there's no reception, we would not be able to call Darren....and we had our water supply in his sleek black Beemer.
So what do we do??
Brian and I set off for Halls Gap to try and reach them, and to fill up Nixim's petrol tank.
Big boo boo coming up.....we pumped DIESEL into Nixim instead!!
Uh-oh.....It sputtered abt 100m down the road and then gave up.
So, Brian pushed the car whilst I steered it back into the petrol station.
Called a mechanic who came within half an hour, like he said he would, and he said he would have to tow the car back to his workshop and we could probably get it back on Monday.
WHAaaaa.......T?!

I was pretty sure the guys were worried sick about us, so I explained our situation, and told John & Linda (the mechanic & his wife) that we needed to rent a car or something that'll get us back to HQ Ulu Pandan (real name is actually Smith Mills campsite) real soon.
John kindly offered to tow Nixim down to his workshop in Stawell, then come back to send us up there.
Oohhh....... thank God for kind people who go the extra mile!

So, Brian and I sat at Halls Gap....chewing on our fingernails....praying hard that Louis will not be too heartbroken....that the repairs won't cost too much....that we will not freeze before John gets back....that hopefully, we would be able to reach Darren and the rest soon so John wouldn't have to make a trip back.

Well, the last didn't happen....cos Darren and guys were at HQ Ulu Pandan waiting with Louis and Anna for us to turn up!
We barely managed to catch them going off when we swung into the campsite.
Said a short hi and bye, and then turned to break the news to Louis...:P
He was really gracious about it, so that stone was rolled away. Hee hee.

So we survived one whole day without a car in the wilderness.
When Nixim finally came back this morning, we practically HUGGED it.
Heh heh.....dear dear Nixim.

But boy oh boy, the bill came up to a whopping $1106!
Sigh....poor poor Brian.

So, how did we celebrate the return of Nixim?
We packed up and headed down to Halls Gap for ice cream, and Ararat for KFC!
Hahaha....always spirit-lifters.

Really, it was a great weekend.
Anna and Louis, nothing like sharing ski trips and camping trips to build on a frenship yah? :)
Brian, don't worry man, yr boo-boo meter is still nowhere compared to my daily ones. Haha.

Thanks for the memories guys.
I had such fun.....I wouldn't trade the entire trip for anything.