Mountains of Inspiration... and Frozen Porridge

Aiya Eldar!

Ah, mountains are cool. These ones, particularly so.

Wow, another school excursion writing inspiration post? Seriously? Like, is school actually that interesting? I know, it’s crazy.

But then again, this isn’t school. This is Outdoor Ed. An epic subject at school for crazy people.

I mean, last year, we went caving, abseiling, kayaking and on a trek through the bush. So, why not, for year ten, go for a four day hike at Barrington Tops?

Our class, 21 of us, packed our bags, (tents, food, sleeping bag, sleeping roll and trangia included) and piled onto a minibus for the three hour trip to Barrington Tops. The ride was long, and loud, with the boys in the back singing out of key at the top of there lungs and a lot of laughter all round.

It resulted in a headache before we even started.

As the bus began to climb the mountains, we all fell quiet as we took in the amazing view. As far as we could see, green mountains surrounded us, speckled with cows and horses. It was beautiful.

After about 15 minutes of driving up the mountains, Katy, (a girl in our Outdoor Ed class) said, “The bus needs to stop, or there won’t any more mountains to climb.” After another 15 minutes we stopped.

There were still plenty of mountains to climb.

One of the lookouts in particular was unbelievable. At Carey’s Peak, we could look out as far as the beaches, which were so far away. The mountains were laid out before us like an ocean. I half wished that I could fly like the eagles there, and look out over the majesty and beauty forever. It was amazing.

Anyhow, we enjoyed our 4 day, 48 km hike, seeing brumbies, cooking food, camping, and other fun stuff.

Oh, and on our last morning, it was cold.

As in -10 degrees celsius.

Guys, that is cold.

Really cold.

I was cooking porridge… and trust me, when it’s that cold, there’s this new meal thing.

Ever considered frozen porridge?

Yup, it was cold.Everything had a layer of ice over it, and my hands were doing this weird thing where they turned a reddish-purple and swelled in size, almost double. It was unnerving.

But aside from the near frost-bite, the entire trip was amazing, and, as a bonus, we all survived! Only three casualties, one of which was me killing my knee. But nothing major.

Now, enough rambling. Here’s the prompt!

Personally, that one is giving me more ideas for a poem or song then it is for a story or character. What about you guys? Is it just me? Or do you feel that too?