There should be more adult-sized playgrounds in the world.

This morning we left Katanning for our next stage of the trip, which is a few days in the Stirlings. A bunch of us woke up early to go to Mungart Boodja to check email and go to the adult-sized playground before we left Katanning. I had been really excited about this playground even before we left for Australia as I first found it while googling Katanning. It turned out to be less than a block from our hotel, but we got back so late at night that we never had a chance to go, thus necessitating a visit this morning before we left the town for good.

The capstone of the adult-sized playground was definitely this huge slide that is at least two stories tall. I rode on a metal kangaroo rocking ride, though, while Leighann and Jake and Megan went down the slide (it turned out to not be a very slippery slide). Jake and Megan and I then climbed on this death contraption that can only be described as a hamster wheel ten feet in the air and on an angle. After we got it started, we spun so quickly we were stuck to the sides, but then we couldn’t figure out how to make it stop. I concluded the trip to the playground with a very graceful injury, as per the usual. One of the rides was a seat with bicycle pedals; as you pedal, you spin around and power a wheel which rotates your spinning seat around the middle point. Of course, the joint was a little sticky, and as I was unsticking the pedals I spun around and slammed my head into a metal pole. Painful, but overall a worthwhile experience!

We had another long drive back to the Stirling Range Retreat (the girls’ fashion project schedule wasn’t finalized until after our schedule was made, so we spent a lot of time driving back and forth). We stopped on the way, though, in Onerup at a museum about the malleefowl and then went to Kelly O'Neill's farm to see malleefowl nests. The mallee fowl is a very endangered bird on the edge of extinction, but through the efforts of Kelly and others, the malleefowl is making a small comeback. The farm has a number of nests on a piece of carefully preserved bushland; the malleefowl builds huge piles of forest debris into a large mound, and we saw a number of these incredible examples on the farm.

When we arrived at the Stirlings we had a dinner prepared for us and a Welcome to Country ceremony sponsored by Eugene Eades, our next host on this leg of the trip. After dinner, a didgeridoo player performed and then Eugene’s band played. Jake got up to jam with the band and led them in performing “Hey Ya” (this was really funny as the band performs early rock and roll music). After the concert, I went back and built a bonfire at our chalet campsite, and our group spent some time sitting around the fire relaxing before bed.

Today was pretty tough in the sense that I’m getting burned out on talking to new people and listening to the same stories over and over again. I know that the work we are doing here is very important, but I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed. Tomorrow is another day, though, so I think I’ll call it a night and get some rest!

Peace,

Jill