Today has been a wonderful day. My expo group had off-road bikes, it was fun!

The bus dropped us off at Victoria River and we rode out 8km down a dirt road in the mountains. I’m pretty much a local from around here so I thought I had seen it from driving through, but on a bike you get to slow down and really take in the view. Gosh, it was beautiful. Riding around the bends, racing with the boys and then stopping to see the Victoria Falls; pretty spectacular. When we stopped we jumped off the road and Mr. Michie showed us an old tunnel, which we proceeded to crawl through, because we’re fearless teenagers. It was once part of the first hydro-electricity scheme in Australia. I thought that was really interesting. After riding to Omeo on rest day my biking muscles were hurting quite a bit, but I challenged myself and finished the ride third, and I was pretty proud of myself.

It’s a lot quieter around here today, group 2A are on expo. That means they’re going to carry a heavy pack, walk all day, set up camp, cook their own food, sleep in tents, do their business outside and hike home again. I would have hardly noticed that they’re gone, except that the dining room is emptier and there are only four people playing table-tennis instead of the usual 15. No, just kidding, I do miss them. And tomorrow 2B are off as well. It’s going to be so quiet, and I’m going to miss my room-partner. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to our expo, I guess it’ll be nice to be out, just our expo group and some teachers in the beautiful bush; but I can already feel my bones aching in anticipation for the 20kg packs that we’ll each have to carry. Maybe it won’t be so bad, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
I love it here at The Alpine School.

By Rika