It all started with a cloudy morning and a great gust of motivation to get my garden beds sorted for my first round of planting in the next few weeks. What started as a simply job of getting access to the camp truck and trailer, turned into a full day montage of dirt, dirt and more dirt. Waking up early, I marched myself over to the woodshed to fill the trailer with what will hopefully be the last lot of wood before the warmth of spring reaches my bones. I then gratefully accepted Duncan's help to back the trailer up to my garage - saving me nearly an hour of trying to move it myself.
After sorting the wood and dumping off a full load of random branches and rubbish that had piled up in my yard, it was time. Time to pull out the massive prickly plants in my front flower beds otherwise known as cabbage trees. I'm told they're native plants. I don't really care - they've been bloody well annoying me since the day I moved in as they have overtaken my flowerbeds and are far to big to have ever been planted there anyway. They had to go.
Assessing the situation, I figured it would take me an hour - 2 max to pull out the 7 monstrous plants. It turned out to be much more than that. I literally had to saw off each of them as close to the soil as possible in order to have access to the roots. And then it was a matter of clawing at the dirt until each one would break free. It sounds simply, but these plants aren't called cabbage trees for nothing. It felt as though I was attempting to dig out a tree.
Eventually we managed to get all 7 cabbage trees out of my garden, leaving it riddled with massive holes that I would later fill. After some much-deserved lunch it was onto Carrie and Campbell's place. By the time we had dinner, food had never tasted so good and all I could think was that I was stoked for some sleep. But the day wasn't over yet.
Carrie, Campbell and I had just finished eating and were getting into a game of Scrabble when we got word that two of our volunteers had gone up the Waterfall Track during the afternoon and still weren't back yet. They weren't answering their phones and it was now after 8PM and completely dark outside. We all piled into the car with headlamps and the hope that maybe we might spot them walking on the road on their way back. We didn't.
We got to the start of the track and seached the bushes for any signs that they might have stashed bikes there, confirming that they were in fact still on the trail. No bikes were found and so it was onto Plan B. Prajot had a heap of gear in his car and so he got ready to head up the trail, but as we didn't want him on his own - I volunteered to go with him. Both of us had done the trail heaps of time and though it was risky to go up during the dark, we were the best bet of finding the volunteers - particularly if one was injured.
Swapping my shoes for some with better grip and borrowing one of Prajot's extra winter coats, we strapped on our headlamps and started huffing it up the trail. Dark, muddy and cold it was and all I could think was that we would be very lucky to find the two girls missing. As the trail winds it way up the mountain, crossing the stream multiple times - there was plenty of opportunity to slip and fall or - worse - take a wrong turn and end up lost in the middle of the bush. From what we'd been told, neither one was particularly dressed for bad weather, much less was prepared for walking in the dark. The worst was that neither had done the trail before and so Prajot and I only hoped that they hadn't taken the wrong fork in the path, leading them to the summit of Mt. Isobel instead of to the Waterfall.
And so we walked. And talked. And gasped for air as we were going quite a good pace. The jacket I was wearing was too warm, my jeans were uncomfortable, I was worried about ruining Linda's boots, plus I really had to pee - but we pressed onwards.
It was about 15 minutes of us walking quickly when I looked up and about 5ft in front of me there they were, slowly making their way down the trail by the light of a cheap keychain flashlight. We asked them if they were okay (they were) and gave them headlamps and some warmer articles of clothing. Then we started to slowly make our way down again.
As it turned out, they had taken the wrong path and went about 15 minutes up it before realizing their mistake and turning around. By that point it was already dusk, but the one girl really wanted to see the waterfall and so she pressed on while the other one waited (wasn't feel well). By the time they turned to head back down, it was well on the way of getting dark and with only one small keychain flashlight between them to light their way, travelling was slow. One volunteer didn't have a jacket, no mitts, nothing warm to speak of and was wearing lightweight running shoes. The other one fared better in the clothing department, but her stomach wasn't feeling great if she tried to go faster.
Prajot and I were just glad to have found them.
Eventually we made our way back to the trailhead, hopped in the car and drove back - phoning Carrie at the camp in the process to let them know we had found the two volunteers. By the time we made it to the camp, we had everyone running to us to make sure the two were okay. They were. In fact - they were so okay, that they were completely oblivious that they had caused such a panic among our staff that the police were on the line ready to be sent out as a search party. They just giggled and wished Campbell a Happy Birthday before skipping their way to their cabins. The rest of us gapped at their unapologetic nature and then proceeded to debrief the situation to sort out what had happened.
Needless to say, by the time I finally got to bed after 11PM, I had no issues falling asleep.
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