Operation Taz ver. 0.2.

So, now onto Day Two. We took a three hour ride from our backpackers to the foot of Cradle Mountain to get our passes and then start. Oh man, so exciting, so excited. But I slept on the bus. Haha. The scenery was amazing really. The photo on the left is of Mount Roland. Gorgeous. There was a rainbow further up, but couldn't catch a good one of it. Mount Roland resides opposite a small village called Paradise. The reason for the naming is of course, as such. It really is such a paradise there. Green pastures and flowing water. Wow. The horse on the right is Socks! Well, I actually named him Socks because he has white socks on his legs! I actually also have an obsession for that name. Hurhur. Anyway, our driver Leigh stopped by to feed Socks. I asked him if he did that everytime he drove by, and he said, 'I've never met him!' How cute is that! So Socks got lots of cuddles from us! Hehe. I felt so suaku. As if I've never seen a horse in my life or something.

On reaching the visitor centre, we purchased our 'passports' into the national park, and officially took our first step of our journey. We took a shuttle bus to Dove Lake and signed in at the rest hut before going on our trek. Of course we had to take a photo! We started on our very arduous journey then and of course, we had to find an adventure. You see, Debs' pack cover, which you see in the second photo, isn't like all of ours. Hers was too small for her pack! So it kinda got blown by the wind into the lake. Haha! So all our army boys were sent to retrieve the cover which then became a sleeping bag cover for WaiHong. Our first checkpoint, Marion's lookout, was sure a tough one to get to. The term rock scrambling does not do the difficulty justice. I stepped up rocks till my quads felt like it was on fire. The weight on my back felt like the world. Each time I managed to get to flat groud, I had to stop to let all the blood run back into my head. With all the winds blowing and hail-ish like rain beating your face, I just felt like giving up. Saying, 'Can I please go back down?' But with all the encourgament, and pulling up, I knew I had strong hands to hold onto. Those that would keep me from flying away. We made it to the top. The scenery was breathtaking. Especially after such a difficult path, you would be more than amazed. The happiness of stopping was shortlived, because in typical Singaporean kiasu style, we wanted to grab a space in the hut as early as we could. We set off once again, into unpredictable weather. Truly, today was by God's grace. And for that I am thankful. The boys cooked up a lovely dinner, instant rice and hot milo never tasted so good. We knocked off at an early 7pm and woke up of course, every other hour. I felt like I hadn't slept the next day.

But that's a story for another day.