Undara Art Camp '09!

yes, the school art camp this year went up to the Undara Lava Tubes! we left on Thursday morning and got back yesterday afternoon, and it was so much fun, and I did so many things I would NEVER have even imagined I'd ever do. I'm so glad I went.

we left Cairns at a bright an early time of around 8am. turns out that Mr. Honeywill shaves his hair a different way each year as his boarding pass (we had to make a boarding pass to get on the bus, to show that we'd started our artistic journey) but this time his shaver had cut out half way and he had huge tufts of shaven bits and.. goodness it was terrible. I don't have a photo, but I have video of it which I'll be uploading soon enough. but yes, we left Cairns at around 8am:



Marisa felt a bit sick on the bus and we had to stop on the Gillies to let her out. we watched Spirited Away on the tv on the bus; I hadn't seen that in ages, and eventually made our first stop at Ravenshoe (pronounced 'Ravens-hoe'). We stopped at the wind farm first! the huge wind towers spin in the wind and generate enough electricity to power all the homes in the area, which is good, seeing as Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland and they're using their wind resources quite well. Kayla got out to take a photo:

Then we stopped in the town itself so people could grab something to eat. I was waiting for Marisa to get out of the public toilets, when an old dirty man walked past me, brushing his teeth. He spat out his water onto the footpath, continued down the walkway until he got to the bin, and threw in his toothbrush. I thought THAT was a little fucked up, until he reached his hand into the bin, pulled out a straw, started chewing on it and continued down the path. The Ravenshoe locals are a little.. well.. not all there I'd say. We then got assigned to send postcards back to people at school. I chose to write one to Laura, and got told to write one to my ftv teacher Mr. Weston:



when we got back on the bus, Kayla showed me something she'd picked up, which she thought was a strange piece of twisted bark. I informed her that it was actually a piece of dried up poo, and she cried "EUGH!" and threw it. it landed on Henry. poor Henry hahahah!

our next stop was a quick 5 minute one at Innot Hot Springs. the thermal volcanic energy underground warms the earth in certain spots (some bits are warmer than others, and the water is boiling hot rather than just warm), and you can go for a dip in the creek that runs through the town, and it feels like bathwater! Mrs. Williams didn't believe the water was going to be HOT hot, so she stuck her whole foot in and burnt it! she walked off her pain:



our last stop was at Mount Garnet, and we stopped there for a bit and continued making our postcards:



and I finally finished mine, once we were back on the bus:





we finally made it to Undara! after we'd eaten some food'zies, put away our bags into our tents, applied the sunscreen and got ourselves into 'art mode', we all ventured up to a mountain peak called The Bluff to do some landscape painting with oil paints. V messy but V nice. me and Bec in our tent beforehand:



me and Tasia, sitting on the highest rock painting. Jack in the corner:



we got to eat dinner in some old renovated train carriages! Tasia liked my Sunday school hat, so she wore it throughout dinner. she looks very.. proper hahah:









just me, fixing my 'do.

that night we did some painting with light. my photography teacher Mr. Honeywill joined our troupe, and I love the results; these are all COMPLETELY unedited:













got back to our tent/cabin, and I was so dead tired! Kayla thought it'd be lovely to get a photo of me from her top bunk. aren't I such a gorgeous thing before sleepy time? thanks Kayla:



the next day we woke up 6:30, and had breakfast at 7. we ate breakfast down at the campfire, which is about a 5 minute walk into the bush from the campsite. hot breakfast; toast, baked beans, egg, bacon, sausage and cooked tomato. me and Kayla posed in the morning sun:



then we split into 2 groups for the day activities. we were in group 2, so we stayed behind at the camp and worked on creating an installation art piece. our group made big ants out of grass:





but we ended up hanging the grass balls from a log, and only keeping 2 of the ants we made:



and we found a VERY WEIRD little bug that looked like a miniature kiwi bird! we don't know if anyone has ever seen one before; I've never seen this in a book/the Undara souvenir and information shop before:



then we went back to the lodge and ate lunch. the groups then swapped activities and it was OUR turn to go on the lava tubes tour. I'd already done it before so I was already expecting a lot of what happened, EXCEPT FOR THIS:



THAT'S RIGHT! the cave was flooded out from all the rain we've had recently. not only was I not expecting that, but I also didn't expect we'd be allowed to swim in it. only a brave few ventured forth into the darkness, since we'd forgotten our torches, and we only had the handrail to go by. so me, Kayla, Sarah and Mr. Honeywill went out into the water, and it was so lovely and cold:



that afternoon we had 4hrs of free art time. I sat with Kayla and Junie on the footpath down from the lodge; Junie is one super cutie face:



then we shot the photos with the dinosaur costume I made. our photography assignment at the moment is to pay a sort of homage to an artist we admire and I chose Michel Gondry and how he uses low-grade materials to create things in his projects. Kayla was my model, and the final results will be uploaded later (when I've finished editing them). so we walked up to The Bluff in the afternoon to shoot, and Mr. Honeywill tagged along. I'll have to remember to grab a copy of the photos he took of us with his lomo camera. us journey'ing up there (from Kayla's point of view):



Kayla wanted a Polaroid of her and me taken, so Honeywill took a photo but it didn't work, so he took another one and the photo came out WEIRD! Kayla had three arms, I think the first photo developed over the top of the second one:



third time's a charm:



that night we made our souvenirs for our mystery recipient. Mrs. Williams thought that instead of buying a gift from Undara each, we'd make our own and give it to someone else in the camp. I got Marisa of all people, and made her a pair of novelty glasses with paper, see through plastic, Undara dirt and grass and a gum nut, and had "Undara Art Camp '09" written on them. they were only supposed to be ornamental, but being the dag she is, she wore them all the time. I got a gift from Samantha, and she made me this cute as barrette with buttons glued on, and a bracelet. during craft time, Mr. Honeywill decided to shave off the rest of his hair AND THE SAHVER CUT OUT AGAIN! he was left with an even more horrible mullet, and afterwards Kayla ran off and stole his shaven hair, and made moustaches out of it! truely disgusting, but truely hilarious! me, Kayla and Jordy then retreated to our tent and had a little 10 minute gathering:







some people left, but me, Kayla, Jordy, Danelle and Bec all stayed. it was moustache time! we put them on and made a video diary (which I'll also be uploading soon enough). I think we made a very fine bunch of sexy as Mexicans, though I sort of look like a pedophile:



time to go home. we got up early, ate breakfast, packed up our things and sneaked in a couple of tent group photos:





after lunch we went on this HORRID walk up to the edge of a volcanic crater, which I forget the name of. we sat on a nice bench up there in the sun and did some sketches. well I did, Kalya took this sneaky photo of me. note my lovely posture:



before we left Undara to go home, we ate some afternoon tea then got our group photo; here's everyone! I like this photo of me by the way:



then we left, GOODBYE UNDARA! everyone was very sleepy on the way home:



here's a good shot of both Mr. Honeywill's horrid hair, and the fringe of our bus driver, which was also horrid. I don't know what she's thinking: