Joshua Tree

We had a really great weekend camping in Joshua Tree National Park and captured a few thoughts....

Adventures by Emma.
1. Rock climbing
For my first time, I was going to do real rock climbing. I was the first child in the camp site to go rock climbing that day. I wore a harness and rock climbing shoes.
"On belay", I said.
"Belay on" was the reply.
I started climbing by gripping onto the rock ledges. Pushing my feet up after my hands. Up, up , up went. Not once did I glance down except for a photo. I didn't glance down because I was quite determined to reach the top. I kept going and going. Suddenly I looked up. I was at the top. I hadn't realized it before as I had just kept climbing.
"Do you want to climb the overhang?" he asked.
"Yes", I replied.
I climbed up a bit further to where the overhang stuck out and two cracks split the rock. I looked around to try and see what I could do.
" I can't see anything to hold", I called down to Ben.
"Do you want to come down"
He started feeding the rope and I started to slowly walk down.


Adventures by Bruce.
I got stuck on a rock face. I had climbed as far as I was able, and was being belayed back down when the rope stuck fast. Just pull harder the guy said. No I said it's really stuck I and hung from the rope waving my feet and arms in the air. As places to be stuck go, it wasn't bad. I was able to sit on a ledge quite comfortably. It wasn't too hot or cold, there was no wind, and it was hours until dark.

To get me down, Steve climbing up by a different route, and climbed up above me to pull the rope out of the crack it had got stuck in. All of which took about half an hour. I did the same climb the next day and everything went smoothly.

Adventures by Zak
I bled. One of the most interesting moments was when I fell off a rock about a meter high and scraped my leg along the side of it. I have a big graze all along my right shin.
Another of my interesting things there was when I went rock climbing on the huge rock and made it to the overhead that was near the top of the climb. Unfortunately I couldn't get past that,but I tried.
Probably one of the best things was when Dads friends Will found a furry brown tarantula on the road. He quickly captured in a bag and dropped it into a plastic box for all of us to see.

We met lots of people, and had a great time staying up late around the camp fire toasting marshmallows.

Zak

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