It's a scorcher - 47degrees says the mercury at Halls Gap backpackers.  New of fires in Horsham.  A fierce wind banging against the windows.  The Otesha Crew, however, were kept pleasantly cool in their air-conditioned accomodation for day one of the mid-tour retreat.  Half way through our journey already.  We have become one big family - a traveling sustainability troup.  Our mid tour retreat started with an energetic game of buggies which saw us in fits of laughter.  After getting the heart pumping, we sat down to a reflective session focusing on the good parts of the tour so far, and the areas we want to improve in the coming weeks.  Positives of the tour so far included our positive interaction with rural communities - from getting plentiful food donations to re-invigorating local sustainability groups.  We also celebrated how well we had been working as a team and respecting one another.

After a massage circle and tea break we moved on to reflecting about our personal journey so far.   It was now that we could read our warm fuzzies (Over the past couple of days we had been given the task of writing something you like/something positive about all the other Oteshians).  It was today that felt like Christmas as everyone received 13 small slips of paper with lovely personalized comments.  Mmm...warm fuzzies!
We spent an hour in silence focusing on self reflection: our task to write a letter to ourselves of the goals we would like to achieve before the end of the tour.  This silent time was magic.  As you can imagine, living with 13 other people means most of the time there's something going on and things to do.  I found great pleasure in this allotted space for myself.  After another group session the main activities were completed.  Time for a swim at the Venus baths - the almost dry rock pools 1km from our base.  The day ended with various group activities.  Some keen adventurers (Celine, Pip, Be, and Kelsey) packed their mats and sleeping bags and walked up to Chatauqua Peak for the night.  Others chilled out before a pancake cookup at midnight to celebrate Candice's birthday.
-Tash