Kelsey and Adrienne toasted each other with their copper camp cups as they downed their fourth whisky shot of the hour. They were drunk and they giggled uncontrollably as they recapped stories from their incredible vacation.
This was the last night of their week-long backpacking trip across the Australian outback and they were celebrating with the handle of Johnny Walker Black Label they'd brought along, as well as the two, large Foster's beers they'd flirted their way into after meeting another traveling party earlier that night near the hot springs they'd stopped off at.
They had purposefully planned to end their trip near a very famous and very remote mud bath and hot springs campground. They figured after walking for a whole week straight, it'd be a good way for their bodies to unwind and relax before their final morning hike back into the small satellite airport where they would be catching a flight back to Sydney.
The day had started early that morning as they traversed their last serious stretch of terrain, so as to arrive at the hot springs by that afternoon.
When they finally got there, they were dead. It had been an exhausting journey, and somewhat of a first for their previous level of outdoors expertise.
The found a more secluded hot spring as they walked through the canyons and set their giant packs and walking sticks up against a shady rock overhang.
Kelsey immediately began to shuck her hiking boots and socks, followed by her dirt-caked shorts, shirt, sports bra, and undies.
Adrienne followed suit. After spending a week with each other in the isolation of the Australian bush, they'd seen each other's plenty of times. There was no reason for modesty now.
Adrienne stepped slowly into the neck-deep hot spring that Kelsey had already situated herself in. Her dirty blonde hair shook out around her as she watched the caked on dust slowly spreading out from her body and into the water like old scales being shed.
It was the first hot water she'd had since they left the university for the airport a week earlier, and she actually moaned out loud at how good it felt. The water temperature was like a jacuzzi on steroids, and it took them a couple of minutes for their bodies to acclimate to the heat.
Kelsey laughed at her attractively curvy flat-mate's vocal reaction as the girls slowly stretched out in the water and saw the real color of their skin for the first time in a while. Adrienne's hard nipples poked out in front of her just as Kelsey felt hers doing the same.
The girls had met each other a couple of years' prior when their dorm assignments had first been handed out in their freshman year of college.
Kelsey Delmonico was the sarcastically plucky east coast girl with dark black hair that she wore straight and kept trimmed just above her shoulders. She was attending the University of Sydney on a full ride scholarship and the school dorm coordinators had decided that this brisk, young firecracker from upstate New York might room well with one of the only other American girls in her dorm wing: Adrienne Montgomery.
On paper, they were nothing alike. Kelsey was one part-Italian and one part sass. She was her mother's daughter. She played soccer and co-ed rugby and had grown up in the hustle and bustle of the big city while attending a very exclusive prep school. She was in very good shape—the results of years of ultra-competitive sports and a love of running, even in the cold of winter. She was street smart and book smart and had left many men's mouth's left agape as they attempted to keep up with her wit. Her sharp features and mind made Adrienne think of her as a fox, and an attractive one at that.
Adrienne on the other hand was a southern belle poured directly out of a soda-pop bottle. She was a naturally curvy bombshell with sandy-blonde curls and sun-kissed skin. Her big blue eyes had won her many a beauty pageant in her youth and she probably helped half of the teenage male population of her hometown discover that their bodies were changing during her two year tenure as the head cheerleader of her high school's national championship-winning team. You could typically find her in a pair of comfy jean-short overalls with a tied flannel shirt or comfy tank.
Adrienne's easy-going southern drawl was probably the most adorable thing that Kelsey had ever heard in her entire life. When the girls first met, neither one had really expected the relationship to develop into anything much, but college has a funny way of bringing you together with contrasting personalities.
For all their differences they also found that they had a lot in common. They'd both grown up loving the outdoors. They both loved going out for drinks to unwind after a long week of classes. They both loved boys and they both relished in each other's sexual misadventures. In the end they were still just a couple of American girls that liked to have a good time. And they really did like hanging out with each other, and that was enough. Every yin needed a yang. They were theirs'.
After unwinding in the hot spring for a while as their aching knots slowly untied and their tensions dissipated, the girls got out and walked over to the nearby mud-baths where they decided to partake of the free exfoliation package.
They helped paint each other completely with the light-gray mud, telling naughty jokes back and forth as their hands passed over each other's breasts or buns. They threw piles of the mud at each other when the other wasn't looking. As they were playing and finishing up their muddy suits, a group of four guys arrived, fresh from their own hiking journey.
The guys quickly stripped down to complete their own naked mud ritual, though they tended to their own bodies as the silly rules of masculinity required. Then the entire group wandered back over to the hot springs to wash off.
The boys were best mates from Melbourne and the girls had a lot of fun talking with them. They were very respectful as they all got to know each other in the vulnerability that only comes with being stark naked in the middle of nowhere.
As the afternoon wore on, they all got a little tipsy off of the boys beer stash that they'd brought along, and the girls were able to use their distracting talents to convince them into giving them the last of their final beers when it was time for them to leave. They were clearly sad to see them go as the ladies threw on some overalls, packed up their stuff and headed off into the quickly dimming light of the evening as they looked for a place to make camp for their final night under the stars.
When the exhausted flat-mates had finally staked out a good spot, they propped up their two-person tent up for the seventh and final time and then laid out their sleeping bags and equipment inside.
They built a fire near the entrance and shared a can of soup with some bread.
