G'day Mates!
This week we have a special tag team blog for you, brought to you by Emily and Kelsey.
We spent the last 7 days traveling getting in touch with our hippie roots travelling on the Groovy Grape bus through the Outback. We left Adelaide in the early morning, picked up 4 more passengers (Boris and Peter from Switzerland, Laura from Germany, and Laurence from Belgium) and drove most of the day through the beautiful Flinders Ranges, stopping to see some Aboriginal cave paintings and two kangaroos. (Note: for the sake of this blog, we will be referring to ourselves in the third person) Emily, Kelsey, Christine, Ryan, and Willem walked further through the bush and met some Aboriginals who let us ride their kangaroos down the mountain. We stayed the night in an old tuberculosis hospital, which was actually a very nice accommodation. Our tour guide, Michael, prepared some Kangaroo for us, which was mouthwateringly delicious. After chatting around the campfire, we headed off to bed where Lucy weaseled her way into Hannah's bunk bed, convinced her to get naked and sing her a lullaby. Much to Hannah's dismay, she was shortly informed of the fact that she had just been killed in our group game of 'assassin'.
On the second day of our excursion several of us woke up early and decided to walk/mountain bike part of the 17km back to the main road before the bus picked us up. Christine, Lucy, Emily, Laura, and Laurence walked while Dylan, Peter, and Boris opted to ride bikes. Each of them saw a kangaroo or two during their trek before the bus picked them up. Our first stop was a giant hole in the ground that was used for mining. Also at the stop was the largest tire that has travelled the most distance in Australia. Pretty cool.
Next up was arguably the most unique stop of all…Talc Alf. It was a plot of land that belonged to a man who made sculptures using his own interpretation of the alphabet. Kelsey's name meant 'see what's going towards the future', and Gordon's name meant 'the king and the giver of light'. It was interesting to see how much meaning he could find in something that seems so basic to the rest of us. He also had two camels.
On our next stop we visited a ghost town in the middle of nowhere called Farina. The original settlers had set up their lives there because they believed that the rain would follow them so they could have prosperous crops and become rich. Unfortunately, the annual rainfall in that area is about 160mm, so after a few generations, they were forced to abandon their houses and continue their search for better land. A lot of the buildings were still in surprisingly good condition. Lucy and Emily struggled with the fact that so many people had considered those houses to be home, and now they are nothing more than skeletons. It made them think of what their own homes will look like in 100 years, and if people will walk through the ruins of them and wonder the same things.
Our next and final stop was a salt lake where we saw the sunset, and loved it so much that we decided to stay the night there instead of continuing on to a campsite. Emily, Boris, and Dylan found wood to make a fire while Ryan and David went to the edge of the lake and allegedly saw penguins. We truly slept under the stars that night in "swags" which are essentially rolled out thin mattresses. We all loved looking up at at sky as we fell asleep in the middle of nowhere with no one else but us. Many of us had to turn our heads away from the blindingly full moon, but it was a much treasured experience.
After loading up the van the next morning at sunrise, Michael informed us that the were going to have to push-start the van. We all looked at him incredulously for a few seconds before we popped up and started pushing. After a few failed attempts, the muscles of the group (the boys) finally managed to get the van to pick up enough speed to start up in 2nd gear.
We drove pretty much straight through to Coober Pedy, an opal mining town which is partially underground. Although Christine assumed that we would be lifting up a trap door and walking into an underground city, upon arrival we saw that most of the main buildings were above ground while many residential homes were built either into rock or dug out underground. After dropping off our bags at our underground hostel, we took a tour of Umoona, an opal museum, where we saw an underground home and the process of mining, cutting, and polishing opal. Dylan, Hannah, and the Europeans, as we've come to call them, opted to watch the sunset at a spot 20km away from the town in the desert, and also saw the longest fence in the world.
After a pizza dinner, the highlight of the day was visiting a kangaroo orphanage called Josephine's Gallery. Baby kangaroos without a mother are raised here so that they can be returned to the wild and survive successfully. There were four older female kangaroos and a joey we all got to see. We got to pet them, and their fur felt like a baby bunny! We all got to hold Azza, the baby, and some of us even got kisses! Kelsey and many others have decided that they would like a pet kangaroo.
The next day we woke up at 5, had a quick breakfast, and drove almost the entire day to be able to see the sunset at Uluru (Ayer's Rock). Our only stops were when we crossed into the Northern Territory, and to see 'Fooluru', Uluru's impersonator.. The pain that we endured from waking up before sunrise and sitting in the van for most of the day was worth it when we finally got to see the sunset.
We then piled back into the van and drove into our campground in style, blasting 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', and 'I Don't Feel Like Dancing', and interrupting several other campers' dinners when we started a dance party that literally rocked the van. I mean, we are American after all, it is our duty to be as loud and boisterous as possible. 🙂
Part of the group played a game called Werewolves around the campfire before bed, which was an entertaining way to end a long day.
We got up early again the next day to see the sunrise behind Uluru. Even though we were sleepy and cold, it was worth the wait to see the sun pop up. Michael had set up a yummy pancake breakfast for us upon our return to give us fuel for our three hour hike through Kata Tjuta National Park, a group of rocks not as big as Uluru but still quite impressive. There were many great views to be seen and it was nice to get in some physical activity again.
In the afternoon, some us went for a swim and then we all visited the Cultural Centre to learn about Aboriginal culture. After so much oppression, the Aboriginals are more secretive about their lives and cultural practices than the Maoris in New Zealand, so it was good to learn more about them. We ended the day with another shorter hike to watch the sunset in a gorge at Uluru. For dinner, Laura helped us make a traditional German meal of potato salad and sausages. Om nom nom.
The next day was the much awaited 10km (or 6.2 miles for those of you who have yet to switch to the metric system) walk around Uluru. Upon arrival, Michael told us that a German man ran around the base of the rock in a record time of 40 minutes. Naturally, Emily and David took his words as a challenge, and decided to run it as well. I mean, no German man was about to beat us Americans (right?). They ended up running it in a little over 45 minutes, but Emily was still the fastest girl ever. (Mwahaha) The rest of the clan all decided to be a bit more leisurely and enjoyed the beautiful walk around the sacred rock in a timely manner. The only down s
ide to walking was the swarm of flies that badgered us constantly.
ide to walking was the swarm of flies that badgered us constantly.
We left Uluru in the afternoon to drive to King's Canyon. On the way, Michael spotted two different camouflaged lizards called Thorny Devils on the side of the road. Of course we all got out and poked and prodded the bizarre-looking creatures. Michael has the eyes of a predator, which we are very grateful for.
That night we feasted on risotto while sitting around a campfire. Many of us were entertained by the small field mice rustling around in the bushes…that is until they ventured out during the night. Hannah's screams can attest to the fact that they were a little bit too curious. Ryan, Lucy, Emily, and Christine all saw at least one shooting star which will hopefully bring good luck for the remainder of the trip.
The next morning we drove to the actual Canyon part of King's Canyon for a 3-4 hour hike. We stayed together for most of the first half of the hike (except for when Cliff and Dylan dropped their bags to race back up the side of the mountain), and reached the Garden of Eden as a group. Hannah, Dylan, Gordon, David, Laura and Laurence all jumped into the watering hole that was in between two of the canyons, while the rest of us looked on in amusement as they initially dipped their toes into the freezing cold water. Ryan shimmied his way over to a small cave in the side of one of the rock faces, and started a mass exodus of rookie rock climbers (minus Cliff and Karen) who wanted to check out his discoveries.
After about an hour or so, Michael told us we needed to get moving, so we continued on our way. Gordon, David, and Willem Hardcore Parkoured their way down the rest of the mountain. Emily attempted to parkour (not hardcorely) behind them, but just ended up walking briskly, while the rest of the group walked down as normal human beings should and enjoyed the views.
We then drove the remaining 720km to Alice Springs where we had one final group dinner with pizza that Michael provided at our hostel.
After a week of traveling a total of 3,000km together, we will all definitely miss the Europeans. Several of us formed close bonds with them, and we hope to see them all at some other point in the trip or at some other point in our lives.
Yesterday we hopped on a plane back to Sydney, dropped our bags off at the hostel, and rushed over to the Sydney Opera House just in time to catch William Shakespeare's play, 'Much Ado About Nothing'. It was surprisingly funny, and the experience of seeing the show at such a famous theatre will not soon be forgotten.
Today, we're celebrating Easter by celebrating our own holiday, Creaster, a blend of Christmas and Easter. We've all picked Secret Santas and are doing a gift exchange later today. It's such a fun way to celebrate, and a good excuse to eat candy!
Today we will be travelling to our next destination, Satyananda Mangrove Retreat Center for our spiritual retreat. We are looking forward to a week of calmness after so much chaos. You'll be hearing from us soon!
Until next time,
Emily and Kelsey
