Hey all! We had a great time on the Groovy Grape with our new enthusiastic companion, Steve, (BRILLIANT!). We started off our journey through the Outback by driving over to Uluru a.k.a. “Ayer’s Rock”, the biggest attraction in the Outback. We spent two days here and on the second night we got to experience a once in a life time opportunity of a thunderstorm over Uluru. The next day we headed over to King’s Canyon, where yet again we experienced another thunderstorm this time in the middle of our hike and we had to race back to the van. The next morning we took a drive to Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world and a town where you felt you were always being watched. Here, we spent the night in an underground house as 85% of the locals do to escape the heat. When we woke up the next morning, Steve drove us to a near by cave where we got a tour of how opal is mined and prepared for the consumers. Before leaving Coober Pedy, we got the chance to see kangeroos for our first time in Australia at an orphanage near our cave house. While we were at the orphanage, three of the guys purchased didgeradoos creating the first band in the group, “Here Come the Turtles”. On our last day, we said our goodbyes to Steve and half the group as we parted ways to our seperate projects with CVA, (Conservation Volunteers of Australia).
With CVA, one half of our group was sent to Leigh Creek in search for kangeroos while the other half went to Brookfield Park to look for wombat burrows. The Leigh Creek group was up at 4:30 every morning to be out in the bush for primetime kangeroo sighting. Work finished by 8 AM for this group, giving them much down time which prepared them for the Buddist Monistary. The group in Brookfield, 5 hours away, was up by 7 every morning working until lunch time. After the five days of Volunteer work, we all made our way safely to the beautiful city of Adelaide.
When the Brookfield group arrived here to Adelaide today at 3, the Leigh Creek group that had gotten in the day before had an amazing Thanksgiving spread prepared. Australian style of course, the dinner consisted of Kangeroo on the barbie along with all traditional Thanksgiving dishes (minus the Turkey). Reunited, we had a great meal together and talked about our plans to come.
Below, we have connected the link to our flickr account where you can view some of the pictures that we have taken throughout the trip. It has been pretty tough to upload pictures down here, so not all pictures are able to be viewed, sorry for the inconvenience. Until next time, This is Gabe and Michael Signing off on behalf of the FANZ Carpe Diem walkabout group.
CHEERS!!!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/walkaboutcarpediem/
