Last three or so weeks....

Well, I have decided to skip some the Outback adventure (when I find time, I’ll finish the story). So much more is happening, so here is a quick recap.

The first weekend back from the Outback, I went to my first of three sailing lessons (well, actually only 2 because the last one was crappy weather, and I didn’t feel like sitting in the rain for 4 hours in the harbor); however, the two that I did go to where absolutely amazing. I took the lessons with Sarah, and some other kids from Sydney Uni. Overall, I think I like the main (the big sail) the best. Steering was just too stressful.

Also, during that weekend, I went horseback riding with the Equestrian Club at Uni. I thought it would be a cool way to meet some new people. Didn’t really meet anyone that I wished to stay in contact with, but I did trot on a horse. That was shocking because the way the event was described, it seemed like it was be just a stroll. Trotting was a bit terrifying at first as the horse listened to virtually none of the commands I gave to it and two, it was a bit quicker than I liked. However, after a while it became somewhat fun.

April 12th – 13th

The next weekend I went to the Blue Mountains with Arcadia. This trip was free for all the Arcadia kids at Sydney Uni. This weekend, there were about 25 of us who went. We met at the Sydney train station and drove about an hour to Featherdale Wildlife Park. Here we were able to pet koalas, wallabies, and kangaroos! I also had a run in with Japanese tourists in the bathroom line who insisted on being so close to me to touch me. Honestly, this isn’t Japan. They have personal bubbles in Australia! Every time I would move away from the women behind me, they would move with me. It drove me crazy.






Then, we drove a bit more, stopped at a small town for lunch, and then we on a bush walk. I didn’t really like the bush walk. First, we were not informed of the terrain. It was steep and rocky. Most of us thought it would be a stroll, and therefore wore the wrong clothes and brought the wrong type of bags. Additionally, the guy was suppose to be teaching us about the Aboriginals, but he seemed like a want-to-be hippie in my eyes. The highlight, though, was using ochre to face paint.


Becca painted my face...it was pretty cool.
After the walk, we headed to the YHA for the night and grabbed dinner. I went with Nicole, Erin, and Becca and we all got fish and chips. Pretty good. I’m bitter though that I had to pay for ketchup (30 cents a packet…though cheaper than the eatery on campus which charges 40 cents).

On Sunday, we went abseiling. We did the first 3 abseils, but were unable to do the 50 meter one. It stormed and everything got soaked. They deemed it unsafe once the rain passed, as the rocks and the equipment were wet. I have gone repelling once before this and was absolutely terrified. This time was much more enjoyable and less scary.

The next stop was the national park. The highlight here was the three sisters. You can actually walk out to them, but I didn’t have time as some of my friends and I checked out some other areas of the park. Also, it was a ridiculous amount of steps, something in the ballpark of a thousand to get out there. I wasn’t terribly sad I missed those.

The three sisters.

April 16th

Tonight was the John’s informal (aka a frat party). I went with my roommate. This was our attempt to be “involved” in John’s life. I paid $25 to do this. While I was annoyed at first that I was paying to go to a party at a residence I live at and more importantly for the equivalent of a frat party (which are FREE at home), I heard that there were live bands, so I thought the money wouldn’t be too bad. Well, “bands” here I have since learned, can also mean DJs. Yes, yes, I paid $25 to go to a party that only had a DJ, where you had to pay for drinks, and all in all was a pretty boring time. They really need to look into adopting the frat party system here. Though that would never fly, because they don’t really get the concept of free (see the ketchup incident above) or cheap here.

April 17th

MY BIRTHDAY!

In the evening, I went out to dinner with some friends at a pizza joint. Then, some of us headed to drinks at a local bar for a late happy hour. After which, I had to go around and take photos with a list of subjects my friends had made up. There were 21 for the 21st birthday. It was fun and creative. I quite enjoyed it.

April 20th

Today, I went skydiving with John’s! About 30 of us went, not all from John’s, but mostly. It was nice to go with John’s as none of my regular friends wanted to go and we got a group discount which saved me about 100 bucks.

I wasn’t too nervous before we got there, but I started to get nervous when I was suiting up. And, I was definitely nervous in the plane and leaving the plane. You don’t really jump out of the plane; rather you get sucked out. The first few seconds are pretty hard to describe. It very much a mixture of emotions. And, once you get over the "Oh my god, I just jumped out a plane" it is pretty cool. All in all though, an amazing experience. Something you should definitely do at least once.







Things to come: The Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb, a rugby game, Western Australia!

Outback Photos

This was at the first desert camp. Probably the first sunrise I have ever seen.

Wild horses on the side of the road. Check out how blue the sky is.

Those from the "Black Thunder" troopie! We rocked!

This was a chasm that you had to swim and climb back to. I fell into disgusting pools of water on the way back there. First, you had to swim across a swimming hole, then you had to climb over all these rocks that was so slippery by the time I crossed them. It was really a neat place though.

The group on the edge of King's Canyon - laying down and practicing cliff safety!

   Random road...but pretty cool shot.

A sunset at a desert camp.

The Uluru!

And, the whole group at Uluru just before sunset.

The Outback...well part of it..

Ahh, so there is so much to discuss! However, I'm very busy - so this is only part of the Outback trip. Since then, I have taken sailing classes and gone to the Blue Mountains.

I’ll warn you now, it is going to be long. The cliff notes version: my Easter Break trip to the Outback was nothing short of amazing.

Saturday, March 15th

Sarah and I went on a walk that we found in her guidebook. It took about 3 hours. We walked from Shark Beach to Watson Bay. The beach is surrounded by shark nets (perhaps, how it got its name, though I don’t know if the waters are particularly infested with sharks around the area). It was a really nice area. The water was really calm, unlike Coogee. We swam for a bit, took photos, and had lunch before commencing the walk. The walk too us through a really wealthy area of Sydney – the houses were gorgeous. Another highlight was the South head of the harbor (and of course, we took a thousand photos).

Thursday, March 20th

Good thing I have a roommate or I would have slept through all three alarms I set! I got a bit of a late start, but so did Becca (my friend at Sydney Uni who also went on the trip) – so it evened out. We met in the middle of campus and hailed a cab to the airport, as it was cheaper to split a cab than to take public transportation and it was a much shorter journey. We got to the airport early and breezed through security (the only thing they do remotely similar to the US is you have to take your laptop out of its case. Other than that it is pretty much like US security pre-9/11). We walked around the airport before making our way to the gate. At the gate, we met Jeff. Jeff, is another study abroad/Sydney Uni kid that went on the trip

I slept through the majority of the flight. Only to wake up as we were descending into Alice Springs. After gathering our belonging and we grabbed a taxi (again, cheaper to split three ways than to each pay for the shuttle). Our cab ride was nothing short of the perfect introduction to the Outback. The driver was definitely from the “bush” and half deaf. Of course, there was also country music on the radio. Really, what could be better or more appropriate?

We stayed at the YHA Hostel. First experience in such accommodations, and it really was not too bad. Luckily, we were with all Arcadia people. We were the first to arrive as I think the others on our flight (who we didn’t know at the time) took the shuttle. Being that no one was around, we dropped our bags and started to explore Alice Springs. Now, Alice Springs, really not that big, but somehow we managed to entertain ourselves for a few hours. We went into the majority of the shops and even took a didgeridoo lesson! I sucked at it, I couldn’t even get it to make the proper sound. But, Becca and Jeff weren’t so bad.

When we were back to the YHA we ran into the Arcadia staff and caught up with the rest of the group. First impressions were good (and this held true for the whole trip, everyone was really cool and nice).

Later in the evening, there was a group meeting. While we were in our meeting (which was in a public space/park area) there were these Aboriginal children (around 11 or 12) “playing.” There were throwing rocks and glass bottles at each other, and got terribly close to us while doing so. Additionally, some of them would just wonder in our circle and sit down and then run around us. I must say the glass throwing was only abut 5 feet away from me, and I was not a fan of it. It didn’t really help that their English is poor, so when were like “hey, why don’t you guys stop, we’ll be out of here in 15 minutes,” they did not really comprehend.

After the meeting, Jeff, Becca, and Lindsay (a new friend from the University of New South Wales) headed to a pizza place and got something to go. We then watched this documentary in the park about “the last great cattle drive.” It was ridiculous, but all in all a good night. After more walking around Alice Springs (by places we had been pass 10 times by this point), we went back to the hostel and got ready for bed and our big day on Friday.

Friday, March 21st

Today, started bright and early at 6:30 AM. We packed up the troopies and headed out of Alice around 9 AM. The first stop was actually just outside of Alice – the Alice Springs Desert Park. Here were watched a Birds of Prey show, say kangaroos, listened to a presentation on the Aboriginal people.

We left the park at noon. Almost immediately after leaving, we started smelling burnt rubber in our troopie (which was quite spacious at the time because only 6 people were in it and it was made for 11, though the other troopies were fuller). Yet, no in our troopie could figure out the source of the smell, until we saw the smoke coming from the troopie’s trailer (where all the food was). The tire ended up blowing out on the trailer. This meant everyone in that troopie had to divide themselves among the other two, and one of the leaders took the trailer back to Thifty while we went onto our next stop.

The next stop was Stanley Chasm. We had lunch here and took a short walk to the chasm, which was gorgeous! Cam had great timing, arriving at the parking lot just as we got back from our walk. Unfortunately, he had no trailer. There was a bolt cutting into the tire – he actually blew another tire on the way back to the rental company. Being that it was Easter weekend, there was no one to fix it. So, all the food went in that troopie, meaning the other two troopies were packed to capacity with campers.

The final stop for the night was Wallace Rock Hole, which was on Aboriginal land. Here we unloaded the troopies, pitched our tents. We had a bush dinner – kangaroo, rabbit, baked potatoes, corn, and damper. We saw the kangaroo and rabbit get prepared as they still had their fur on when we arrived. I wouldn’t eat the rabbit again, but kangaroo is delicious! Luckily, tonight we had full amenities – bathrooms, sinks, laundry, and showers! We all took advantage because this would be the last day we had showers for a few days.

Saturday, March 22nd

Today started at 6:30 Am with breakfast. Then, we packed up camp and got into the troopies and headed to Wallace Rock Hole where Dorren, an Aboriginal women gave us a tour. We looked at rock art that is thousands of years old. She also discussed the Aboriginal community in the area – in total only 60 people live there.

After the tour, we received word that we were not getting a trailer for the food. And, we would have to make due be super close to each other in the two troopies. The troopie ride to our next location was quite fun. We told jokes and stories over the CB radio…it was quite hilarious.

The next stop was Ellery Creek Big Hole. Here, we ate lunch, then had a swim. The water was quite deep and cold. After a while though, you adjusted to the water. But, the sand was incredibly HOT. You literally had to run across it. There was also a man playing the didgeridoo, which was lovely and added to the “Australia-ness” of the experience.

After swimming, we set up camp. For dinner we broke into smaller groups to cook. I was with Jeff and Ramon. We made a chicken stir fry in a trangia, which is a pot-like/stove-like thing.

After dinner, we washed everything up and then went down to the beach area. We listened to nature, had question of the day (basically, it was a sentence that everyone had to finish), and listened to the man play the didgeridoo again.

Sunday, March 23rd

Another early start at 6:30 AM with breakfast and packing up camp. Next up was an “easy” hike. To me easy meant a straight, flat path that my grandma could do, clearly that was not Lydon’s (our leader) definition. It was a steep and rocky walk, but the at the top it was beautiful.

Around 10:30 we pulled out of Ellery and pulled off and did a random walk. This one was much steeper and it was a challenge. There were this anthill we had to walk across, and the ants attacked your feet. I definitely got a few bites, and they were not pleasant.

The next stop was some orca pits. Not too exciting. The 3rd stop was Glenn Helen Homestead – civilization! We had lunch, got to go swimming, and was able to buy snacks at the shop.

The campsite was 5 minutes away – it was by the oldest river (now dry) in Australia, Finky River. While looking for a site, we saw a wild bull. We later chased that bull away and made camp where he was. The campsite was on beachy, white sand. It was really nice. Tonight, we did dinner in small groups again – I was with Jeff and Ramon again.

The flies tonight were soo bad. Seriously, it was not uncommon to have 50 flies on your back. This sounds gross, but better to have them on your back than in your face. This night, I greatly regretted making fun of Sarah for purchasing a fly net in Sydney. They look ridiculous, but are very effective. I was also upset at myself because I had an opportunity to buy one at Glenn Helen – but didn’t.

We had the question of the day again, this was a nightly occurrence. We also told ghost stories and random stories, and all in all it was an excellent night.

However, later the time came to use the bathroom. And, yes we were in the middle of the desert. The bathroom consisted of a hole in the ground. Not the highlight of the trip for me.