The Outback

  • Heading Bush – Day 1
    The first couple of hours of our tour actually was just us trying to get out of the city of Adelaide. Gus the tour guide repeatedly mentioned how much he hates city driving, and how he couldn’t wait until we were out of the area of traffic lights, pollution, and people rushing around with their ...
  • Heading Bush – Day 2
    We were in for quite a treat that night! We would be having story time over the campfire with some of the Aboriginal people who lived in the village. They would be telling us a bit about themselves and their lifestyles, and a bit about the Aboriginal culture.
  • Heading Bush – Day 3
    Before we got to the quarry Terry started to talk to us about spirituality. He pointed to a mountain which he said was the oldest piece of land known anywhere in the world. He told us that life first developed here, as it must have, because it was the oldest place known in the world. ...
  • Heading Bush – Day 4
    Our next main stop was to Cooper Pedy, a mining town. Cooper Pedy means ‘white mans hole’ in the Aboriginal language. It was named as such because as soon as it was discovered that this area had opals, people started digging frantically for them – hence making a huge ‘white mans hole’.
  • Heading Bush – Day 5
    This town used to be the end of the line for the old Ghan railway – a railroad that was built many years ago by Afghans who had come into the country for work. It was initially called the Afghan railroad for that reason, but it was shortened to Ghan later.
  • Heading Bush – Day 6
    It was a muddy river. Isn’t this where crocs hang out? So maybe they aren’t seen in the desert, I wasn’t getting into any body of water in Australia that I couldn’t see my hand when it was an inch underwater.
  • Heading Bush – Day 7
    Today,we journeyed to Uluru along the Lasseter highway, named after Harold Bell Lasseter. He was a man who once went into the bush to search for gold and came back telling stories of how he found a whole lot of it. When people went back out looking for it, no one ever found it again. ...
  • Heading Bush – Day 8
    Today we were going to Kata Tjuta, which is a rock formation right next to Uluru. The name means “many heads”, and is named because of the look of many rocks jutting into the sky. We did decide to first take an unscheduled trip back to Uluru. It was still raining, which so rarely happens ...
  • Heading Bush – Day 9
    On day nine of our tour we woke up, as we were in the habit of doing every day, but this time… something was different. This time… we were going to KINGS CANYON!
  • Heading Bush – Day 10
    The last day of our tour was a bittersweet one. It was sad because we’d all soon be out of the desert and back into civilization and going our separate ways, but it was nice to think that soon we’d be back into civilization with hot showers, washing machines, and chocolate chip cookie ice cream ...