OUTBACK ADVENTURE - Days 1-2

Day 89 - 27th Apr - Outback Safari - Day 1

We were picked up by our driver, Daniel, driving his off-road jeep and trailer and after signing our life away at the office we were off.

Today would be the longest drive of the whole trip. We had to cover a lot of ground before the scenery would start to get interesting. Most of the landscape going out of Adelaide was flat and featureless, with fields for raising livestock. We drove through some tiny little backwater towns, often stopping for a snack or toilet stop. It wasn't until later in the afternoon when the scenery started to get interesting as the picturesque Flinders Ranges emerged into view on the horizon. From this point we were in another world. The mountains were stunningly beautiful, tall red rocks with bush and shrub growing all over them. We stopped at an area which contained Aboriginal cave paintings on the walls.

After a short walk around the area we hopped back on the truck and were taken off to a campsite just as it was getting dark. The campsite was located near an area called Wilpena Pound, a scenic area we would explore tomorrow as it was getting dark now. The campsite was a luxury resort compared to the places we would be staying once we really got deep into the outback. It had toilets, showers and running water! This we would have to do without before long. We got out the cooking equipment and prepared our food: spaghetti bolognaise, always easy to cook for a group of people.

After eating we got out our swag-bags and got ready to turn in for the night. Shortly before bed we spotted a couple of kangaroos snooping around the campsite in the dark. Despite the number of times I've seen these creatures by now I never get tired of them. They were shy at first, more so than wild kangaroos near towns, but I managed to get close without spooking them. I even managed to get close enough to pet them, always a pleasure with wild animals.

We crawled into our swags and slept in the open air. I was certainly surprised at how comfortable they were and I slept soundly.

Wallaroos. Halfway between kangaroos and wallabies apparently

Day 90 - 28th Apr - Outback Safari - Day 2

We got up early and prepared breakfast before washing up and then packing everything back in the trailer. Already we were starting to get a routine going, after all we had done the same thing for lunch and dinner yesterday. We would unpack everything from the boxes in the trailer then prepare everything. Afterwards we would wash up, using the water tanks on the trailer, then we would shove everything back again. We also rolled up our swags and strapped them to the roof of our trailer under a big waterproof tarpaulin.

By now we were all starting to get to know each other a little better. Unlike previous trips, which had far too many people from my home country present, this trip really was a multinational affair, Europe, America, Canada, Japan and even Australia itself were all represented in the group. Most were backpackers but a couple of them were picked up on day one at the Grosvenor and Hilton hotels, rather an enormous contrast to the conditions we would be facing for the rest of the trip!

Since we were already in Wilpena Pound we didn't have to go far to start our first walk of the day. We wandered into the mountains and enjoyed the relative solitude and the scenery. Our guide Daniel also gave us some interesting insights into Aboriginal mythology and their version of the history of the area. Aboriginals have an incredibly strong spiritual connection to the land and this was reflected in the stories he told us.

After returning to our vehicle we made our way down an incredibly scenic dirt road, stopping for photos many times and also for lunch. This track took us right through the mountains and up close to some wonderful views of the spectacular red mountains. Eventually we reached the end of the Flinders Range and the scenery became flat and barren. We drove for some time along a straight road that went on forever, stopping eventually at an old fashioned outback pub in the middle of nowhere. We had a couple of cold beers which were a treat in the hot dry weather and were soon on our merry way.

Soon the scenery started to become slightly more hilly again and we arrived at a place called Iga-Warta just as it was getting dark. Iga Warta is a small Aboriginal community that is far from any other settlement in the area. The locals there live life according to traditional ways practiced by their ancestors years ago. They don't live exactly like they used to of course, they now have cars and speak English but they still maintain much of their cultural and religious beliefs.

We were warmly welcomed and introduced to some of these traditions through an evening of storytelling and songs around the campfire, partly in their native tongue and partly in English. Aborigines have a strong tradition of respecting the land they live on and taking care of it, respecting it. They believe the earth to be a living creature and that people are spirits living temporarily in this mortal shell on borrowed time, for lack of a better description. They believe that when they die they souls come back as anything, another animal or even part of this living earth.

Through a number of stories we also learned about other aspects of their culture. I was impressed with one story, the moral of which was more or less: respect women and treat them right or they will kick your ass! Not quite in those words of course but nevertheless a lesson many blokes would do well to take to heart. In Aboriginal culture there were, like so many others, gender specific roles and the males were the hunters while the women tended to the land, growing and picking food. It would be a mistake however to assume that everything relied on the male input to society. The men did hunt but in terms of food supply it was the food grown by the women that provided the most to eat. So in other words the women did almost all the work! Make any comparisons you like to reality, history or relationships I'm saying nothing!

I must say it was nice to see Aboriginal people living traditionally and in a dignified manner like they used to. In the cities around the coast they often tend not to do so well. There is still a lingering resentment about the way they were treated and things were not put right until very recently. To say that the treatment they received at the hands of white Europeans was less than benevolent would be a horrendous understatement. Other problems also continue to plague Australia's natives, particularly alcohol abuse. Apparently, due to living for tens of thousands of years without the stuff they didn't take to it very well and, according to one of my guides from another trip, Aboriginal alcohol tolerance is quite low. Worse yet there is still massive racism against the indigenous people. Many whites still look down upon them as backwards people and criminals, ironic really when you look at all the white ancestors who came to Australia as convicts. Rolf Harris recently caused a stir in the papers after apologising for the original racist anti-Aboriginal lyrics in Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport, look it up, then completely nullified it by essentially telling every native to get off their backwards lazy arses and stop being a drain on society. Why not not put that in a song Rolf old mate?

At any rate, as I said, it was nice to see Aboriginals living how they really wanted to.

our intrepid driver and guide: Daniel