Into the Outback

Sorry for the delay in posting, but this has been a crazy week in which I said goodbye to my parents, and headed into the Outback. Before I said goodbye, I spent one more day on Tuesday in Melbourne with Mom and Dad. We went back to Queen Victoria's Market to try to find last minute souvenirs for my parents, but there were only about half the vendors there on the weekend, so we didn't have much luck finding what we were looking for. I guess I'll just have to go back on my own some weekend to do their shopping for them. We were able to get some great bread, dips, smoked salmon, and wine from the market which we brought back to our hotel for a light but delicious lunch. After lunch we went to the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail) where we learned about the legendary bush ranger Ned Kelly, and got booked and had mugshots taken. I don't think I would have a chance in surviving in a real jail after that experience. When we were finally released, we headed down to the Yarra for a beer overlooking the river, then went for dinner in China Town. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and playing cards. It was a great way to end their trip, but it was still very hard to leave them Wednesday morning knowing I wouldn't see them again until the end of June. I didn't have much time to miss them on Wednesday though, since I had 8 hours of lectures to either attend or watch online from what I missed Tuesday. I then spent most of Thursday writing a paper, studying, and packing for my next trip...the Outback!!!
Every year my Australian Idol class has their main field trip into the Outback which they say is the only way to see iconic Australia. On Friday morning I boarded a bus with 50 classmates and spent the next 14 hours driving into the nothingness that is the Australian Outback. The first 3 hours reminded me of driving in rural Wisconsin or Minnesota, but then it slowly became more and more isolated. Although it was dark in the final 3 hours, our bus driver informed us that we were only missing 250 km of nothing. You can't really imagine how flat and barren it was until you actually see it. All I know is that when we drove into Broken Hill at 9:30, it seemed like a bustling metropolis even though it only has about 25,000 people. We checked into our luxurious accommodation, and went to bed after a long day of traveling.


My great Outback Hotel Room

 Saturday morning we got up early for our Amazing Race: Broken Hill where we had to race around Broken Hill answering 40 questions about the town. While the other teams were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, my team and I decided to take it more like an opportunity to see the town, so we took our time answering the questions. After an hour and 15 minutes we had made it around the whole town. It is really not that big, but it does have a lot of random things, including a memorial for the band that played on the Titanic (and no the Titanic has no connections to Broken Hill, the local music club just decided Titanic's band deserved a memorial in the middle of Australia) and the world's largest canvas painting. I bet you are all ready to hop on the next plane out to Broken Hill now aren't you?

Broken Hill

After the Amazing Race we went out to the Broken Hill Airport to see the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which provides all medical treatment for people in the Outback. Without these planes, their would be no way to get medical help in an emergency without driving hours and hours on unpaved roads, something I would never want to do. It was very interesting to see how one small command room provides medical treatment for miles and miles. We then grabbed a quick lunch in Broken Hill. We must've caused quite a stir because all the locals whispered about us behind our backs before one of them finally had the nerve to ask us who we were.
That afternoon we went to the "Historic" Day Dream Silver Mine. Like everywhere else we went last weekend, it was an hour drive down a dirt road surrounded by nothing. When we finally got to the mine we got an underground tour. I learned two things on the tour. First, I never ever ever want to be a miner. The mines are dark and small and depressing. I could barely walk through them with a flash light on my head and carrying no weight. I couldn't imagine carrying pounds and pounds of silver through the shafts or finding my way out in an emergency with no light. Second, as stupid as it may have looked, I loved my hard hat. I hit my head at least 10 times on the roof of the mine, but never felt a thing. I think I'll start wearing them all the time!

Heading down the mine

Next on our busy day was a trip to the Outback Sculpture Park overlooking Broken Hill for wine, snacks, and the sunset. I still don't know why they put these sculptures in the middle of nowhere (I did read the plaque like my dad taught me so well to do, but I still have no idea), but the hike up to them was absolutely beautiful and watching the sunset over the sculptures and Broken Hill was a great sight.

Sunset at the Outback Sculpture Park

After dinner back at the hotel (pot roast with potatoes and veggies, which was amazing since it was the first meat, potato (not french fries!), and veggie mean I had in 2 months) our professor, Rob, announced that my team had won the Amazing Race! My team and I had no idea how this was possible since we didn't run while the other teams were running all over the place, but I guess we were the only ones to actually get the answers right. I'm not complaining though! To celebrate our victory, we went to the only "club" in Broken Hill, the Musicians Club. Lucky for us, it was blue grass night, so 4 older men sang some good old country music. Sadly it was not Johnny Cash, but I guess I can't have everything. By 11 the band was done and there was nothing else to do at the club but watch Harry Potter or play the slot machines, so we decided to go back to the hotel.
On Sunday I got up early to walk to church in North Broken Hill. They must not get many visitors because when I walked in all the old locals just stared at me with a "you don't belong here" face. I picked an empty pew which was apparently only empty because the people who usually sit in the pew weren't there yet, because I soon found myself squeezed in the pew with four other people. I felt like I was on display for the whole Mass, and was very happy to return to my tour with fellow foreigners.
After church I had time for a quick breakfast before we headed out to the Miner's Memorial. This is a memorial overlooking Broken Hill dedicated to all the people who had died working in the mines surrounding Broken Hill. It was a sombering experience. The youngest miner in the memorial was only 12 when he died, and there were deaths up to the year 2007. It was a reminder of how dangerous mining is.

Miner's Memorial

To lighten the mood after the memorial, we went for camel rides! I can never get enough of feeding/ cuddling/ holding/ swimming with/ riding animals down here, so I hopped on the camel for a ride in the outback. It really wasn't much of a ride, it only lasted about 10 minutes and the camels were walked by the owners, but it was still very fun. It was a lot more bumpy of a ride than I expected, and the camels are not very graceful when they lay down so you can get off.

Riding the Camel

Once we got off the camels, we took a quick stop in the ghost town of Silverton before heading out to Eldee Sheep station, which is a "hobby" farm of 40,000 acres that raises sheep and cattle (its "neighbor" is a station of 140,000 acres). At the station we had lunch before heading out to the sheep shed for a shearing demonstration. I thought it was very interesting, but some of the girls in my group started crying for the sheep. I didn't really understand this because without being sheared, the sheep would die from the heat of the outback.

Next was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, a bush walk through the station to the old farmhouse. We walked up a dried up creek bed for about an hour before we arrived at the homestead of the first owners of the station. Only remnants of the homestead remain. Back in the 1800s squatter's rights were given to any person who claimed a piece of land and proved to be planting crops or using the land for livestock. These rights were only on 90 year leases though, so after 90 years the land was returned to the state and the people had to move. That's what happened to the original owners of the station. When their 90 years were up, they tore down their houses and barns leaving only the brick chimneys and cellars as signs they were ever there. I loved walking in the middle of the outback with nothing around you but dirt and sun (and tons and tons of flies, which wasn't so fun). I could've wandered around for another hour or two, but some of the girls in the group kept asking if the bus was going to come and meet us (to which my teacher replied, you do understand the meaning of "going on a walk" right?). So instead we went back to the main house for juice and scones.

Walking in the dry creek bed in the bush

After afternoon "tea" we started to make our way to the hills at the edge of the station to watch the sunset. There were no trails or anything, so we just made our way through the bushes and weeds. Luckily we didn't see any snakes or poisonous plants. I'm having trouble with adding pictures to the blog tonight, but the views from the hills were incredible! I thought the sunset over the sculpture park was pretty the night before, but nothing compared to this! It may have been a long walk, but it was more than worth it. The only hard part was making our way down the hills and back to the main house in the dark. Not easy to do when bushes pop up everywhere. When we finally did get back, they had a BBQ steak dinner waiting for us, and after dinner we had a fire. A few of us walked out a ways to get a better view of the stars. Most people were amazed at all the stars we could see, but the moon was way too bright. It was pretty, but I've seen 3 times as many stars at the Bluhm's cabin in Northern MN. The only difference was I couldn't find the big dipper because it was upside down and in the wrong part of the sky! After the fire and star gazing we drove back to Broken Hill. On the drive out of Eldee station, I'm not kidding, we probably saw 20 kangaroos hopping around the bus. Kangaroos are pretty stupid creatures too, some were safe on one side of the road, but when the bus came they got scared and hopped right in front of the bus to the other side! One even tried to hop in front of the bus for a few minutes before it realized it could just go to the side and let the bus pass. It was amazing to see so many kangaroos out in the wild! (through out the trip we saw more kangaroos, wallabies, galahs (pink birds), cockatoos, and emus)



Sitting in a tree watching the sun set over the outback

Monday morning we got up early and headed to Mungo National Park. Before we went to Mungo though, we had to switch buses at Wentworth (about 2 hours from Mungo) because the bus we were on refused to travel the hour and a half dirt road to Mungo. I'm sure you have all heard stories about dirt roads in Australia that go on for miles and miles straight through the heart of the outback with nothing around them. If you're like me you're probably thinking, that can't be true, there has to be something around them. Let me tell you, there isn't. This was the most deserted road I have ever seen. I looked out the window and saw nothing but dirt and bushes for the whole 2 hours. I didn't see a single building or man-made object the entire time. Mungo was not much different than the surrounding landscape, expect there were a view buildings near the visitor center. The reason we traveled so long in the nothingness to get to, well, nothing was Mungo is the sight where the oldest human remains have ever been found, They date back 40,000 years, making Mungo the oldest sign of human existence anywhere! The park itself is a lake that dried up 9,000 years ago. An aboriginal guide took us through the lake showing us all the signs of life from thousands of years ago. He would point to a black speck on the ground and tell us that this was "obviously" remnents of a 9,000 year old camp fire, or pick up a small while object that was cooked emu egg shell and another one sitting right next to it that looked exactly the same, but was a wombat bone. I don't know for sure, but my guess is he wasn't making it up, but I would never know if he were.

Our Aboriginal guide showing us a 9000 year old campfire

After Mungo we made our way to Mildura for all you could eat pizza and pasta. Mildura is not a large town, but after spending 3 days in the middle of nowhere, we were all shocked to see other people and cars. We were joking that it was Rob's way of easing us back into civilization before we had to go back to the 4 million people of Melbourne.
Tuesday morning we had a "surprise activity" before heading back to Monash. All we were told was we needed clean hair, clean socks, and had to sign a waiver. We tried to guess what we could be doing, but we had no idea. After driving us in circles for 15 minutes, we pulled into a winery for a tour and tasting. When we asked what the socks were for (we all had them ready to go in our carry-on bag) Rob just laughed at us and called us all suckers. I have to admit, we all felt pretty stupid walking around the winery with our clean socks in our purses. After the winery we made the long drive back to Monash, where I stay for 5 whole days before I head out to Alice Springs to see Uluru (the big red rock). All this traveling is fun, but having to write papers and study for test sure gets in the way!

At the end of this post I want to share with you all the theme song of our trip. If this doesn't make you want to jump on a plane and come to Australia, nothing will!