Before you report me, it’s not what you’re thinking!
Two weeks ago, pre-6am, I waved a salty goodbye to my
sisters and cousin as their taxis whipped them away into Melbourne’s inky
morning. Steve and I had spent the last 21 days with them, hurtling through
Australia’s famous Outback in a tin can on wheels, and living to tell about it.
But it turned out to be so much more than a vacation, an adventure or a bunch
of photo opportunities. I think it really exposed all of us to the value of
family and just how lucky we are that we also happen to be friends. I guess a
good old-fashioned road trip will do that to you.
The girls all arrived in Melbourne and our tiny apartment
instantly imploded on itself with suitcases, air mattresses, sleeping bags,
towels, and a whole lineup of footwear. There were literally paths along the
floor where we had to travel along; I think that’s what it must be like to live
in an anthill. Anyway. Living in a studio apartment with 5 people might seem
tricky, but it was good practice for the weekend, when we would all pile into a
camper van for a little over two weeks.
I can only explain the hilarity of the camper in this way:
whenever we would pull up to a campsite and pile out like clowns out of a
circus car, some curious soul would always approach us for a friendly chat,
which, without fail, at some point led to “So, how many of you ARE there?” or “Where do you all sleep!?” We fascinated people – and not
only for being able to live in closer-than-close quarters, but even more so
because our outfit consisted of 1 guy and 4 girls. When people found that out,
their reply usually was, “lucky bloke!” to which I would respond, “we’re all
related.”
So many times on the trip (and afterwards for that matter) we
would ask each other – “what was your
favourite part/day/place?” None of us could ever really answer. All of the
experiences were unique and hold different sentiments for everyone. Some
quick-draw ones for me include:
- Riley making homemade Calzones and baking them over the fire at Standley Chasm.
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| Cheesy perfection! |
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| Makin' dough |
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| The coals were the key! |
- Playing beer pong in an underground hotel in Coober Pedy.
- Free camping under a lighthouse in Portland, and stepping out to see the night sky awash with stars and a milky trail, being rhythmically pulsated with the lighthouse beams.
- Meeting a retired farming couple whom we shared our mulled wine with by the fire, and in return were gifted with a jar of the wife’s homemade tomato relish
- Meeting yet another retired couple and teaching them the card game of “A-hole” at a camp ground in Alice Springs, rounding off the night with some of their delicious French-pressed coffee
- Seizing victory over Steve in a round-robin tournament of a ridiculous paddle & ball game we invented with backdrop scenery of the native forest and craggily escarpment of the Flinders Ranges.
- Renting a 5-person pedal bike in Clare valley and taking it on a wine tour, in the rain!
- Making Canada proud by faithfully donning every scrap of
red and white that we owned, eating poutine and riding an electronic bull on
July 1st in Adelaide
I could go on, but I would like to expand on a few of the experiences that I think we all hold close to us. I think one of the first outstanding memories was really our first night in the Outback. We had been travelling along our merry way, and chatted to some folks at a rest stop about places to camp. They suggested Lake Hart, a free camping spot just off of the highway.
When we pulled our van into the place, we realized instantly how
magical it was. The lake itself was stunning, imbedded in the rusty earth of
the ‘red centre.’ We rocked up just before sunset, and made our way down to the
water to snap a photo or two. When we reached the shore, we quickly noticed the
frosting of salt that the sand dunes were capped with. At the water’s edge, we
understood that it was a natural salt lake; the mineral had cemented itself in
ripples under the shallow water as far out as we could see. We all tasted some
of the natural seasoning and Kacy and I took our shoes off and got right
amongst it. I think this may sound underwhelming to anyone reading, but I
assume we all thought this was spectacular, not only for the view, but that we
were fresh on our journey into the desert, and happened upon this scenery by
pure chance. Don’t you think that sometimes things are more enjoyable because
you didn’t expect them?
Something we did
expect to be awe-inspiring was one of the main reasons we drove 2,324 kms
towards ‘nothing’ in the first place - Uluru. Ayre’s Rock, as it is also
called, is an Aboriginal dreaming place of the Anangu people, a peculiar
sandstone formation in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. We pulled up to the
Sunset viewing area and made dinner in our portable-home as the sun dipped and
painted Uluru in many different shades; glowing orange, copper, white and brown
before it faded into the night.
The next
day our team assembled at the crack of dawn and set out to hike the
neighbouring Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) rock formation and then secondly, the base
walk at Ayres. In all, it was nearly a day of ~20km of hiking, however well
worth the humbling feeling of nature in some of her grandest forms. Admittedly,
we were all a little thirsty as we rounded the last bend of the walk, and
celebrated our travels with a traditional Australian bevvy in a traditional
Canadian style.
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| Kata Tjuta |
The last experience I want to highlight was our encounter
with a fleet of Kangaroos. The entire trip, we had only borne witness to some
unlucky marsupials lying on the shoulders of the highway. Many people had
warned us not to drive at dawn or dusk to avoid totaling our car on the
Australian icon – however we had seen nary a one. I even began to think all of
the ‘Kangaroo Crossing’ signs had been put up for tourists to take pictures
of. Finally, our persistence was awarded
when we curled into the folds of the Flinders Ranges. While pulling up to our
campsite for the eve, we began sighting the ‘roos everywhere! Cruising up to a
field, our eyes nearly glassed over; in front of us, hardly 10 meters away,
grazed an uncountable number! We turned off the van and whispered excitedly to
each other as our camera shutters clicked and captured the peaceful moment. We
even noticed some of the ‘roos had joeys, leaning out of their pouches to munch
a few wisps of grass as well. Two young fellows started testing out their boxing
skills; we giggled as they stood on their tails and tried to get a good kick
in. Of course, eventually we got a little too close and they bounced cheerily
away into the hills.
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| How many can you spot? |
After the Ranges, we continued on our journey back in to Melbourne and arrived in the dark and the rain on Saturday night. The girls flew home in the following days and Steve and I returned to our grown-up lives. Back to business as usual. The grunt work, the grind, the rat race; scraping up some more savings for the next big adventure. But if I can share with you what I learned on this trip (other than, you have to keep up with blogging) was that the run-of-the-mill stuff is what makes those times so much better. And I couldn’t have picked 4 better people to do it with. I want to say thank you to Steve, Riley, Kacy and Heather for combining your effort, humour, patience and love to make our endeavor an epic one. You truly are my family jewels, and I wouldn’t trade you for alllllll the opals in Coober Pedy!
