Advertisement
Published: October 5th 2008
Edit Blog Post
*I know there is lots to read. But, I've come back with 973 pictures on my camera. So, you'll have plenty of pictures as well.
Monday, September 22
Day 3- Woke at 6:30am to shower from a trickling drip of water. I was well aware that I was not in for a luxury lifestyle. Country living. Our outback tour group only had 6 people. Marko from Finland, Merium from Mexico, Frank from Germany, Lawrence from London, Ziva and I. We jumped in the back of Ted's truck after loading the dogs in their cage and headed out on our 'wildlife trek'. We were quick to learn that we were taking part in Ted's favorite thing of all time, pig hunting. As soon as a wild pig was spotted in the hills the GreatDane Shepard mix hunting dogs were released to run down the pigs and hold them until someone got to them to kill them with a quick knife to the heart. After three pigs caught we checked out a cave that was up in the country hills and saw some kangaroos and emus. Dark clouds came quickly and it was pouring rain as we headed out of the bush
Spring Break 08 Australia 138
The world's biggest telescope is here. back to Ted’s place. The 6 of us were sitting under a leaking tarp that covered the back of the truck while we slide around in the mud and got wet for the 40 minutes ride back. We barbecued some lunch then went to shoot some shells in the shot gun. I shot it twice, but I couldn’t keep it steady enough with the kick to aim it well. Since it had stopped raining we jumped back in the truck to take a walk and look for wallabies. Of course the dogs had to come with, and we all secretly knew why. Sure enough, on our walk old Ben ran off and chased down another pig. Four of us took a wild run through the trees trying to follow the dogs bark to find where they were. As we headed back at sundown there were fields of wallabies hoping across the grasses. Barbecuing again for dinner we had emu, kangaroo, beef, potatoes and gravy.
Tuesday, September 23 (Happy birthday Dad)
Day 4- On the road by 8AM in the small tour bus. Coonabarabran is halfway between Melbourne and Brisbane so lots of visitors stay in the small country town.
We had a brief stop at Crystal Palace to see crystals and fossils of the aboriginal lands. Outside of Baradine 40km our bus broke down. What seemed at the time to be a broken water valve, Ted called two friends to meet up with us roadside and take us to our destination in Lightning Ridge. We built a fire and at lunch while sitting roadside for 2 hours waiting. Was not the worst time, but it was a bit cold and drizzling rain. When we finally got into lightning Ridge we went for a dip in the Bore baths; natural hot springs, with water from 1km below. A family of kangaroos came by to look on! Over night was camping at a cabin and converted rail car owned by Ted. There was no electricity or plumbing. We made a fir and had a huge BBQ including damper bread (aboriginal origin), stewed kangaroo, pork, sausages, potatoes, beer and wine. Friends of the town came to play guitar and sing *hilarious, witty, sexual and Aussie songs. A great outback time. To make it more of an adventure, though not on purpose, Jim who saved us from our broken down bus had to
get back to his farm so he took off early and still had Ziva and my backpacks. So we were left with nothing! Cross your legs too because there was only an outhouse! I couldn’t help but enjoy myself and laugh at every mishap.
Wednesday, September 24
Day 5- I woke up early enough to watch the sunrise. 5:20AM. Frank and I started up the fire as it was still really chilly outside. Even in the summer time the outback can drop to freezing temperatures at nighttime. Everyone else woke soon enough and we cooked breakfast campfire style with eggs and toast. I had a rotten egg as I was cracking them into the pan. P-U-! Stinky and it got all over me. These eggs were fresh from the cage at Ted’s house. Since we had no showers, we went back to the bore bath for a dip. When we got there it said it was closed for cleaning. Hmm, wasn’t suppose to be. We found out the someone died in the pool overnight. Most likely drug related. Typical Aussie culture, they didn’t care if we went in, there were other people in as the maintenance had pumps on.
We were just told to keep our head out of the water. So testing fate, we went in. Two weeks later now and I’m not sick, so. After our warm, steamy bath we went to the John Murray outback art gallery. He is an excellent artist and did the work for Ando’s outback tours marketing. Amazing stuff! After a short stop in an opal shop we all were briefed on what rough, cut, and polished stages of opal looked like as we were going to the opal mines later in the day. A friend of Ted’s is an aboriginal descendant so we stopped by his place for an hour to hear what he had to say about aboriginal Australia. It was cool for a bit but I was bored and it became too long. You might imagine how older people like to talk continuously with little direction or progression to the story. It was much like Native Americans. They were run off their land and all he’d tell us was that there was nothing they could do. After that we headed to Glennary 70km. Went to see Smurf at the opal mines. I got to climb down the 50ft mine
shaft and look at the dugout mining caves. Then we became spectators and scavenged through some rock in hopes to find some valuable opal. No such luck though. To end the day we drove 3.5 hours back to Ted’s place.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0515s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb