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Hi I continue my trip over the vast lands of the OUTBACK. We enter a land of aboriginals, wild camels, lizards, snakes, and the Kangaroo. The sun is deadly hot as we drive across the barren land. We left from Townsville on the east coast and drove towards Tennant Creek, going towards The Alice which is what the locale people call Alice Springs. I went through places called Julia Creek, Devils Marbles, Barrow Creek, Tie Tree. We saw many cows on the way and many dead ones and tons of dead kangaroos. When you drive at night or early morning you take the risk of hitting an animal on the road! Thank God we never were faced with that we only drove in daylight hours.That is why you see tons of trucks and cars with the 'roo bars' a huge outside bumper made from bars of metal! Some even have a shovel on the front to scope the dead animal over them or off to the side! Making our way through all the tiny towns along the way we finally made it to the Alice.I must tell you that when you are on the road in the outback you really realize what it is to be alone and very tiny in such a huge open land, as far as the eye can see FLAT LAND! In the Alice we went to all the touristy stops LOL.. I coming from a family of pilots, my dad, my brother, my aunt, my granfather I had to see the Royal Flying Doctor Service! A very special place because these doctors take their lives in hand every time they fly to give the outback people living in very remote places the doctor care they need. I also went on a Camel tour! You must do this wow huge fun! I did a 6 day Camel Safaris and ended up at a Corroboree! This is a Aboriginal festive ceremonial dance gathering around fire. It was just out of this world..I and my friends were very honored to be asked to come to the Gunbalanya(Oenpelli) in Arnhem Land. This land is not far from Jabiru which is up near Darwin. So usually you need a permit to go on to aboriginal land, but not when asked as a guest. We stayed with a very lovely family there for one week. I learned so many special things from my adopted family! I truely saw how the people lived and I did learn how to survive in the outback! I even ate a grub! LOL it was gross! We climbed Ayers Rock (Uluru) and explored The Olgas (Kata Tjuta). Both very mysterious and Beautiful! Ayers Rock is very sacred to the aboriginal people. It belongs to the Pitjantjatjara people who lease it back to the goverment for tourisim but they would like it if no one climbed on it! But this brings the visitor to their rock where they can make money for their people. We climbed it in 1 hour 15 mins.! WOW it usually takes acouple hours! We looked at it and said no problem we can climb this! We did the high five thing and slapped each other's butts like the guys do! LOL We did not even get 30 yards up before we were lying on the side of a shear cliff huffing out our guts thinking who brought the water...NOT ONE OF US! LOL We were saved by a great couple coming back down who gave us their water! Then we raced each other up the shear side of this huge Rock! We all won because by the time we got to the top we were all holding hands because the wind was blowing so hard we almost got blown off!! LOL We visited a homestead at Ross River Homestead it was very cool! We saw beautiful places with exotic names like RainBow Valley, Todd River, Chambers Pillar, N'Dhala Gorge, Timber Creek, Nhulunbuy, Roper Bar, Pine Creek, Katherine Gorge, Docker River, Harts Range and many other places of beauty and the locale people were lovely exciting original down to earth people! I must say that if I was not married I would have looked very hard for an outback man! My girlfriend really wanted to meet a guy that she saw on T.V in Canada, he was Troy Dunn, I think. Not too sure of the name. He had done an outback show so we got draged to every town. LOL!! But in the end it was worth it ! The outback was the best time I have ever had and I really learned something about myself. When you sit in the desert with nothing around you for miles and you just look out over this land you feel the silence. You see in your minds eye the settlers and the aboriginal people struggling to all fit together. You see the hardships, the deaths and the rebirths of a new country,and you beleive your one special dream will come true, I hope. by saramia copyright@saramia2000 all photos copyright@saramia2000
Even though we were fine I would ask all women who travel to the outback to let the authorities know if you travel into the remote areas of Oz.Just incase your car conks out or you end up being dinner to a croc! Stay away from the rivers please! Unless you are on a tour.The aboriginals are great people but be carefull you do get the odd one and that goes for the white guy too! Also you do need to get permits to the aboriginal lands to stay or visit most of the time you can not get one.Just ask the Land Council in the Alice/Darwin. A 4WD is recommended and try to stay at theHomesteads instead of the locale hostel.You will not regret it! Try to go to the places a locale person would go to The Pub! You meet very cool people. The locale Pub is full of children & women this is a gathering place not just a guys drinking hole! |
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