The Outback

I think it is fair to say that not many of us were looking very forward to this trip. Although we did want to see the outback, 5 days in the desert and two fourteen hour bus trips did not exactly sound very appealing. Surprisingly however, the trip turned out to be pretty fun and seeing the outback was well worth it!

The first day consisted mostly of traveling. We left Monash at 8am in the morning and arrived to our hostel at around 10pm that night. Obviously, we had a few stops along the way but most of us just spent time sleeping away the bus ride. We arrived at the Darling Hotel and split up into different rooms. We all immediately suspected that the hotel was haunted and our group leader, Rob soon confirmed our fears. The hotel was over 120 years old and he said that there had been some reports of ghosts sitings. Although we all begged for details Rob refused to tell us any specifics until our stay there had ended. A little freaked out, we all climbed into bed and tried to get some more sleep before the next early morning.

We spent the entire first day and night in the town of Broken Hill, where we were staying. When silver was first discovered in Broken Hill, the city expanded rapidly. It was full of people and booming with money and industry. Now, however, it is a quiet, run down city that resembles something out of an old western film. First we had a "driving tour" which really was not very exciting because there was not much to see. After this we went and saw the royal flying doctors service station. This is an airplane service of doctors and medics that fly all over parts of Australian helping those who are too far away from hospitals. They are able to arrive much quicker than anyone would in a car and have save many lives as a result. Many people do not realize how large Australia because neatly all of the population reside along the coast. The center however still does have some people and they need services like this to ensure their safety. After this we regrouped and went to view the Miners Memorial. From the time that the first mine was built until the present there have been approximately 816 deaths within the mines. This does not account for those who died outside of the mine because of complications from working in them. It solely includes those who died during the work day. If someone was hit by the rock during the day and died from complications at home that night, they were not included in the count. So you can image how dangerous working in this industry is. The mining memorial is a beautiful dedication to those who have passed. After the memorial we had some lunch (all the Americans managed to find a pizza hut) and then we were required to attend a lecture. This trip was actually considered a field trip through one of our required classes, so I supposed they had to include an academic aspect. After the lecture we went on one more long walk up through the Outback Sculpture Park. Although the park was in the desert it did not seem like it because there was green everywhere. Australia has been experiencing more rain recently than ever before causing all of the deserts to actually look much more green than normal. Pretty wiped out from the traveling and hiking we all headed back to the creepy hotel and got ready for the night- karaoke! Once we got to the karaoke bar everyone signed up for different songs and some of us even won prizes for our performance : )


The second day was definitely my favorite. We started off with an underground tour of an actual mine. Everyone strapped on battery packs, helmets and head lights and headed underground. Without our lights on it was completely dark; it was impossible to even see your own hand if you held it up directly in front of your face. Although the mine was really, really cool I was a little freaked out by it. The tunnels were pretty low and narrow. I think I found it to be more uncomfortable than everyone else because of my height. It was impossible to stand straight up and the ground was pretty uneven. I give all miners so much credit for having to stay underground all day. I am glad that I did it but honestly, twenty minutes of it was enough to last a lifetime. It wasn't too bad if you weren't thinking about it but as soon as I focused on the fact that we were over 100 feet underground it was definitely a little bit hard to breathe. I think that I was also a little freaked out by the thought of past miners who were stuck underground for weeks or months. I cannot image being trapped down there with nothing around, especially if there was no available light source. After we emerged back into the sunlight, we did an above ground walking tour of the mine and learned a little bit more about the past culture. If silver was discovered, everyone in Australia would immediately go to that town in hopes of making some quick cash. The miners would work all throughout the day not receiving a single ray of sunshine. The pay was incredibly high for those who worked underground however, the risks were also very high. Personally, no amount of money could ever force me into such a career.

After the mine we carried on towards a much more light hearted part of the trip- camel rides! (In a town called Silverton) There really isn't too much to say about this part of the trip; it is pretty self explanatory. We just hopped up onto their backs, walked around on them for about ten minutes and then climbed back down. The camels were pretty gross; they just ate grass the entire time that we walked. It was still a pretty cool experience though! I'm glad I can now say that I rode a camel haha.

After the camels we took off to a place called Eldee Station where we stayed for the rest of the day and night. First at Eldee we watched a sheep shearing demonstration. It was unlike anything I have ever seen (or hope to see again.) Sheep shearers actually spend their time traveling from farm to farm working on different sheep. They do not stay in one place. A sheep shearer, shears about 160 sheep per day and they get paid based on how many sheep they shear. Our demonstration included the shearing of three different sheep. Two were sheared specifically for their wool, while one was sheared for slaughter : (  The shearer and other farm hands ensured everyone over and over again that shearing causes absolutely no pain to the sheep, but the process looked pretty painful. It was pretty entertaining to see the difference between a sheep with hair and a sheep without.



After the sheep our group leaders told us that we would be going on a casual bush walk throughout the outback. Little did we know at this time that the walk would turn into a five mile hike. The hike turned out to be pretty intense. We started off walking on sand (which is a work out within itself), continued walking through bushes, burrows and other prickly tree objects and finished with a huge hike up 3 mountains. None of us were prepared for it but I actually ended up really enjoying. Hiking through the outback was a really experience and the views at the top of the mountains were unbelievable. Never did I think that I would spend my afternoon hiking six miles through the outback but it was worth every second. We stayed on the top of the mountain for awhile and were able to enjoy the sunset on our walk back to the farm house. The sunset was amazing. Everything about the outback is so calm and desolate. Even being from the country, I have never seen so much nothingness before. After quite the hike home, we all settled down and got ready for a delicious barbecue dinner, followed by a very appropriate camp fire. Some of us took a break from the fire and walked a little bit to star gaze. This part was definitely one of my favorites of the trip. I love the stars and they were absolutely incredible in the outback. We were able to see the entire Milky Way, Jupiter, Mars, Ryans Belt etc and some of us were even lucky enough to spot a shooting star! You could see everything while you were out there; it was incredible.

Our third day of site seeing started off in the Mungo National Park located in the town of Wentworth. This park is dedicated entirely to the aboriginal people of Australia because it is where they used to live. At one point the park was composed of five different river beds but now it is solely endless miles of sand and desert. This park appeared to be more like a desert than the one we were in the previous day. We spent the majority of the day walking around the park and observing the different landmarks. Eventually we hopped back onto the bus and sped off to our new accommodation for the night in the town of Mildura. We were all pretty excited considering this hotel and town were much nicer than the last one. As soon as we arrived at the new hotel I reminded our group leader Rob that he had to tell us about the ghosts in the first hotel. He said that there were two. One was a miner who had a sudden heart attack in the middle of the night. The other also involved a miner. After working all day he decided to spend his night at the local pub and brought back a "woman" to the hotel. The "woman" was actually a transvestite and once the miner realized this, he murdered him on the spot. Since then there has been a transvestite who haunts room number 20. Rob kindly avoided assigning any of us to that room. After our arrival to the hotel we had some down time before attending a delicious dinner. After eating, we all headed down to the local brewery for some home made beer and ended up going to sleep pretty early.

Our last day was meant to be spent mostly traveling home, but Rob had a surprise activity planned for us first- a winery. We all got a tour of the winery and were allowed to sample various different wines. Just like the winery in Phillip Island, this one also had delicious, fresh wine. This particular one actually had actually been awarded first and second prize in a taste testing competition! Finally we started our departure back to Monash andddd on the way back I saw a wild kangaroo hopping! It made my trip complete and it also made the 10 hour bus ride home much more satisfying.