Day 1 - Outback Adventure Tour

Adelaide to Parachilna

Today started off waking up at 5:45am to meet the bus by 6:20am. While our leader, Scooter, loaded all the bags, the other 24 of us got on the bus. This is where I made a big mistake - I saw a spot with a footrest type thing, so I took that spot thinking it would be nice for my short legs. Obviously, my brain doesn't function that early because I sat on the rear tire - its been a bumpy ride!

So we drove for 2 hours before our first stop in Clare. W e refueled, loosened our legs, used the loo, ate and headed back on the road. Next stop was a hour and a half later for another pit stop. we arrived in Quorn around noon and stopped for lunch. It was a hamburger cookout where everyone chips in to help prepare the meal. Apparently, this is how it will work all week, so that will be fun. Their hamburgers look different than ours - maybe it is a different meat - but they are a lighter color and very thin but bigger around. I dunno...I was pretty tired at this point - having not slept much the night before, so I tried to walk around a bit to wake up and move my body. It did help, so that was good.

After lunch, we headed to Kanyaka Homestead Historic Site. On the way, to pass time, Scooter had us all draw our country on our window with an "X" on the city we are from. Thankfully, someone had a map of the world, so my USA wasn't half bad looking.

Let me elaborate on the scenery now...It has changed quite drastically. It is nothing like where I have been for the last month. Everything is so dry and brown. Scooter says it only gets worse from here. You can tell where creeks used to be because there will be random areas of trees swerving along a path. Back in the late 1800's there was a major drought that left most of the area deserted and dried up on the creeks/rivers. Which brings us to Kanyaka. This area used to be a prosperous sheep farm with 40,000 sheep and 70 workers. In 1867, after many years of drought, almost 20,000 sheep died and only 15 workers remained. By the 1890's, the people just walked off the land and abandoned it because it could no longer be used. The land is still privately owned by the descendants of the people who bought it in the 1920's, but no one lives on it full time. All the sheep farms are much further south now - and yes, there were heaps of them we passed along the way this morning.

After walking around and taking pictures, we headed to the Yourambulla Caves Aboriginal Paintings. It was just a short 1km hike to a VERY steep flight of stairs. Up top was a small cave with Aboriginal paintings. It was nothing big and I wonder how anyone ever found it. Scooter says the paintings are elders leaving stories for the younger generations. But since it is all art work, no one but the author knows the whole story.

I must say that I hope things change on the trip. Scooter has done many of these tours, but he doesn't seem too excited about them. He doesn't have much input and he isn't very excited about what's going on. Knackers was a much better tour guide - so far. Maybe once we start seeing more things, it will be different.

After the caves, we headed to Parachilna for our overnight accommodation. Scooter told us the place was small, but I had no idea what he meant until we got there. Oh but first, on the way, we saw 2 wild emu and a dead emu being picked at by a Hedge-tailed eagle. we pulled over to take pictures of both, but I was on the other side of the bus, so I didn't get any. Also on the way, Scooter had all of us go to the front of the bus and say our name, age, how long we are traveling, what we do back home and our favorite drink - yup, we are in Australia! Most people are from Europe - UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and France. A few are from Koreo and there is one other guy from the US - Seattle. He actually is originally from a small town in WI, so we had something to talk about while sitting at the pub this evening.

So Parachilna, Scooter wasn't lying. It is about the length of a football field - with a hotel and pub and our accommodation area. I'm not even sure why the town exists, but it must have been bigger at some other time. Scooter says 4 people live here, which I totally believe. There is a pool here, so some people went swimming before dinner and some of us helped prep then headed to the pub - there are 5 bar stools and that is it! I guess enough for all the locals and 1 extra for a guest! We are cooking a BBQ tonight. It is quite a "family" feeling because it will just be the 25 of us for the 5nights/ 6 days. Should be interesting...

Some things I've learned from the other 24 people...
1. You CAN get bed bites - 3 people here got them in hostels.
2. Most people don't put carrots in their salad and most salad dressing is oily.
3. There is no roll-on deodorant - it is all spray.
4. Aussies automatically get 4 weeks vacation if they work full-time. Much of Europe is like that too.
5. Everyone, but me, smokes!!!!

So dinner...I had kangaroo, emu and camel! I can't believe I tried it (can you?!?!), but I'm glad I did. The kanga and emu meat was quite good, but I did not like the camel sausage. I guess I have my limits. It was nice because we all sat around family style and ate. After cleanup, everyone headed to the pub and to watch the sunset. My first outback sunset - hard to describe, but something about it was just amazing! (No, I didn't see a flash...)