We had our bags packed and waiting down stairs in the hostel
for our pick up at 6:45 a.m. As we waited a woman aggressively rattled the door
to get in. Ray went forward and indicated he would open it and when he did, she
pushed past him muttering under her breath “this awful place; I never want to
come back here” in a manner that indicated “keep away”!! She grabbed her back
pack and left. The receptionist and Ray exchanged surprised looks at her
attitude and Ray said “let’s hope she is not on our trip.” The receptionist
agreed and I said “give her some space; maybe she’s had a lousy morning” and
the receptionist added “well, it’s not going to get any better with that
attitude.” She is on our bus.
The guy sitting in front of me suddenly peeled off his
t-shirt to expose a large, hairy, fleshy, middle aged body. I don’t know what
it is about this but it grosses me out when men think it’s OK to go topless in
inappropriate situations.
There are eight in our group plus Annelies our tour
guide/driver/ and leader. Two girls are from Switzerland, one girl is from the
Netherlands, one older guy is from Switzerland, the topless guy is from
Australia, and the grouchy woman is from the United States, and Ray and I from
Canada. Quite an eclectic group.
We are travelling in a 20 seater minicoach pulling a luggage
trailer. It is not really set up for a long journey as there are no seat
pockets, nor bins under the seats, nor overhead baskets to put your day stuff
in any one of which we were used to on our “overlanding truck trips”. Also,
there are no cup holders which would have been useful for holding our water
bottles. So it is nice that there are only 8 of us. We can charge phones and
iPods so long as we are travelling, which is great. All of the food supplies,
tents, swags, pots and pans, and dishes and cutlery are in containers in the
trailer.
It is exciting, we are on our way.
We passed through an agricultural area – grain growing
mainly – on our way north to Clare. Annelies provided us with a map of the
journey which is really thoughtful and great to have. We passed through the
Clare Valley which is another wine growing area. We passed through several
small towns such as Laura – a sweet town with old derelict buildings typical of
the Aussie Colonial style; Warrabarra – a little agriculture service town that
looked a little worn. We reached Mt Remarkable National Park and went for a
“walk” to stretch our legs. Then we had lunch.
Our next stop was at a stunning gorge called Alligator
Gorge. We did a lovely walk there down about 250 steps into a sandstone,
waterless gorge. On the walk we passed a wallaroo, or euro to be more exact and
then picked our way cautiously over the big boulders, rocks and stones of the
dried up river bed. Someone in the group said “look up” and there on the ridge
of the face of the rock was a mother euro feeding her baby. She knew we were
there and kept her eye on us, but she didn’t feel threatened and continued to
pose for photos staying calm until we moved on. She had gone when we came back.
We saw emus – a male and a female. It is the male that sits on the eggs till
they hatch and then raises the chicks. We also saw masses of galahs (pink
breasted cockatoos), white cockatoos, and kangaroos. Nature put on a fabulous
show for our first day.
We headed to our first overnight camp site 22 k outside of
Quorn at Warren Gorge; on the way we stopped to gather firewood for a fire, and
for a photo shoot of emus. We camped in amongst the trees and rocks and a
wonderland of kangaroos, euros, wallabies and birds. We set up a tent due to
the threat of rain, and set our swags in them. Swags are canvas bags in which you
lay a mattress, then your sleeping bag, then when you climb into it you pull
the zips up all around so you are tucked in like a bug in a rug!! But, it was
so warm, we simply used our cotton sleep sheets and lay on top of the sleeping
bags and didn’t zip up the swags. We ate delicious fajitas for dinner, and sat
around the camp fire before sinking into our swags to sleep. But…before I could relax in my swag I got lost
in the darkness coming out of the toilets. I didn’t panic, I kept calm, but
after 3 attempts at finding the tent realized I was lost so I started to call
out “hello” ever so gently. It was really earie, but I knew I hadn’t gone too far
off the track and that everyone was close. We were virtually in the middle of
nowhere surrounded by rocky ridges and canyons and trees and wildlife. So
beautiful!! Luckily for me our tour leader had gone to the loo and she heard my
plaintiff cries. It was more scary when I realized I was nowhere near where I
thought I was. I must have turned the wrong way out of the loo and was walking
away from the tents as opposed to walking towards them. Anyway, all was well!!
We slept soundly till the rain started, and it really
hammered down several times during the night. We were thankful we were sleeping
in the tent.
There is a solitariness that I like about travelling be it
flying or driving. You can be like a deserted island in the pacific looking
over the land around you as you juggle the thoughts that tumble into your mind;
or you can be like a tourist island where your thoughts are overrun with
activity.
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