We flew to the Northern Territory of Australia to go camping in the outback for a week. It was such an amazing experience! For those of you who have seen the movie Australia—it was exactly like that, it was a little Rollins group walkabout…ok maybe not exactly….but we made up for the lack of Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and WWII drama with some unique cultural experiences.
(Me and Casey)First time seeing this in my flight safety manual...
Good to know we should leave Furby at home next time.
We flew in to Alice Springs and turned our watches 30 min back to match local time (ya, weird huh?). Our professor for Aboriginal Studies class, Jenny, joined us. She is of Aboriginal descent and it is so great to see all these beautiful things about her culture that has been around for at least 50,000 years on this continent. Our transportation for the week was 3 sweet rugged vans with two trailers for all our supplies. The vans had two seats in front like normal then 2 bench-seats in back facing the middle. Some of our drives were 4 hours long and we would have to stop and loosen the hubcaps before driving on sections of the road that were lacking any aspects of what we would call an actual road. Yikes! We were laughing hysterically as we bounced so high we hit our heads on the ceiling while the red desert flashed by through clouds of dust kicked up by our caravan.
The stars viewed from the outback are INCREDIBLE. The moon wasn’t out while we were there and we were so far from civilization that the light pollution was virtually nonexistent compared to the cities I am used to living in. The sky was a black you could feel pressing down, like a curtain. And the stars were sooooo bright and beautiful. There were more stars than I have ever been able to see before. Plus shooting stars galore. The sky reminded me of rides at Disneyland/Disneyworld like Pirates of the Caribbean where they make an artificial night sky—it was so defined it felt as if it were only a few hundred feet up and you could reach out and touch it. Later some Aboriginal men told us stories about their constellations and stars used for navigation--the Southern Cross and the Emu.
We did “heaps” of hikes during our trip. The first one was a 10 km hike just before sunset. We had to hurry in order to beat the dwindling light. At the end close to a water hole we saw a wild wallaby! Another day some of us chose to go on the Valley of the Winds hike that is 7.4 km through Kata Tjuta. It was absolutely gorgeous! The peak of the hike is settled between massive wall of rock stretching up to the sky on either side of you. We sat there for a while just looking down between them to enjoy the view of the valley below. Another day two other girls and I made the trek around the base of Uluru as the sun rose. It is 9.4 km and they wanted to walk but my XC roots made me want to run it so I chose a steady pace and made it in an hour and 2 minutes. Uluru is almost at the geographical center of Australia and is about 1200 feet high. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are the remains of sediments that began collecting 900 million years ago. Unbelievably, it had rained a bit that morning (we were in a desert that can go for 2 years without seeing a drop--lucky!) and as the sun rose we witnessed a rainbow going right over Uluru. It was absolutely breathtaking. The rainbow was so vivid it looked solid. None of my pictures or videos truly give it any justice.
After a guided hike through King’s Canyon with two Aboriginal men, Patty and Mika, we also got to visit their camp site which is maintained like a traditional tribe’s ground. They showed us spears and natural medicines and tools. We also got to eat kangaroo!!! A bunch of Aboriginal men showed us how they prepare the roo and cook it over a fire. The weenie vegetarians in the group went for a walk while we all indulged in the raw culture as the men threw the dead animal onto the fire and then buried it in coals. Once it was ready they pulled him out and began butchering it right there. It was really amazing to understand the process of obtaining one’s own food source and only using what is needed and saying thanks to the kangaroo and his spirit for giving us life. Erin (one of my classmates) had said she would eat anything they gave us to try. I almost tried everything but she one-upped me by eating a piece of liver, too. We drank some of the cooked blood (good source of iron), ate some roo meat (very lean so hard to chew), kangaroo heart (actually my favorite—once I closed my eyes and chewed), and some echidna (a porcupine-like animal that they regard as a delicacy—“elder’s meat”). The meal reminded me of something off of Survivor and I couldn’t believe I really got into it and ate kangaroo heart! Right out of the roo! Point, Morgan!
We also got a special surprise when Mika brought a backpack to our campsite the night after hunting. We opened it to find a baby kangaroo!!! All the girls squealed in delight, of course, and the little roo was even lucky enough to be named…Bianca. We got to take care of her that night so we all took turns wearing the backpack and taking care of our little joey. SOO adorable! I made a joke to Mika about “oh, what, did you kill the mama roo or something?” And the laughing stopped short as he got a serious look and was like “ummmm yes, actually…” Haha we had a good laugh after he told me this while the other girls were looking around with sad puppy dog eyes in horror. Honestly, I think it is natural and the Anangu people have been hunting kangaroo and depending on it there in a way that maintains balance in the land long before any of us European people arrived on the continent. Hunting kangaroo is a beautiful thing when you compare it to mass-production and slaughter of animals in our modern hyper-consuming world.
The day the entire group got up early to visit Uluru was unquestionably the best day of the trip. We had no idea what our Australian Rollins group leaders were taking us to do until we arrived. First we drove through the entrance to Uluru and saw hundreds of tourists camping out along the road getting ready for sunrise. We kept driving past them right up to a road with a sign that said “No Unauthorized Entry.” We exchanged excited glances as we passed the sign and realized our group leaders had connections beyond the run-of-the-mill tourist experience. We pulled into a residential area just out of view of the tourists. As we unloaded from the vans we were greeted by dogs and some Aboriginal people who lived there—with Uluru as the backdrop to their backyards, gorgeous. The week before we left we watched a film in Aboriginal Studies class titled Kanyini. The man who narrates in the movie is named Bob Randall and is a kind-hearted Aboriginal man of the Stolen Generation. We grabbed our fold-out chairs from the back of the vans and followed our group leaders up a small hill. Waiting for us at the top stood none other than Bob Randall himself. He welcomed us and as the sun rose on our picture-perfect view of Uluru he led us through the morning chant he does every morning as he greets the earth. It was truly a touching experience. I will never forget it.
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