First, I am twenty-one. Although the drinking age in Australia is eighteen, the birthday still has a lot of significance to them, similar to our culture in that a person is "officially" an adult. My exciting day began with laundry, I went for a jog, made a peanut-butter and jelly, watched a bit of tv, all the crazy stuff your supposed to do on a twenty-first birthday. But really, it was a great birthday. Around dinner my friends and I all met up and they kept asking what I wanted to do, which I really had no idea about, I just wanted to hang out with everyone. So they kept asking me and kept answering them with blank stares. This was all a ruse though and they had a great night planned. For dinner, we went and got a family dinner box from McDonalds, which suprisingly I don't think the U.S. has. It's basically a super adult happy meal and we ordered three. The employees looked at us like we were crazy and there was so much food that went into our order that it through them into a spin. It was pretty funny to watch. After the feast Rose brought out a delicious chocolate cake. Right after I had blown them out they told me we were going to laser tag, which I did not expect at all. It was an awesome time. Then, Alex brought out a gift and they had all chipped in and bought me an official Rugby League jersey which is legit. After dessert, we headed to Darling Harbour, which is where the laser tag was. After the game, we felt a little crazy and jumped into the Harbour, which is illegal, but I'm pumped to say I swam in it. The water, however, was disgusting and probably the saltiest I've ever been in.
That was basically my birthday and really it was a ton of fun. I'm lucky to have such good friends here.
The other major thing in the past month was my Outback trip. It was an adventure to say the least. I'll keep the story as short as I can and if I see you, I'll explain it much better in person.
Basically, I headed into Alice Springs, which is really the only city in the Outback. It sits dead center in the middle of Australia, which is called the red center, for if one was looking at Australia from above, there would be a red spot right in the middle, Alice Springs. Here I planned to stay at a hostel for a night and then go hike for a few days and nights, walk right back into the hostel and then take a day trip with a small group down to Uluru (the huge red rock) the following day.
As I flew in and drove through Alice, I immediately felt the presence of something distinctively Australian. The surroundings of scruby low brush and red rock really is the iconic culture that as a tourist, you expect. It was a kind of satisfied, "Ah, this is Australia". Anyways, Alice is tiny, basicaly a landlocked island, with one road in and out because it's surrounded by mountains. There is a huge Aboriginal culture here, which I won't go on about, but the Aborigine's and Australians and their relations are a huge problem. I got various opinions on how great of a culture they were to how gross and vile they were.
I started on my hike the next day, which followed the Larapinta Trail, a 227K stretch running along and behind the West McDonnell ranges. A nice lady drove me out in the morning about 80K into the Outback and dropped me off at one of the few points where a car can actually get close to the trail. The trail head was hard to find and I thought I had found it when I reached about a K in, a place called Standley Chasm. This was a huge split in rock that allowed the trail to snake through two massive pieces of rock. The trail then began to get tough, climbing up boulders and large rocks. After another K, I hadn't seen any markers and figured I had to be going the wrong way. So I worked my way back down, but as I was doing so I felt a drip on my calf. I felt the bottom of my pack and it was damp. Quickly I checked inside and to my dismay my bladder had broken. This left some of my gear in my bag wet, but more importantly, left me without a much needed two liters of water. This meant I only had 1.75L of water left. There could be water at the next check point, but there was no guarantee. So I had to save the L of water and only drink 750mL that day. I didn't think this would be too bad, but the sun in the Outback is amazingly strong, I've never seen the sun the white our powerful. Also, the first day was mostly made up of steep valleys moving up and down, so I broke a sweat quickly. I decided every couple K's I could take a sip or two and that was it.
It got to feel around a comfortable 70 degrees and the trail had started to follow an easier track of a dried up creek bed. Every now and then though, the trail would suddenly end and I would look at a rock face confused. I would go back, check the marker and it would point right for it. So somehow I was to climb the rock manage my way over it and find the trail again. This happened a lot, which was frustrating because it began to take a toll on my mind. Without water, I started to become slightly delirious and just longed to stop and reach my destination. My lips were so cracked that every time a bead of sweat would run onto them they stung. Also, my pack was heavy, and every time I would move it, it felt as if my skin was ripping. But I finally made it to my point, Jay's Creek, and immediately through my pack down and ran to the water tank. It had water and I let out a happy cry and drank the other L in one gulp. This is where I had imagined I would stop for the night, but I had reached it much earlier than I had expected. I sat there for really only a few minutes and was already bored. The silence crushed me and I needed to do something. I went over to the log book, marked in and noticed that a man was ahead of me about an hour and a half and planning to stay at a camp for night 10K away. So in fifteen minutes of me arriving, I was already off again. Although I had drank another L of water, I was still dehydrated. I moved slow and my mind just wasn't all there. I constantly had to talk myself through things and again I counted down the K's till camp. I arrived there just before sunset luckily and there was a Swedish couple sitting eating and setting up their camp. I hardly spoke with them, but it was just nice knowing that someone else was there. This wasn't out of fear, but out of loneliness. I had a cold can of soup, dried off my damp sleeping bag, and got ready for bed. As the stars came out, I popped my head out of the tent, thought, "Wow" and then fell asleep. I hardly could enjoy the stars I had longed to see because I was so exhausted. I was asleep by eight.
In the morning, I headed out around eight and made my way to Simpsons Gap. My body hated me, everything was terribly sore and I was horribly sunburnt. My neck had felt like it had been bitten, but really it was just sunburn. I was trudged on, I got to get a feel for the wildlife. Grasshoppers skipped along with me, really making the only other noise. I saw a nice reddish/yellow snake and a kangaroo. Spiders dominated the area though. I had never seen webs that big, some spanning a few meters. Most had a metalic granite body with reddish legs.
Finally, I reached Simpsons Gap and thought it best to try and hitch a ride back. Simpsons Gap is also one of the few places tourists can drive to, so I luckily found a friendly couple who lived in Alice Springs to take me back.
Basically, my conclusions from the trip are this. Try not to travel alone. I was so lonely throughout the trip and the Outback didn't help. Once I was in the middle of the trail, I began to realize how far away I was from things. If I had gotten hurt, I would have been screwed. There would be no way of getting into almost any contact with anyone. Not only did I have to watch my footing, but also for spiders and snakes. Sometimes I couldn't see where my next step would take me, which made me fear that it was possible a snake was lying right there or a small pot-hole that I would trip into. Once, I had walked straight into one of the huge webs and literally screamed hitting myself, just because I didn't want to get bit. The Outback contains so many poisonous snakes and spiders, I didn't want to chance anything. Also, it would have been nice to just talk, to have someone there to share the experience with. I constantly thought of Sara, my family and friends, and imagined what I would be saying to them. The dehydration probably only escalated these feelings though.
Also, I should have separated the hikes into a couple days instead of hauling through them. This put pressure on my to never stop so I could make it to the end before nightfall. It was three degrees the night I camped (Celsius) and if night had already fallen, besides the wildlife emerging, I would get extremely cold. It was tough for me to stop and really take the scenery in and enjoy it.
But, it was an amazing experience and I'm so happy I went through it. I realized a lot of things about myself and what I really enjoy in life.
The followin day in the hostel I hardly moved and just sipped on water. I walked like Frankenstein, again, my body hated me. But the last day was awesome. I got to see Uluru, a giant monolithic rock that juts up out of the sand. There's something about it that I couldn't take my eyes off of. It's almost calming to be near it and I would kind of just stand in awe in it's presence. It felt like it had something inside of it that almost made it alive. We spent the day around the rock and a few other sites and then watched the sunset over dinner. A nice relaxing way to finish the trip.
I know this post was long, I kept it as short as I could and I left out a lot of details, but I'll tell you those in person. Like I said, two more weeks, so probably only one more post. Till then, take care.
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