A glimpse of Australia's Outback

From Sydney I flew into Alice Springs, a remote town in the Australian Outback with a population of roughly 25,000. A rather bleak place, and incredibly hot with an average temperature of 39°C. It is, however, a popular base for exploring the outback, Australia’s Red Centre, and that’s why I went there. Already from the plane I could make out the vast area of red earth that covers much of the Northern Territory. There's literally nothing there except for shrubs, rocks and occasional roads seemingly leading into the void.

There are two attractions on the outskirts of Alice Springs: the old telegraph station –to which I unfortunately didn’t make it because public transport is scarce and it was too hot to walk there- and a kangaroo sanctuary. I visited the latter and it was probably the best experience of my entire trip! They were soooo cute!

Kangaroos are frequently hit by cars and trucks on Australian highways because the grass along the highways is apparently greener and richer due to hydrates contained in CO2 emission. Don’t ask me to be any more specific, I was never good at chemistry :-/

Anyway, put simple, there is more humidity alongside the roads and the greener grass attracts the kangaroos. When a pregnant female kangaroo is hit and killed, the baby often survives because it is so well protected in its bag. Those orphaned kangaroo babies are the ones, Brolga tries to rescue and raise. He sets them free as soon as they’re old and healthy enough to survive on their own. Of course, he also rescues grown-up kangaroos hit in accidents and those which have been kept as pets. Brolga keeps these kangaroos in a 188 acre fenced wildlife park which is open to tourists and locals to learn how to protect kangaroos and how to react when causing or passing a roadkill. You may have watched the BBC documentary Kangaroo Dundee made in 2013 which tells the whole story. It’s really interesting.

Two days later I went on a guided 3 day camping tour to Uluru better known as Ayers Rock. We were a group of 17, most participants being in their mid 20s. Laura, our tour guide, introduced herself by saying: “Hi everyone, my name is Laura, I’m 28, and I’ll be your driver, tour guide, first-aider, chef and mechanic for the next 3 days.” After being on the road for no longer than 100km, we had to stop in the middle of nowhere because of a flat tyre. All of us had to get out of the bus and “our mechanic” looked pleadingly at the guys for help. I admit that this was one of the few occasions in which I thankfully submitted myself to traditional gender roles. We girls were neither asked nor expected to help, it was the guys who had to sweat at 40°C and get their hands dirty. They eventually figured out how to change the tyre (it was the inner rear one) and approx. 60 min later we were on the road again.

On this trip, we got up at 4:30 every morning and were usually out of the camp by 5:15am. This was partly due to the fact that hiking is not a pleasure in the heat but also because we wanted to see the sun rise behind different landmarks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were prepared communally as was washing the dishes and cleaning up. However there were no specific chores assigned to each participant. It was left to everyone’s individual feeling of responsibility and obligation to do one’s share by noticing what needed to be done and then doing it. As always when being part of such an adventure, I was fascinated by the group dynamic that develops on those trips. Some of the participants were always at the forefront when it came to cooking, tidying up or washing the dishes while others magically disappeared (but then skilfully managed to be the first ones to fill their plates with the food prepared by the others!).

And just for the record: I hardly encountered any spiders during my entire time in Australia. In fact, my fear of spiders prevented me from wanting to stay in Australia for a longer period of time. As the country is so popular for its poisonous creatures, I was absolutely terrified of going there, spending time outdoors. I figured Sydney would be safe, and that's all I had planned to do. Now in retrospect, I kind of regret not having had more time to explore this incredible and diverse continent. I was, after all, very impressed by it.

Well, that's obviously what happens when you let yourself be guided by your fears more than anything else. Another lesson learned.

And by the way, this last paragraph is also going to be my conclusion of those 2 weeks in Australia ;-)