Monday 10th November – Day 15

 

 

 

7:00 in the morning we were woken up to start our day. It was a great sleep in. We all then packed up our tents and got ready for breakfast at 8:00. As we had such a great day yesterday we had a special breakfast today, which was French toast. After breakfast we packed a few remaining things and got onto the bus. Our first stop was at Ellery Creek Big Hole. A few of us had a swim in the creek, and we had lunch there. For lunch it was just sandwiches with left over meat. After lunch we chilled for 15 minutes while the trailer was packed up again, and we then set off in the bus around 1:10. We then had a long bus ride to Simpsons Gap. We all got off the bus and walked for about 20 minutes to the gap. The scenery was just amazing. Mr. Grummet had us close our eyes and listen to nature for the last time. We sat there for what felt like 5 minutes, and then headed back to the bus. From there we drove to our campsite called Heavy Tree Gap Outback Resort. When we got here we put up our tents and then a lot of us went to the shopping centre. Then many of us went swimming in the pool for a while. We got back and a few of us had showers. Everyone just chilled then until dinner. We had mushroom soup for an entree, pork chops for a main, and golden dumplings for dessert. Our day ended there and we talked about what was going on tomorrow, and then went to bed.

 

Rory Sutherland

 

Wednesday 5th November – Day 10

 

Today we celebrated my 15th birthday (Jessica Licen). We had an early start waking up at 6.00am. We had our normal breakfast and then we got prepared for the long walk that lay ahead of us. Once on the bus we travelled through Kata Tjuta national park and headed for the “big rock”, Uluru.  At the start we had about an hour with the national park tour ranger. It gave us a lot more if an insight of how the Indigenous Australians lived and ate. After the tour we got ready for the 9 kilometre walk around that base of Uluru. It was so hot but at least now we can say that we have walked around the base one if the most famous tourist spots in the world. After doing about half of the walk we stopped for lunch which was well needed as most people were a bit hot and bothered. We then set off to Mutijulu which is a water hole that the indigenous people used and it played a big part in their lives. After that we set off for the last leg of the walk and finally reached the bus. We went to the cultural center where another park ranger gave us a lot of information on the indigenous community that owned the land around Uluru. We then got to go back to the camp and hung around either going to town, swimming or have the shower that I am sure everyone wanted after walking in the 34 degree sun for 9 kilometers.

We then had dinner and partied it up for my birthday where we are singing to music.

 

Jessica Licen 

Sunday 2nd November – Day 7

Today, after sleeping underground in Coober Pedy, we all were given a very unceremonious wake up call from Mr. Grummet. This woke and got us up very quickly. We then started to pack up and have breakfast.

After breakfast, we went into the underground museum and opal mine. Here we saw a movie about the history of Coober Pedy and how opal was found in this part of Australia, did a bit of shopping in the souvenir shop and also went into the underground mine. We then were back on the bus for a tour of the town.

It was after this that we found out that the track from Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta was closed due to the rain we had a few nights ago. This meant that we would be staying in Coober Pedy for another night and would not be going to the Oodnadatta School tomorrow. I think that everyone found this quite sad.

Since we weren’t leaving until tomorrow, we unpacked the bus and then could go looking around in the town centre. After everyone had finished looking around, we all went to the pool for a swim and to relax.

 

Hopefully we won’t have to completely skip Oodnadatta but will be able to see at least some of it. Otherwise, we will end up going straight to Uluru and the Northern Territory.

 

Michelle Johanson

Wednesday 29th October Day3

Today was a really funny day!!!!!!!

We got up at 6.45 am and had breakfast at 7.30 am with sausages and tomatoes. After that we went to the “Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens” which were quite interesting. They also have a café there and we had some really nice milkshakes whilst browsing the gift shop. Back on the bus we discussed our next steps. Our lunch happened to be somewhere in Port Augusta. After that we headed off shopping in the city centre. As we came back to our bus we packed our things for the Port Augusta visitor centre. There we found some really nice souvenirs and we also did a tour through the “Outback Exhibition” which was very good. We got some useful info for our projects and got to know more about Australia. In the evening we arrived back at Spear Creek and had dinner. The best part of the day was definitely the sheep shearing demonstration after dinner. And that’s it =) 

 

Wiebke Arnold

Saturday 1st November – Day 6

 

This morning we woke up and it was still raining – but much less than last night. Throughout the morning we played games, like chess, some people went in the spa and others just hung around the bus wondering whether we were going to spend another night at the same place. Around 11, Greg told us to start packing up our things, as we were going to head on to Coober Pedy. The track to Coober Pedy was long, and we had a few stops on the way. When we got there, we unpacked our things and chose which room we were going to sleep in. I chose a room to myself so I could get more sleep tonight. Around 8:30pm, Mr Grummet gave out the Burke and Wills award. Phillip and I both won a Burke award for leaving our tent open and letting it flood.       

Kris Hoen

October 31st-Day 5

Today we left Wilpena camping ground at 8:25. Not by bus as usual but by foot, because we did a walk to the Wilpena Solar Site Lookout. At its car park we were picked up by the bus at 9:15. We counted from 1 to 20 (inclusive the three teachers) when we got on bus. As a result Mrs. Wilson knew nobody was lost. The tour-guides played the two morning-songs. Because we heard them the fifth time most knew the lyrics and sang. Fifteen minutes later we did a photo stop at Hawks Lookout where we were able to take photos of where we had been. At about 11 o’clock we left Flinders Ranges behind us and came back to The Old Ghan Railway. In Leigh Creek we looked for a place to have lunch. We found a place in Lopley near Leigh Creek. We had sandwiches for lunch. You could choose between white and whole meal bread on which you could put MedowLea, eggs, tomatoes, mixed salads, cheese, roast lamb, beetroot and diverse sauces. Lunch began at 12 o’clock. About 50 minutes later we visited an open cut brown coal mine. Later in the day we visited Talc Alf Sculptures. Alf explained us our names. That was really interesting to hear. From there we continued our journey in direction Oodnadatta. We had another photo stop at an ochre quarry. It was a sight of significance to Aboriginal people. We visited Farina historic ruins at 2:30. We had to find six things, take a photo of them, describe them and guess what they may have been used for. You could see there an old engine block, old fridge, an old railway station with a water tank to fill the locos and an old hotel ruin. It must have been a really great town with two pubs, one hotel and one station. In the hotel hang photos from 1905 to 1920. After the stop we watched “The Devil wears Prada”. We had to refill at Marree. Most went to toilet and bought some chips. In Marree was an old Ghan service station. There splits the road into two tracks. We chose the Oodnadatta Track. At quarter to six we had the last photo stop for today at Lake Eyre South. That night was spent in a bush camp. We ate spaghetti bolognese. Some of the roads were so bad that everyone who slept would have been woken up.

 

Lars Fischer

Thursday 30th October – day 4

 

 

Today we woke up, packed up our sleeping bags and other luggage and got out of our tents for breakfast. Today’s special was bacon and eggs along with the usual cereals and toast. We then packed up our tents, noticing that we were slowly getting better at the process and hopped on the bus. We went through the historic town of Quorn and after Greg told us some information about the place we headed off down to the Kanyaka Homestead, where we hopped of the bus and had a look at the buildings and a rather interesting cemetery. We jumped back on the bus and headed off to our campsite-Wilpena. After a short break we went for a drive to take a look at the Flinders Ranges Museum (not a traditional museum but rather an open air museum). It was interesting as we got to see what the buildings looked like in the era. We headed back to camp and after an even shorter break headed off on a walk into Wilpena Pound. It was a reasonably hard walk but the magnificent view at the end of the walk made it worth it. We walked back to camp for a roast lamb dinner and after dinner headed to bed.

 

By Andrew Bartlett.

Monday 27th October – day 1

We started off the trip by waking up at 5.00 in the morning. That was soon followed by loading our luggage on what looked like a plane/truck. Once all of our belongings were loaded onto the bus we all fell asleep pretty much straight away. The bus trip that lasted for over 700 kilometres was really relaxing. We learnt a lot of stuff from the bus driver (Greg). The most outstanding information shared with us was when the bus driver explained how there were a lot of Italian migrants growing dried grapes better known to us as sultanas. The reason why they grew sultanas was because it was a good business to live off. We stopped off at a number of places for toilet and food stops. The best place was Mildura due to the Murray and scenery. I remember falling asleep and having a really peaceful time on the rest of the bus trip until we arrived at the camp site. The group set up their tents and then we had a quick swim. The swim was fantastic because it was so refreshing from the heat. Dinner was sensational which helped us to get an early sleep to get up early again tomorrow.                          Jake Anderson