Roadtrip to the Outback: The Real Australia

Last week was mid-semester break and since my previous travels have been up and down the East coast of Australia, I knew it was time to head West into the Outback. I had originally planned on taking a trip to see Ayer's Rock, which is a good six hour flight and roughly 2,108 miles away, but opted out when my housemate John said he would be keen to go on a road trip. I thought this would be a great opportunity to meet the people, explore the towns, and take in the scenic views of the Outback. John and I looked for another adventurous person to join us and James Myer stepped up to the plate. Two American's and an Aussie.. ready for the Outback.

We loaded up Suzie, John's car, with plenty of fuel, 10 liters of drinking water, lots of food, sleeping bags/pillows and supplied ourselves with plenty of good books and music.

Day 1- Brisbane to Goondiwindi 

We left Brisbane around 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon and headed towards a city called Goodniwindi. On the way we traveled through some mountains, saw lots of livestock and finally ran into a lot of nothingness.

Before we left Brisbane, John had called several different pastors in the different towns that we would be visiting to ask if they might be willing to host us in their homes or even their church for the night. This worked great. The pastor in Goondiwindi was excited about our coming to his town and even invited us to a surprise birthday party for a young man in his congregation. We didn't make it in time to the party (which probably would have been weird for the birthday boy to have three random people there) but caught them on the road just as they were returning home. This was nice as were were struggling to find their home in the dark amongst the dirt roads. We woke up early, had an amazing country breakfast and headed towards our next destination.

Day 2 - Goondiwindi to Cobar ... and a side story

The journey to Cobar took the entire day but the drive was great. We stopped along the way in a town called Bourke to have a look around and enjoy a beer at a local pub. Traditionally, East coast Australians use the term, 'back o' bourke' to refer to the Outback. On the way we saw a few Emu's, lots of dead kangaroo's on the side of the road, and, once again, a lot of nothingness.

When we arrived in Cobar we went straight to a pub to have a meal and watch some of the footy on the TV. John called our hosts to tell them we had arrived and they showed up at the pub to take us to the church where we would be staying. We walked out of the pub, turned right and walked 10 steps. The church was next to the pub. Very conveniently located.

We were shown around the church, said thanks for the accommodation and went back to the pub. After a little while John walked back to the church to put some of our things inside and as he was leaving locked the door. During this process he accidentally locked a lock we didn't have a key to and inevitably locked us out of the church. We had to call our host again to explain the problem and she showed up to the realization that there was no one with a key to that lock and that she might have to tell the congregation that they would not be meeting inside the church tomorrow. She was sort of getting worried when it dawned on her that there was another way in the church. She said, "Well, there is another way into the church but I doubt you will want to try it." It was through a small hole in the backyard that led to an underground basement and trapdoor beneath the church.

Needless to say, I am glad James came on our trip for more reasons than his personality and friendship. As soon as he got his head into the hole he began yelling, "O my gosh, there are spiders everywhere!" He couldn't really do much even though he was yelling at me, while I took this picture, to hand him the shovel. I eventually did and he eventually made it through to the trap door.

 James, covered in cobwebs and dirt, let us into the back of the church. We were all very excited. Previously, before being locked in, I had turned off the lights to the church. But not just the lights,I had turned off the power source to the lights. Anyway,when James let us into the back of the church it was pitch back dark and none of the lights worked. John was the first one in and knew where to go. Walking at a brisk pace he headed straight to the switch, which was located exactly where James had come up through the trap door. James had not closed it back and John fell down the drop and cut his leg up pretty bad. Thankfully he caught himself on about the 5th step. This could have been a lot worst as it was a good 20ft down to the bottom.

We ended up scoring a shower after this at our hosts house as James needed one and John needed to clean up his wound. After the ordeal, we went back to the pub to enjoy a celebratory beer for our accomplishment.

Day 3- Cobar to Gilgandra

The next morning we woke up early and traveled an hour West to a historical site called Mt. Grenfell. This was the furthest into the Outback that we would be going.  It was here that we saw Indigenous art, collected some red dirt, saw some reptiles and threw rocks at trees. 

 We didn't have a place to stay at our next town, Mudgee, so we planned on sleeping in a tent John had brought along. However, when we stopped at a place called Gilgandra for a bite to eat, the bartender picked up on my accent and asked what I was doing here. I told him our plans for the rest of the night and he said, "You can stay here if you would like too, mate. We have a room with three beds and the bar is open until 10." We took him up on the offer and got a bed and a shower for a total of $10 or $3.33 each. Very cool.

The sticker below the dog says, "Where the bloody hell is Gilgandra?"

The bumper in the front is also called a roo bar which helps to deflect the kangaroo's.

Young Aboriginal boy and his dog

We asked some of the locals what to do in Gilgandra and one of them suggested CactusWorld so we checked it out. I don't think I need to explain. It was a $2 to get in.

Day 4 - Gilgandra to Grafton
Our fourth leg of the trip was the longest drive (9 hours) but we kept ourselves entertained.

When we arrived in Grafton we were shown to our next accommodation which was another church. I thought about telling our host about our last church experience but decided that it would be best if I kept that story on the down low. We had a good night's sleep and woke up to the sound of an old lady saying, "O my gosh, someone has broken into the church." Apparently our host didn't tell anyone we were going to be staying the night and I guess he didn't expect anyone to be visiting the church on a Tuesday. Anyway, the people were actually very nice once we explained who we were and who we knew.

We asked our host where we might find some kangaroo's and he took us to his neighborhood where lots of them gather. I guess these were not the wild kangaroo's as you might can tell in the photo below. The dog behind the fence and the building sort of gives that away.

Take away the houses in the background and this is one wild kangaroo.

Day 5-Grafton-Yamba-Brisbane

We drove three hours from Grafton to Yamba and spent the remainder of the day on the beach. Our last accommodation was at one of John's friends houses which was on a sugarcane farm. We then drove the next day the remaining three hours to Brisbane.

Some more things that happened:
-A guy named Elvis shouted (bought) me a drink. Then left the building shortly afterward.
-A lady in a pub asked me: "What are you?" and then said, "I mean, which nationality?"
-We passed different signs for cities named Texas, Florida and Alabama.. 
-Golf course greens are made of just sand in Cobar
-We drove 100k the wrong way to Coonambie when we were supposed to go to Coonabarabran.
-Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks songs from 1993 were played at two different bars along the way.
-One of our hosts told us his friend killed 152 kangaroos in one night. 
-We were an hour and a half north of an observatory in a city called Dubbo which broadcasted the audio for the landing on the moon. 

Rotary
The week before break we did another ShelterBox on the University of Queensland campus. We managed to raise $1000 dollars and send another ShelterBox to a place of need. All in all, a great success.

Pictured to the right is Greville Easte, ShelterBox Director of Australia

Also spoke to the Pine Rivers Rotary Club

Have a good week!