unclemac
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When “good luck boy” was ten I took him to Australia for a month one summer. We stayed with some friends in Sydney and had a blast. In those days (pre 9-11) you could show up at the airport and book a “mystery flight”. These were 99$ same day roundtrip flights to anywhere the airline had empty seats. The thing was you didn’t know where you were going until they figured out what needed to be filled. One time we ended up in Melbourne, another time in Perth.
Well this was fun but the point for us to exploring Australia was to see more than the cities. We wanted to see the outback. Don’t get me wrong, the cities are fantastic, they remind me of America in the 1960’s and 70’s…everything is closed by 6:00 and nothing is open on Sunday…but all the same, cities are cities. So “good luck boy” and I hopped a train, colorfully called the “Ghan” and headed west. When we got to a town called Broken Hill, we got off and found us a place to stay. Now this town has a population of less than 20,000 but even so is one of the larger outback towns, it seems all the people in Australia live on the coasts. Well anyway, there we were just poking around when we had an idea…why not get a taxi, drive 10 kilometers out of town, get out and walk back?
The landscape looks very similar to parts of Nevada or the great basin, desert, low scrub brush, small rolling hills, dry washes and sparse trees. The wildlife surprised the hell out of me, emus, wallabies, kangaroos all over the place and flocks, FLOCKS of sulfur crested cockatoos feeding on these watermelon looking things growing on the ground.
Well anyway we took the taxi 10 K out of town, found a hill, got our bearings on the town, and started to walk in a straight line back. Along the way we picked up whatever “stuff” we happened across. All above ground, (including, by accident a “redback spider” when my son collected a kangaroo skull) (very dangerous, like a black widow only worse). Here are a few things, including artifacts, which I understand I shouldn’t have taken, but oh well. Seriously folks, for us the outback was like one gigantic beach to comb. We didn’t “look” for anything, we just walked in a straight line back to town. “good luck boy” even found these opal “crumbs” just lying on the ground when we went to a place called “White Cliffs”. Australia RULES!!!!
Well this was fun but the point for us to exploring Australia was to see more than the cities. We wanted to see the outback. Don’t get me wrong, the cities are fantastic, they remind me of America in the 1960’s and 70’s…everything is closed by 6:00 and nothing is open on Sunday…but all the same, cities are cities. So “good luck boy” and I hopped a train, colorfully called the “Ghan” and headed west. When we got to a town called Broken Hill, we got off and found us a place to stay. Now this town has a population of less than 20,000 but even so is one of the larger outback towns, it seems all the people in Australia live on the coasts. Well anyway, there we were just poking around when we had an idea…why not get a taxi, drive 10 kilometers out of town, get out and walk back?
The landscape looks very similar to parts of Nevada or the great basin, desert, low scrub brush, small rolling hills, dry washes and sparse trees. The wildlife surprised the hell out of me, emus, wallabies, kangaroos all over the place and flocks, FLOCKS of sulfur crested cockatoos feeding on these watermelon looking things growing on the ground.
Well anyway we took the taxi 10 K out of town, found a hill, got our bearings on the town, and started to walk in a straight line back. Along the way we picked up whatever “stuff” we happened across. All above ground, (including, by accident a “redback spider” when my son collected a kangaroo skull) (very dangerous, like a black widow only worse). Here are a few things, including artifacts, which I understand I shouldn’t have taken, but oh well. Seriously folks, for us the outback was like one gigantic beach to comb. We didn’t “look” for anything, we just walked in a straight line back to town. “good luck boy” even found these opal “crumbs” just lying on the ground when we went to a place called “White Cliffs”. Australia RULES!!!!
