kate’s adventures

ive got tons more so if you wanna see them, just ask!

the drysdale

packing up the canoes

adam, doug and erin cookin

one way to portage…

…and another

oops…

the group at bango falls

staunton and erin

john and spencer

adam me and max

sunset on the top of carson escarpment

me and erin

loz, atila, spencer and john

the girls

erin trekkin’ across the reef

adam with cogi, wassi and jaime

sun shelter we built from scratch

erin and me in derby

wassi teaching class

spear hunting on sunday island

me and erin hiking on sunday island

me and alex

cogi catchin dinner

stewie and alex

day hike

last class

me and loz

the reef

sunset on sunday island

so basically, like lots of other people, ive always wanted to go to australia. however, after researching some stuff, i realized that if i was going to make the 17+ hour flight over there, i wasnt going to simply city hop around sydney, melbourne, cairnes etc. i wanted something more challenging and more me. and thats when i decided to take a year off AND discovered that NOLS (the national outdoor leadership school) offers a semester in the australian outback! perfect. so, even though ive been back for almost a year now, i have to get the word out there that there is another side to australia…

on to my amazing experience in the unbelievable australian outback. so basically the plane ride wasnt as bad as i thought it would be…just dont sleep the night before your flight and then pass out on the plane and youll be golden. before i knew it, the 17 hours was up and we were landing in sydney. from sydney i flew to broome, which is 1. on the NW coast and 2. where the NOLS base camp is. in broome i, along with everyone else on my trip, stayed at the KIMBERLY KLUB, which is a hostel. and lemme tell ya, what a good time. not only are the people you meet at the KK great, the owners are awesome and its a guaranteed good time. not to mention getting to go into town and partying it up with the randomest crowd of people ever…from aboriginis to solo travellers from around the world to us NOLS kids. it makes for an interesting time. anyway, i got there a few days early to get over the jet lag, and luckily some kids on my trip were there too. right away everyone just hit it off and after 5 hours of talking i felt like i had known these people my whole life…a relationship that will only intensify on the trip. after three days of relaxing and getting a feel for the not so typical australian lifestyle, we were picked up by the NOLS clan and brought to the base camp, where we would stay for a couple days to ration out food, get equiptment etc etc…nothing fun. then, it was time to go….

after flying in 5-person planes for almost 3 hours, we made it to our first camp site. oh, and by this time youll get over the fact that no, youre not allowed to bring deodarant or shampoo, and yes, you will start to smell real bad real soon because you have one tshirt and one pair of shorts. but hey, everyones in the same boat as you are. anyway…back to the trip…after a couple days of learning the basics of canoeing, we are on our way down the drysdale river….

now im just gonna summarize the canoeing section as best i can (though words really cant describe any of this to its fullest…)

ok, so basically, i had never really canoed before. in a lake, eh, whats that? nada. luckily i wasnt the only one…so, it just so happened that for the first week or so of our trip, we were in the middle of a monsoon so when we started, the river was over 15 FEET ABOVE the average water level, but each day it dropped about 2 feet so it was soon back to normal. yeah, it sucked because we were rained on for a week straight, but the best parts about this was that 1. the rapids got bigger! 2. instead of weaving in and out of trees like usual, we were simply canoeing over them the first few days, which was the weirdest feeling in the world since the trees are not short…anyway. overall, we canoed around 136 miles in 5 weeks. getting to our final point though was something ive never experienced before, lemme tell ya. because the rapids were too big (im talking you could have fit a chevy tahoe in some of the holes they were that big) we portaged our canoes and gear (80+ lb packs, 18-21 kg water proof barrels with our food…your arms get huge basically) over what seemed every type of terrain possible…down the side of a cliff, over islands of sand, or sometimes we were able to walk or line the canoes along the banks of the river. though it was a drag to not be able to canoe a lot a day (usually averaged around 5 km of actual in water time), the fact that we were in a place that rarely anyone ever got to see made up for it. along the drysdale river is so remote that every day i would wonder if the next step i took would be the first to land on that ground, or when the last time someone was there (besides a previous NOLS group). it seriously is this unbelievable feeling when you look around you and everything is so pure and unharmed. coming from chicago, we barely get to see stars at night…instead we have a big orange glow. out there i was actually sometimes overwhelmed when laying down and just looking up, especially when the moon woulndnt come out until late and so itd be pitch black.

while on the canoeing section, i saw possibly the most beautiful place that ive ever seen. bango falls. there arent words to really describe it, but its this smaller waterfall (100 ft high) that is about 300 yds up from the river (you have to hike up to it). at first i didnt think it was going to be anything special because there are trees hiding it. but, once you turn the corner and the trees disappear, wow. i literally lost my breath when i saw it. it’s a paradise that only people dream about seeing, and there it was right in front of me. (see pic for a wannabe representation of it). the other amazing thing about bango falls is that since it is so far away from shore, there are NO CROCODILES! no, not alligators…crocodiles. without them, we were finally able to freely swim, and best of all, we got to swim at night under the stars. (a little nature nugget: most of the time we were in the fresh crocodile area…they range from 7-12 feet in length. however, during our hiking section, there have been spots of salt water crocodiles…15-22 feet. yeah, def dont wanna run into a salty..ask me for some stories because i read a ton of them while i was out there.)

anyway…there were also other factors that held my group back (2 guys busting a canoe..picture is up…one guy getting a viral and bacterial ear infection and later had to get choppered out, a girl broke her finger…etc) and so towards the end, we were rushed for time. however, the last couple of weeks of canoeing were my favorite because i got to student lead. after an amount of time, our leaders decide when were ready to lead, which means we (in groups of 2) choose how many km’s we go that day (or try to go), when we take rests, where we will camp, and then if its a portaging day, they have to go scout the route etc etc. i actually loved leadering and was able to do it about 4 or 5 times since there were extra days at the end. also a great experience to take the leadership role in something that you are not fully confident in (i def was not a confident canoer) and prove to yourself, and others, that you can do it…major accomplisment.

ok, on to hiking…so hiking was less than the canoeing section…it was only 23 days but in those days we did over 75 miles (in 100+ degree weather). hiking was def much different than canoeing because you really didnt know what to expect. with canoeing, you knew youd be canoeing all day or portaging. however, with hiking, there was the chance of getting lost (which did happen on a few occassions), or the terrain is worse than you thought so you dont make it to your ending point for the day. however, this just made it that much more adventurous each day. i personally loved hiking a lot more than canoeing because we had more freedom to do more things since we werent in a boat all day. whether it be taking a break to go swimming in a creek we found or to hike up the side of the escarpment, or simply getting to camp early and then being able to explore the land around us or simply chill out and relax. also, i learned more on the hiking section. with canoeing, we knew where we were going all the time…down the river. but, with hiking, we had to find our way to our desired destination and it took a ton of different skills.

one of the most amazing things that i got to witness on the hiking section was tons and tons of rock art. some of the rock art was upto 40,000 years old! it was crazy to see all the different types and to figure out what it was and what its meaning was. but the 2 most memorable parts of my hiking section were my solo and then my group expedition.

as a group we decided to do a 3 day fasting solo after the first week of hiking (one guy did decided to bring a stove and food). each of us were spread out in our own spaces along a creek off the carson river. and wow, i have never been through more of an intense 3 days in my life. not eating for 3 days really made me appreciate food and since then i have tried my hardest not to waste anything because i know how lucky i am to have it available to me. not eating also made figure out lots of things with my body. i was amazed at how little strength i had towards the end. like, the first day, i was able to to and explore a little bit outside my sleeping area, but by the second day, i could barely walk 10 feet to get some water (and i was actually dehydrated after my solo, but fueled back up on electrolyte powder). while on my solo i also had many self-realizations that have really changed me as a person and have helped me grow into a better person. another huge thing was that i really really got an extreme appreciation for nature and for the native animals of australia. before i hiked to my solo spot, i had all these bad thoughts in my head because one of my fears is to be compeltely alone. however, once i got out there, i realized that i wasnt alone at all…i had many visitors during my days, like the little lime green lizard that insisted on chillen on my mozzie dome, that kept me company, as lame as that sounds. anyway, then there was my group expedition. for the last 5 days of hiking, we split up into 2 groups, separate from our leaders, and basically this was our “final exam”. basically what the group expedition was was that our goal was to meet with the other group and our leaders at the end of the 5 days at the specified location on the map (the end of our trip). but, its not like it was oh just a few miles away…it was more like 3-9 kms a day. and, it was through the australian outback where all we had to rely on getting us there was our knowledge, our maps, and our compasses. however, before we all left, we plotted our desired routes on each others maps so in case we got lost, we could estimate where each other would be. we also did this so we didnt cross paths with one another. but yeah, talk about intense. luckily we all made it to our destination as we planned, but there have been times when groups have been split up and lost for a couple days (but all have been rescued).

so then theres the last part of the trip, which will always have an impact on me and my decisions in my life. for the last 8 days of the trip, we traveled to sunday island, which is off the NW coast of australia. here, we lived and traveled across the island with irene, cogi, wassi, and jaimie from the Bardi aboriginal tribe. i dont even know where to start with this experience, there was just so much to it. what i learned from the 4 of them i will never forget, and i cherish the time spent with them.

so, yeah, that was my NOLS adventure in a very very very small nutshell. id love to hear from anyone else thinking about doing a NOLS course, or anyone who’s done one because its always fun to share stories and reminisce about the amazing times shared. ill also put up a few pictures…of course i cant post 300+ pics so chose some of the ones i like.

til next time…

so basically i love to travel and just found out about BnA so here i am. gotta say that being able to read about other peoples travels is awesome, but i had to stop because i was gettin too jealous. ... [Continue reading this entry]