Transcending Borders With Seeds in Our Hands

Today I left for the Outback on a tour with 18 other people. Adelaide and even the beginning of the Outback was really cold. Moving north out of the Adelaide Hills the trees and grass began to disappear, being replaced by a carpet of low, dull green bushes. Soon the Flinders Ranges appeared on the flat horizon and we came to a place where the oldest Aboriginal cave paintings were. There were symbols for different Aboriginal ceremonies and items of daily life, like circles which represented watering holes or gatherings and the footprints of emu and kangaroos. The paintings had been created by dipping fingers into a mixture of animal fat and ochre. There were tall ladders leading up to the cave and it was a pain because there were SO many flies landing all over our mouths, eyes, nose, and ears. When I looked ahead at other people, there were tons of flies attached to their backs, holding on for the hot, sweaty ride.

We drove for a few more hours and there began to be signs saying “Next Service Station 67 km” more like a warning than a general indicator. We pulled off onto a bumpy dirt road and after a few minutes I could smell all the red dirt I was seeing outside my window. The dust collected in my nose and mouth and I started coughing and sneezing. We all pulled our shirts over our noses so that we could breathe better. After two or so hours of this, we pulled into the beginning of the Brachina Gorge which contained prolific wildlife. There were a bunch of yellow-footed rock wallabies and lots of interesting birds moving about. We arrived at the Arapachina village where we stayed the nights. We feasted on grilled chicken, sausages, and yes, kangaroo while we sat around the fire. In the morning we paid ten bucks to ride bikes through the gorge in the morning light which lit up the multi-colored rock that was in inummerable layers. A big kangaroo jumped out a few feet in front of me as I was riding down a hill and it stopped and watched me for some time. We headed out of the Flinders Ranges after the bike ride and visited a huge coal pit and the home of an eccentric Outback mailman named Talc Alf. He had strange signs and an “art gallery” filled with even stranger rock sculptures. We made our way further and further north, stopping at a TINY town called William Creek. There was literally just a pub and a campground–that’s it. We camped out in swags under the brilliant stars and our guide, Tucker, taught us about the different constellations. I woke up at 5:30am briefly and looked out on a gorgeous desert sunrise.

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