Hey, everyone! I can’t believe I somehow made it – I managed to get to the “outback” of Australia. This past week, I journeyed up from Melbourne to Alice Springs (the Red Center of Australia) in a caravan with my travel buddy Michael. The journey took six days (24 hours of driving) and we just arrived in Alice a couple of hours ago.

The White Kangaroos of Bordertown

I arrived at Michael’s house a little before 9am on Sunday and we promptly set off to begin our 400+ km journey of the day. The destination: Bordertown, South Australia. I silently waved farewell to Melbourne, watching as it disappeared behind the horizon. I was happy to get out of the big, bad city – to set off on a much more (to me) exciting adventure… into the outback! The city turned to suburbs, which turned to farmland. At a certain point, we passed by the Grampians, which is a large mountain range and national park. I felt at ease, knowing I was heading out into nature again.

Bordertown itself was nothing incredible, but it was a good stopping point for us. It was also a treat for me to have entered South Australia. At this point, I’d like to visit all the Australian states before I leave.

We stayed in Bordertown two nights. The second day was making sure the caravan wasn’t having any issues before heading further along on the trip. I also was able to buy a new book, as I finished A Discovery of Witches. At the Salvos, I found White Oleander, which is an excellent book (and movie) that I read many years ago. Only $1.50! I also got myself a new rain jacket for $4, as the one my Chicago buddy Michael gave me was falling apart. I now look like the kid in IT who dies in the very beginning haha.

Anyway… Back to Bordertown. For me, its main attraction was… the white kangaroos! Back in Tassie, I had heard there were some white kangaroos at Bruny Island. I wasn’t able to make it to Bruny and also figured there must be one random albino kangaroo there. While it sounded cool, it wasn’t a major priority for me. And then sure enough, they had a wildlife park in Bordertown with heaps of white kangaroos!

The white kangaroos aren’t actually albino – but it is still a genetic mutation. The park was established in 1968. As you all know at this point, I try not to visit zoos or similar places, but the Bordertown Wildlife Park was right there, with the white kangaroos visible from the road. I decided to pay them a visit. At least to keep them company! They were fenced in, but seemed to have a large amount of space to roam.

How cool they were! They were almost like ghost kangaroos, to me. There were some normal ones there as well and at one point, a grey kangaroo and a white kangaroo started boxing. It was exciting to see, and made for a good picture, I thought.

You would think at this point, I’d get bored of seeing kangaroos, having seen so many since being in Australia – but no. Somehow they manage to surprise me. I’m hoping while in Alice Springs, I’ll get to see the red kangaroo, which would be the last type of kangaroo I haven’t yet seen.

After two nights in Bordertown, I was ready to get a move on.

The Murray River and Morgan

From Bordertown, our destination for the night was a rest area called Morgan East. This was our “blip” day. While everything seemed fine in the caravan in Bordertown, we started having issues with the fridge. Michael’s caravan set up is really cool, but also I know NOTHING about caravans whatsoever. It has been pretty interesting to learn different things about it, actually. Basically, the fridge is battery-powered while the ute is running, but it’s supposed to automatically switch to gas once the ute is turned off. It was not doing this. After a few phone calls to Michael’s caravan-savvy friends, we ended up going to a caravan repair shop. Luckily, the dude – Rob – gave it a quick look and declared “it’s working fine!” Perhaps the caravan had needed a moment to cool down before switching from battery to gas. Maybe Rob just had the magic touch.

Along the way, we stopped for lunch in Loxton at this random hole in the wall. They had hardly any veggie options for me, so I gorged on hash browns, chips, and onion rings. A very healthy lunch.

The main attraction of the day was the Murray River. It is a large river that actually is the border between Victoria and New South Wales. It goes into South Australia, even, which is where we were seeing it. We took a barge from one side of the river to the other. How bizarre it was, to be in a ute/caravan, crossing a river on a barge. The barge crossing is operated 24 hours a day and is a free public service for the community. Wild!

Once we’d settled in for the night, we watched Last Cab to Darwin which is an INCREDIBLE Australian-made movie. Highly recommend.

In the morning, a bunch of orb weaving spiders had made webs along the trees near our rest area. My brother Mike would have hated it hahaha. It was nice to see them again, not having seen them since leaving Western Australia.

Burra

The next day, we stopped to visit Michael’s friend Betty in Morgan for tea. After leaving Betty’s and hitting the road, we saw a kangaroo hopping faster than I’d ever seen a kangaroo hop. It crossed the road in front of us and jumped over a fence, but hit its leg on the fence and flipped over. Luckily, it got back up and continued on. Poor little guy.

Our big stop for the day was in Burra – which is an old mining town. We stopped for groceries and I walked around the town for a while. A creek ran along the town. I kept walking and went to check out a viewpoint that looked over some of the old mines.

When we turned into the rest area for the evening, I was able to see the farmers doing a controlled burn across the road. It was cool to see patches of their field alight with fire, and the subsequent smoke that rose from them.

Not long after, it was dark. The stars were so good! It was so dark out that I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that before.

Salt Lakes and Entering the Outback

I was excited for this day as I knew once we passed Port Augusta, we would essentially be entering “the outback”.

Before exiting the Port Augusta area, we pulled into the Australian Arid Lands Botanical Garden, which had a lovely view of the Flinders Ranges along the horizon, a lookout of some cliffs, the southernmost mangrove trees in the world, and slivers of the Spencer Gulf.

We drove along and to my surprise, we saw probably six or seven emus along the side of the road! Even though we pulled over, they didn’t seem particularly worried. After starting to walk away, some of them came a little bit closer to the ute. While I’ve seen emus in Kalbarri and along the trip down to Albany, it’s always still so lovely to see them. Very weird little guys. Dinosaurs! To me, they kind of look like old drag queens.

Along the ride, Michael pulled over so we could see a very large salt flat. It had an island in the middle of it. I had always wanted to go to Bolivia to see salt flats, so this felt like it must have been a taste of that.

We stayed in Glendambo in the evening. I went for a walk down some red dirt roads before it got dark, hunting for a thorny devil. Fingers crossed I’ll see one while in Central Australia!

Coober Pedy

This was our eagle day. Not long into our drive for the day, we saw a massive eagle along the side of the road, eating roadkill. Before we were able to stop to snap a picture, it flew off. Such massive wings – I had never seen an eagle so close by before. And then we kept seeing them all day long!

We also saw two wild horses. I had heard there were wild horses in Wyoming and Montana back in the states, but I hadn’t seen any when I was there last year. I asked Michael how he knew they were wild. There are a lot of cattle stations around Australia and some of them are open range, where the cattle can roam wherever they like. He said “they don’t look like they’re in that great of shape” and he was right. You could see their ribs.

On to Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is a place I’d heard of in the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Another incredible Australian film. In the movie, they make it out to be a shit hole. And that’s because… no offense Coober Pedy-ers, but it sort of is. There were a few other movies made in or near Coober Pedy as well – including Mad Max.

The town itself was so, so weird. It very well could have been the oddest town I had ever been to. It is a town well known for its opal mining. Surrounding the town for loads of kilometers, you see massive mounds along the terrain from where they had been mining.

The town itself… is mostly underground. Homes, churches, art galleries, and other shops all go underground. According to Michael, it gets so hot there in the summer, that it’s a good way to avoid the heat. I went into an underground church while there.

Another weird thing… the shop owners keep their lights off until someone enters the store. Electricity is very expensive, so they’ll follow you in and turn on the lights so you can look around.

BIZARRE.

We initially planned on spending longer in Coober Pedy, but after lunch, we decided it was still early and we could keep driving and get to Alice Springs a day sooner. So on, we went.

Before finishing our drive for the day, we passed over the dingo fence, which is a 5,614km fence, trying to keep dingoes from entering unwanted areas. As we crossed the grid on the road, an alarm went off – Michael expects it is to scare the dingoes from crossing. Hopefully, I’ll get to see a dingo while out here!

Entering Northern Territory

We left the rest area around 8am, with the goal to be in Alice close to lunch time. Not long after beginning our drive, we crossed over the border from South Australia into Northern Territory (I walked, as a novelty). We were now in the Red Center of Australia. Pretty exciting for me!

The terrain was not at all what I expected it to be. When thinking of the center of Australia, I always thought – red dirt, flat land, not much of anything else. In fact, there are plenty of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, even MOUNTAINS. There is definitely red dirt, though, and it is beautiful.

We arrived to the caravan park in Alice Springs and got the caravan set up. Since Michael will be here until Friday, he put out the awning, set up some lawn chairs and a table, and he is now truly in his element. I don’t think we will do much today, but there are some places Michael said he’d show me that are nearby over the next few days – gorges, lookouts, etc. I’m so happy we made it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make visiting the center of Australia a priority, but I’m really glad I did. Hoping to see some thorny devils, red kangaroos, dingoes, and more while out here!

Art of the Week

My friend Candice from Perth has been talking with me for ages about making a tattoo for her. We were discussing the details via text recently, and I made this one for her. She will be going to Bali in June and said she’ll be getting it tattooed then. I hope so! I love seeing my work tattooed on people.

Reflections

Just some random tidbits to remember…

Up until entering the Northern Territory today, I have either heard or seen a kookaburra in each Australian state so far. Let’s see if I can keep it up!

I have “walked” the border from both Victoria into South Australia, and South Australia into Northern Territory.

The term “oo roo” – meaning goodbye. Hadn’t heard that one before!

Australia is home to one of the oldest rivers in the world, called the the Finke River (currently dried up).

On our first day of driving, Michael showed me his CD case. I popped a random mixed CD in and sure enough, the first song that came on was “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes. I think I’ve even mentioned it before on this blog, but the song has such a connection for me. I haven’t even listened to it a bunch of times, but it always makes me think of my early days living in Chicago, my first roommate Michael. When I hear it while traveling, I instantly think of that time, and of him. Sometimes, the universe seems to send messages to me.

Another thing I don’t think I’ve touched on. I have talked a little bit about Aboriginals here in Australia, how at times there is tension and certainly a problematic history as a result of colonization. What I don’t think I’ve mentioned is how so many businesses and places in Australia will have a disclaimer called Acknowledgement of Country. It goes like this: [Business/person] acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present. At times, people will go on to say “we acknowledge this is stolen land,” etc.

And lastly, regarding problematic-ness… While I have yet to venture into Alice Springs, it can apparently be quite rough at times. I have had a couple of people say “don’t go there, it’s really bad right now” or “it’s lawless there.” I think it is likely sensationalized, but there is certainly violence between Aboriginal people and visitors occasionally. My caravan buddy Michael knows two people who were stabbed and died over the years. And yet, that said… I am from Chicago, where people have guns and could have shot me at any time over the eight years that I lived there. I could also have been stabbed in Chicago. Or in Cape Town, which had awful apartheid issues and was incredibly dangerous at night. Of course, I will keep my wits about me here – and will likely not be out and about at night, where people allegedly tend to be the rowdiest. We shall see what happens. Fingers crossed I don’t get stabbed to death! If I feel unsafe, I will move on.

I’m really glad I was able to make it to Alice Springs, and happy to have had the opportunity to travel in a caravan up to the center of Australia. Michael has shared plenty of knowledge about Australia with me, which is always super appreciated. I’m looking forward to the next week and seeing what the Red Center is all about!

That’s all for now. xx

P.S. here’s some kangaroos dancing & smooching!