So Much Red Dirt

4.13.2012

Friday the 13^th!!!

Today, we got up and ate breakfast around 7:30. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but since we went to Michelle (host mom’s) brothers farm, Michelle and Neil came out and were the cooks for our group for the weekend. I was really excited to see both Michelle and Neil last night when we got there. Michelle had been gone all week and I really missed having her around.

Anyway, we had toad in a hole. Or as some people call it, eggs in a basket. A.k.a. a piece of toast with a hole in it where a fried egg goes. So that was delicious.

After that we all loaded up in Yutes (or trucks) and drove out to a separate part of the property where there is a slight hill from where you can see a lot. I say slight hill because let’s face it, Australia is pretty flat. The drive out there was so much fun! It felt like real life Indiana Jones. It was also just so surreal driving in the outback, kicking up all the red dirt.

We drove out there, took about 30 minutes to write letters to ourselves (then they will give the letters back to us at the end of the semester). After that we had some afternoon tea on sight.

Yutes before.

Yutes after.

Then we loaded back up into the Yutes and headed back to camp. This time I road in the back, and that is quite an awesome/ terrifying experience. You just have to hang on for dear life, and expect to look like a red dust monster at the end. Our yute got the worst of it because we were behind the other 3 vehicles, meaning that a whole lot of red dust had been kicked up. They drive so fast too, mostly because there’s nothing really to hit.

The property of this farm is about 40-45,000 acres. Which I think someone said is about 60 square miles. So, big place. And there is no road markers or anything. Just some fences and such. But they navigate the place like it’s no big deal. They know exactly where they are going. If I was in charge, I would get everyone lost.

As we were driving we saw several animals. We saw sheep and a mob of kangaroos off in the distance. Kangas can sure hop fast.

When we got back, we had a little bit of time before lunch. Throughout the whole weekend, lots of card games were played. There where two boys from the city on the farm, Matt and Nick. They are having a gap year between high school and Uni and are trying to have life experience on the farm. They had been there a couple weeks and are going to be there for several more after we leave. They hung out with us pretty much all weekend. I think they miss civilization, because whenever they had a free moment or weren’t being asked to do something, they were playing cards with us or sitting with us by the fire.

After lunch we played more card games. Then a group of us went to the original house that was on the property. The house is super dilapidated and was really fun to look at/ around

After that I played more cards. A lot of card games got played on this trip. Then I took pictures of the sunset:

Then we had dinner. Braedon came up tonight too. He has an assignment for school that he needed to interview his uncle for. Plus Neil and Michelle needed another car up there.  So he made it in time for life stories tonight. After that him and his cousins (Josh and Dane) helped point out the Southern Cross to me. The Southern Cross is a constellation that you can only see in the southern hemisphere. So that was cool to see. We then spent a solid 20 minutes looking for the “saucepan” which in the northern hemisphere we call Orion’s belt. He couldn’t find me and told me that I should ask Michelle tomorrow night. So that’s what I’ll do.