Outback
For our second free weekend in Sydney five of us decided to rent a car and drive west until we found ourselves in what we considered the outback.
So here we are in the outback. We didn't make it to the red desert areas because it is close to a twenty hour drive, but we definitely made it to a flat, dry, sparsely populated area. It was remarkably like the non-montainous areas of Wyoming with less people, if you can believe that. One of my friends that traveled with me also said it looked a lot like west Texas. We have decided that the US is a good representation of the majority of the planet with all the different land types we have. The good thing is that in the next three weeks I am going to see two things that really can't be found in America, the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
We knew we were getting into the deserted areas and away from the city when we saw signs warning us about kangaroos and various other outback critters.
Speaking of road signs, we saw this funny sign and decided we couldn't pass up an opportunity to do an old person walk in front of it. There are some very interesting road signs in Australia; I would bring one home if I thought I could get it through customs.
We picked up some cheap boomerangs in Sydney before we left. It isn't a complete trip to the outback without tossing a boomerang around. I never caught one when it came back, but I did get the boomerang to return and fly back past me fairly consistently.
For dinner we grilled out. We made a lot of steak and potatoes; it actually worked out quite well. We wanted to build a pit in the dirt, but we never made it far enough away from civilization to feel comfortable building a makeshift grill.
We did get far enough out that we decided to camp out under the stars rather than find a town with open rooms for us to stay in. We brought trash bags to put on the ground and blankets from the hotel to keep us warm. We didn't have a tent, but after all we were in the desert and rain and cold were not too much of an issue. This is at lake Cargelligo about an hour from the border between New South Wales and Southern Australia.
to get to the outback from Sydney you have to cross over a mountain range about eighty kilometers from the coast. It is known as the Great Dividing Range or, in this area, the Blue Mountains . They are a pretty popular tourist destination in themselves, particularly the three sisters. The three sisters are a rock formation that you can see from the Echo Point lookout. On the way toward the outback it was extremely foggy and this was the best picture we could get.
We though it would be a good comparison for when we came back on the return trip to Sydney. The three rocks to the right of me are the formation I was talking about. The people in the bottom right corner are on a platform about twelve feet below me. On the first day we came we couldn't even see that; I actually thought it was a sheer drop from our viewing area. The trip to the outback helped me get a feel for a lot more of Australia than you can get just being in Sydney with all of its tourist destinations. I look forward to being able to walk into an Outback Steakhouse and yell at them for getting things wrong. I am currently in the middle of my last week in Sydney, and I will have a post about that before I leave for Brisbane on Saturday. By the way, my friend, Ryan, recently informed me I can set up my blog so poeple who aren't members of this sight can post on it. So if you would like to leave me any messages or comments you should be able to do it without filling out any information from now on.
So here we are in the outback. We didn't make it to the red desert areas because it is close to a twenty hour drive, but we definitely made it to a flat, dry, sparsely populated area. It was remarkably like the non-montainous areas of Wyoming with less people, if you can believe that. One of my friends that traveled with me also said it looked a lot like west Texas. We have decided that the US is a good representation of the majority of the planet with all the different land types we have. The good thing is that in the next three weeks I am going to see two things that really can't be found in America, the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
We knew we were getting into the deserted areas and away from the city when we saw signs warning us about kangaroos and various other outback critters.
Speaking of road signs, we saw this funny sign and decided we couldn't pass up an opportunity to do an old person walk in front of it. There are some very interesting road signs in Australia; I would bring one home if I thought I could get it through customs.
We picked up some cheap boomerangs in Sydney before we left. It isn't a complete trip to the outback without tossing a boomerang around. I never caught one when it came back, but I did get the boomerang to return and fly back past me fairly consistently.
For dinner we grilled out. We made a lot of steak and potatoes; it actually worked out quite well. We wanted to build a pit in the dirt, but we never made it far enough away from civilization to feel comfortable building a makeshift grill.
We did get far enough out that we decided to camp out under the stars rather than find a town with open rooms for us to stay in. We brought trash bags to put on the ground and blankets from the hotel to keep us warm. We didn't have a tent, but after all we were in the desert and rain and cold were not too much of an issue. This is at lake Cargelligo about an hour from the border between New South Wales and Southern Australia.
to get to the outback from Sydney you have to cross over a mountain range about eighty kilometers from the coast. It is known as the Great Dividing Range or, in this area, the Blue Mountains . They are a pretty popular tourist destination in themselves, particularly the three sisters. The three sisters are a rock formation that you can see from the Echo Point lookout. On the way toward the outback it was extremely foggy and this was the best picture we could get.
We though it would be a good comparison for when we came back on the return trip to Sydney. The three rocks to the right of me are the formation I was talking about. The people in the bottom right corner are on a platform about twelve feet below me. On the first day we came we couldn't even see that; I actually thought it was a sheer drop from our viewing area. The trip to the outback helped me get a feel for a lot more of Australia than you can get just being in Sydney with all of its tourist destinations. I look forward to being able to walk into an Outback Steakhouse and yell at them for getting things wrong. I am currently in the middle of my last week in Sydney, and I will have a post about that before I leave for Brisbane on Saturday. By the way, my friend, Ryan, recently informed me I can set up my blog so poeple who aren't members of this sight can post on it. So if you would like to leave me any messages or comments you should be able to do it without filling out any information from now on.
posted by Patrick at 7:30 AM
2 Comments:
Did you guys seen any critters while you were sleeping out under the stars; for that matter have you seen any wild kangaroos, wallabys, dingos, etc?
Oh yes, I forgot to mention we did see one wild kangaroo while we were driving. It darted across the road in front of us, but sadly we didn't have enough time to get a picture or even a great look. We also saw a couple wallabies (like miniature kangaroos) on the way to the beach surfing.
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