I am going through the process of bringing together all of my old writings into one place. Here.

This is Australia, revisited.

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It took us 6 days to travel the 2,500 kilometers from Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, to Townsville, on the east coast. Why did it take us so long, you ask? For one, we wanted to enjoy the scenery and relax. But the real reason, apart from driving slowly to save on petrol, was that it was an Eventful Journey. Like most Eventful Journeys, there were numerous moments of intrigue, humor, fright and randomness.

The journey begins as three travelers, Jiska from the Netherlands, Chris from Switzerland and myself from the USA, pile into a bright yellow Nissan Pintara station wagon named Carhu. Three travelers from very different countries, with very different personalities, with very different expectations: this was going to be an ADVENTURE! Chris has been traveling from Melbourne all the way around Australia for the past 3 months so is very familiar with the country. Jiska and I have both just arrived into Darwin and are looking forward to our very first exposure to Oz. And what better way to do it then driving straight through the Nothingness that is the Outback?

As we backed out of the driveway at my CS host’s place, it started to rain. And not just normal rain, but rainy-season-in-the-tropics rain. “It’s the Wet, mate,” my host Justin had told me the night I arrived. “Does that mean it rains a lot?” Justin laughs. “Heaps,” he responded. [I must note here that “heaps” is a much better word for “lots” – use it!] I had no idea what to expect, but over the next few days I was introduced to some of the wettest rain I have ever experienced, rain so strong that you can barely see in front of your face. I am used to storms, lightning, thunder…here is just rain. And wind. I had no idea, as I usually go wherever is the most convenient for me without regard to “The Best Time to Go There.” Suffice it to say I was excited to head for the Outback.

The tropical-stlye rain continued well into the first hours of our journey. We were heading first to Australia’s biggest and most legendary national park, Kakadu. Of course, with the rain I was worried we would miss out on this wonderful opportunity. Thankfully the rain let up and allowed me the first opportunity to observe the stunning scenery that was flying by my window: large trees, lush green grasses, red soil, flowing creekbeds (there are CROCODILES in there somewhere!!), an amazing variety of birds, and…SMASH! From my vantage point in the front passenger seat, all I saw was a small brown-fur ball streak across the road from my right. The sickening thud followed a moment later. As the brakes locked and Chris kept the car moving forward – which is what you need to do if you want to survive hitting an animal – and we fishtailed down the road for one hundred feet. We slammed to a stop, breathless, wondering what it was that we hit. “A kangaroo,” Chris said. We all piled out of the car to inspect any damage. Well, to be honest, I just wanted to see if there were any gruesome ‘roo remains plastered all over the bumper of the car!

Luckily, nothing was damaged. We couldn’t even find the spot where we hit the hapless creature; there is no doubt that he was hit though. That was one loud THUD! I looked back down the road but did not see any half-dead animal crawling around. In fact, I didn’t see a dead animal either – could this wallaby have survived? We disovered that Kakadu doesn’t have kangaroos, but wallabies, which are classified as anything too small to be a ‘roo. So we ran over a wallaby, the first wallaby that Chris has hit during his 3 month road-trip around Oz – can you believe it? And it happens in the first hours of our grand Outback adventure! Brilliant!

Kakadu was simply amazing. Even though we were only able to access a few trails due to the Wet, stunning views awaiting us at every turn. There are hundreds of Aboriginal rock paintings throughout the park, and the diverse plants and lifeforms (bugs!) is incomparable. No snake bites here, but we did see a wallaby run past us as we were bush-walking. We spent two days absorbing Kakadu and the weather was fantastic.

The next afternoon we were driving out of Kakadu, heading south to meet up with our highway towards Townsville, when we turned a corner and were greeted by a man in an orange vest waving his hands over his head. A black bag was strung over his shoulder; a helmet hung loosely from the bag. I was immediately suspicious, as you have to be quite careful on these deserted roads. While the others in the car did not agree and thought I might be over-suspicious, I have an over-active imagination fed by my filmmaking and a healthy diet of horro films, so I was on-guard. Seconds later, as we passed by him, we realized that there was a late-model gray sedan behind him. It was completely demolished: roof caved in, all the windows busted out. The bumper, glass and personal effects were littered around the car. Shit! We stopped down the road to see what had happened. As we approached the man, who was towering over me at 6 foot 6, I noticed thick black skidmarks on the road.
“What happened, mate?”
“A kangaroo, I hit a kangaroo,” the man said, shaking. He looked really out of it, and by the looks of the car, he was lucky to be alive. The car had definitely flipped several times and had narrowly missed a tree.
“Can you remember what happened? Were you upside down?” Jiska was checking to see if he had any memory-loss that might indicate a serious medical condition. At least that’s what she told me afterwards.
“I was upside down, for sure. I was driving along, turned the corner and bam, there it was.” This conversation went on for awhile as we decided that we would bring him to the Ranger Station to get some help and call family. The man was mining safety inspector at a mine in the park. This area of Australia is widely known as one of the most uranium-rich places on Earth and this is the fella that makes sure it is all done safely. Apparently he was on his way to give a safety talk in town, was late and was speeding to get there in time! Ha! I think he was a bit embarrassed and concerned about his job because he did not want to get anyone else involved. He immediately wanted to call his family and have them take care of it rather than tell his employer. Not to mention that it was his mother’s car – I’m sure she wont be happy!

A little shook up, we left him there and continued on our way. We drove much slower from that point on. After much debate about the moral implications of leaving a man with a possible concussion alone at an empty Ranger Station, we eventually agreed to stop at the next roadhouse to tell them what had happened and where we left the guy. That way he would have help should he have collapsed there by himself. No idea what happened to the guy, but I am glad that we came by when we did.

That evening we did not make as much progress, so we stopped to camp soon after leaving the National Park, where it is legal to just camp off the road. Its free, its convenient and its fun! We sat up after dinner watching an enormous lightning storm, of the sort that I was used to from my Kansas City days. So much lightning, and we could see the streaks clearly. It was the most entertained I have ever been by lightning – I stayed up for an hour after the others because I was so enthralled. At 5am, I woke up to see the same lightning overhead. Since the tent was so hot, we had decided to forego the rain cover in favor of what little cross-ventilation we could encourage. “Rain!” I shook Jiska awake violently, verging on a panic since I already felt a little rain on me. She woke up with a start and I went outside to put the tarp over the tent. Unfortunately, the ground was too hard for the stakes. They just would NOT go in! We had set some heavy rocks around the tent to use for a situation like this; I placed the rocks in the loops and hoped it would hold.

It didn’t. Within 10 minutes, the tropical deluge began. You could not see one inch in front of your face. And this was inside the tent! The raincover had come loose from the stones and was now flapping in the wind. The wind was so strong that it began to loosen the knots that held the raincover to the poles. The tent was not a shelter anymore and all of our things were soaking. So I jumped ship: I took some of my things (a.k.a only my fleece) and splashed to the car, leaving Jiska to carry the rest! I was not thinking logically at that time in the morning, but since she had a poncho and I was in my boardshorts, I figured she would be much more equipped to handle the situation. Plus I was scared of floating away! While I sat in the car, I became even more afraid of the lightning. A car is metal, I thought. Doesn’t that mean it conducts electricity? I’m going to die if I get hit by lightning!!! I worked myself up into a fervor over this, and began to stare at the clock in the hopes of time flying by. I almost even got my camera out to film My Final Moments. Within 15 minutes, the storm was calmer and Jiska arrived in the car with all our belongings. We sat, soaking wet in the car, and tried to get another hour of sleep before sunrise.

The next morning, I opened my door to look at the tent. It was completely collapsed, with the poles sticking out at odd angles. Jiska was not too happy with me for leaving her alone in the tent to take care of our things. Chris wanted to know with an grin what the hell had happened to us last night. Everything was wet, I was tired, but I was ECSTATIC that I didn’t get fried like toast in the metal-toaster that is Carhu!

Wednesday went by beautifully; we went swimming in thermal river, did some moderate driving, found a wicked spot to camp and unwind. It was heaven. We woke up at 7am the next morning to get going; this was our first big day of driving. After a PB+J breakfast, Carhu was packed up and rolling south on the Stuart Highway by 8:05 am.

By 8:15am we were stopped in front of a large “ROAD CLOSED” barrier talking to a policeman. A road-train (an 18-wheeler that pulls 3 trailers!) had flipped over LAST WEEK, spilling small pellets of cyanide (of all things) all over the highway. The HazMat crews have been working this entire time, picking each pellet up by hand in order to neutralize it. No one can go through until 8pm, when the road opens because the daylight is gone. Shit. We had heard about this road closure, but all the travelers telling us about it spoke int eh past tense so we figured it had already been cleared up. The kicker is that we camped 10 minutes from this closure; if we had keep going Wednesday night we could have gone straight through.

Oh well, while my hopes of arriving in Townsville on Saturday were dashed, we had a wicked wonderful day hanging out at the Renner Springs Desert Hotel, where they had bathrooms, a shower, and….and…a…POOL! One hot day in the Outback sun and now I’m tan as a rabbit. A brown rabbit. It was a very chill day, allowing us all to recuperate and relax for a bit before driving onwards. Who cares if I’ll be a day late – I got to work on my tan!

Road-trippin’ the Outback is one Eventful Journey. Two days and 1,500 km later, we drove into Townsville, relatively unscathed. Dirty, tired and cranky, but alive. I was grateful for that, and I was excited to be in a new place near the ocean. But I already miss seeing the sunrise everyday, following it until sunset and then sitting under the vast star-scape, amazed at the abundance of the universe. I really dug the Outback, being isolated, alone. Gives you an insane amount of perspective, reinforcing your insignificance in the grand scheme of things. This Emptiness, this OUTBACK, really forces you to think, to reconsider, to grow. It was a quasi-religious experience; a spiritual awakening surrounded by bountiful nature, if you will.

My presence on the East Coast means that I am close to heading south towards Australia’s bigger cities, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and I am excited to explore more. I don’t know if I would do that drive again, especially during the Wet, but it was one helluva experience. Australia is a land of extremes: extreme distances, extreme sports, extreme animals, extreme weather…forget about Texas, everything is bigger in Australia!