When was the last time you tried something for the first time?

I just got back from the most rewarding 5 day camping trip of my life. Staying out in the bush for 5 days, hiking at night and a camp fire at night. Attempting to write about it is already difficult because I know that no matter what I say it won’t come close to describing what a life experience it was. I wish you could have been there but here’s my best attempt to describe what I’ve been up to, what I’ve seen and how I felt during this adventure.

So Friday morning we loaded up the bus, stopped at school for a quick lecture and time to meet our film crew. This is the 13th edge of the outback program and they decided to hire a camera crew to create a video for La Trobe University and youtube in general. I was picked as one of the five to be interviewed and holy cow, my first interview was in the bus (note I was the first person) and I sounded ridiculous! HA! Oh well, must not have been that bad cause they keep following me!

We finally arrived at Broken Hill, our first stop on the trip but we quickly rushed off to Silverton, a small out dated town. Side note: Mad Max was filmed in this town and they have the replica of the car there, cool if you have watched the films which we did Wed. Anyways, we photographed the old, lonely yet characteristic town as the sun went down. Our professor then shouted us at the bar; which means, he bought us rounds of drinks at the local bar. The wine was delicious and the bar tenders played a prank on five group members. They handed them all a funnel and a potato… being college kids they all got excited thinking they would be chugging beer but oh no! They were told to tuck the funnel into their pants and then they were instructed to balance the potato on their head. As soon as they all looked up to balance the potato the bartender took a bottle of water and squirted water down everyone’s pants. I honestly could not stop laughing. It was hilarious and everyone should have seen it coming. The pictures are great! After dinner we just headed home. Our “hotel” aka hostel was CRAZY! Mario’s Palace is extremely old and every wall is covered in huge murals.

The next morning, after yet another nerve racking 15 min interview, we left for Mutawintji National Park. If I didn’t tell you already we were so lucky to have Peter Peterson with us for this trip. He is an aboriginal man and because of his status he was able to take us everywhere we went. We stayed in the middle of Mutawintji National Park, somewhere most Australians never get to visit and a place where very, very few people ever get to stay the night. We were so lucky to stay there, explore the land, hear aboriginal stories and meet some locals (all of two families because it’s so remote). Our accommodation was two long buildings facing an outside common room with two picnic tables and a huge fire pit. I roomed with three other girls in a room that was probably 10x10, but we got lucky and got one of the heaters so we didn’t freeze too bad!

That night I went on my first ROO HUNT! Some people spotted some kangaroos so Maggie, Nick, Meghan and I all went out trying to find some. Next thing I remember we were chasing kangaroos up a mountain side. I was honestly like a little kid. My heart my racing and I was crazy about my blurry, far away kangaroo pictures. I hope I never forget that pure excitement. Then we had to run back to our camp because before we knew it was super dark! We came back and had a group dinner, songs by the fire, night photography and a few drinks with everyone.

Sunday was my favorite day yet! We had a full day hike, 9am-4pm at Mutawintji. The hike included lush green water ways, mountain ridges, water canyons and everything in between. I packed my four by five, including all accessories, and my digital SLR with 3 lenses… let me tell you I got a good work out! It was so difficult to carry all that (around 40 pounds) but it was so worth it. We ate lunch on one of the mountain ridges, feet dangling off with a view that overlooked a canyon as the wind rushed up the side of the ridge (mom not your ideal spot but it was beautiful!). At the base of our hike I saw some more kangaroos. This time I had my zoom lens and made friends with the roos! I got so close to the kangaroos and was surrounded by about 6 of them. They were so comfortable when we were still that they would even feed in front of us. I couldn’t be happier that night.

So any guesses what we cooked on the fire that night for dinner? Dun, dun, dun: KANGAROO! Caleb and I cut and BBQ’d all the Kangaroo for everyone! We literally cooked the thinly sliced kangaroo on chicken wire over the fire. Once it was all cooked we tried it and it was the most delicious thing I’ve had since I’ve been here and that was with nothing on the meat. That night I also tried my bubbly wine, called Passion Pop with a bright pink label and it was so good! Very girly and cute, Peter even said it was good! That night was a ton of fun and I spent some quality time talking with the camera guys, my friends and Peter.

Sunday night it rained which is terrible in the outback with all the roads. Our original plan wasn’t possible so instead we had a slow morning. I took advantage of this and got some portraits of Peter, the National Parks people and some of the children in the house next to us. The children…. They were so loving. I have nothing bad to say about them, it was such an eye-opening experience to spend some quality time with them. It’s a different way of life. There isn’t any worth for a wide expanse of clothing options, they don’t care if they don’t have shoes on, it doesn’t matter if their face is covered in dirt and grime, but hand any kid a crayon and sure enough a smile and a messy scribble is to follow. I don’t think I’ll ever forget those children.

Our next adventure was off to the” Mutawintji Cultural Centre”. This tour made me really appreciate culture, tradition and family. They opened up their land, built a cultural center and have made great efforts to inform the visitors about their land and history. Our guide was a part of the five families that owns the land and he showed up cave art (hundreds of years old) and rock engravings (thousands of years old). This was a quiet and reflective event and I’m extremely grateful for this experience.

We then crammed in one more hike, by far my favorite hike. It started with a traditional and iconic Australian landscape then we moved into green wetlands and finally got to the gorge. In ways it reminded me of seven falls in Tucson at the end, but it was even better. I loved this hike. We split into a faster group and a slower group where I fell out of the fast group about half way back went off the trail by myself and climbed to the top of the mountain on the way back. I finally got to the top, huffing and puffing from carrying my pack, and I looked out to a breathtaking view. It was nothing but me and my cameras with a 360 degree view of my surroundings. I looked back from where I came from and it was a lush waterway with a lot of green vegetation, turned over my shoulder to see a field of grass with about 20 kangaroos feeding, and one more turn I overlooked the sun setting behind Australia’s iconic stringy, bare trees. The quality of light was incredible. In a rush, I took a few pictures but more than anything I just stood there taking everything in I possibly could. I spotted the slow group and headed back down. I took some remarkable sunset pictures with of trees, grassland and kangaroos. The kangaroos in this area were not scared like all the others. I got within ten feet of some of them. This is exactly why I signed up for this program and I’m so thankful for all the experiences I’ve had at Mutawintji and Australia in general.

The weather wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The outback, especially right now, is freezing cold. The two days we went hiking the skies cleared and once we were hiking it was pretty warm. During the night we just had to stay close to the fire and bundle up, but I survived! As far as animals go, I saw many wild kangaroos, emus, and wallabies. I don’t care if I’ve seen a hundred kangaroos; I still get ‘little kid excited’ every time! Which leads me into the food I’ve tried; I’ve had kangaroo, vegemite (GROSS), a lot of lamb, curry (yuck), chicken snitchel (sp?) and lots of other things but when you’re hungry it’s a lot easier to eat just about anything.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the field trip portion of this class. I had a lot of time to take it all in and reflect on the way back to Mildura, which is about a 4-5 hour drive in our bus. I just want to thank everyone who has supported me and has a role in my life today; without you I wouldn’t be who I am today. I will write soon, sorry this one is so long! I could write forever but I hope you had picture where I’ve been!

Love you all!
XOXO Kayla