Authentic Living: The Australian Outback

There has been so much happening during my time in Australia and yet I struggle to put it all into words. I will try to catch up this blog as best as possible though.

A few weekends ago, I traveled to the Australian outback with my ASC class. It was a wonderful experience and I fell in love with the outback. Red land, stretching for miles and miles with wide open blue skies = perfection. I am an earth kind of person....I love land, I love dirt, I love trees, I love the differences in landscapes. I don't know why but I've always been like that. The outback is a harsh yet beautiful land and I fell in love with it immediately. We stayed on a ranch belonging to a sweet lady named Grace and she drove us all out into the bush. We were all piled into the back of two trucks and it was basically like I was on an African Safari. There were kangaroos and wallabies hopping by as we cruised along, red dust flying everywhere. With the wind in my hair and the red dirt staining my face a new shade of orangish red, I was a happy camper. It was beautiful and peaceful out in the bush. They have been getting more rain than usual right now, so it was lush and green, as opposed to the usual brown hues colored by frequent drought. For two of the three nights we were in the outback, I slept on a mattress under the stars, which I would highly reccommend to anyone and everyone because it was such a peaceful and tranquil experience, laying there in the cool night air, gazing at the twinkling stars and the flickering fire until I finally drifted off to sleep. There was a specific tree on the ranch that made for a lovely perch and I spent a lot of time up in that tree, writing and simply thinking. Of course, my first encounter with the tree wasn't the best.....I climbed up in it for a bit and then when I went to jump down, my back pocket on my pair of jeans (the one pair I had brought with me for the weekend) caught on a small branch and ripped...resulting in me having a whole in the rear end of my jeans.

I got to see a wild Bearded Dragon while in the outback, which made me super happy, because this past summer I've been dreaming of someday owning one. He was such a fast little guy. I also got to see a herd of wild goats which was interesting. And I caught a little lizard who was the cutest. We became friends (actually, I think he was terrified of me but....). I wish I had lots of pictures but my nice camera broke so I only was able to take pictures on a disposable camera. However, I'll post a few taken by various other people during the trip.