Out Back

I’m not quite sure how to start writing about my Outback adventure. It was absolutely great but where do I start? It was completely different than the safari tour. There were 10 of us on the tour plus our driver/guide. We traveled in a 4WD little truck all sort of squished in. But that made for great camaraderie. We had to work ourselves, setting up camp, cooking, cleaning up. We all got along. We all participated, we all shared in the work.
We became a community, a family in fact. Later in the trip when we came to touristy areas we felt quite anti-social and just wanted to stay in our little group. Ben, our guide, said we were the best group in many ways. It’s not always that everyone gets along or that everyone pitches in. We were the first group ever to decline a shower opportunity and we were the first group not to complain about having to help clean the utensil boxes at the end of the trip. We even did it with enthusiasm. And the shower, well we weren’t prepared to have one and the camping ground was too full with tourists and we were too hungry so that we were all in agreement that it would be better just to drive back to the middle of nowhere, make lunch and be on our own. And since we were all dirty together that didn’t matter.



One of the things that was particularly interesting for me with this group was that I was one of the older people there. Usually in my experience I tend to be in the younger contingent of a group but not here. Most were in their 20s, traveling, working, studying in Australia, here to learn English. They reminded me of myself at their age when I was in Paris, or traveling around Europe, doing the Grand Canyon/Utah tour… It was fun to watch them work with the language, talking, describing things in different ways, helping each other learn new words or phrases, laughing at the silly mistakes they’d make. I, speaking English, French and German and being a teacher came in quite handy for them. Ben, the guide, and I laughed one day as the back seat conversation turned from crude stories into a discussion on certain grammatical structures. It was interesting too to pick up on the different language differences/struggles each had depending on where they were from. The Germans saying everything in the past perfect, “I have slept…” Because that’s what you use more often in German. The French guy and his use of infinitives, “I must to go” The Czech princess leaving out articles or putting them in where you don’t need them, “The quarry has a water. There is splash toilet.” Just all interesting observations from someone interested in languages. They all actually really did very well. Their level of English was very good and most impressive.



Guillaume had only been in Australia for 4 weeks with very little English background and spoke very well…except that he’d also picked up a lot of swearing habits! He’s from France and he enjoyed bugging me, trying to get me riled up about one thing or another. He’d ask me for help and the one evening when he got so frustrated being tired and words not coming out and people teasing him that he came over and spewed off in French to me. And then amused himself with my accent. Tania is from the Czech Republic. We called her Bush Princess. She was a bit of a princess and I was a little worried at the beginning but she did very well getting in to the bush life especially after we convinced her to take her watch off. Sarah and Ute are both from Germany. Ute is my age and lives in Berlin. And we often sat together in the front seat when the girls, who would sometimes get carsick, wouldn’t need to be there. Sarah is from Passau and has a great laugh and Agneta from the Netherlands does too and when the two of them would laugh together it would be particularly wonderful. Manuela and Ramon are both from Switzerland. They’re both quiet but very lovely people. Ramon was loudest at night wrapped up in his swag, snoring away. And Danny’s from Calgary. It was his first big trip overseas and on his own. It was interesting too to see some of the differences come out between young people in Ontario and those in Calgary. Reiner’s cool. He’s a younger version of our family friend Kurt Zinke. He looks much like Kurt did and has a similar life style too. After having sold his house in New Zealand he’s now exploring the world. Apparently I look like his cousin. Ben was our guide from Healing Bush. He was great. He took us to wonderful spots and we met some interesting people like Jeffery Santana (as Reiner called him) in Oodnadata. His guitar didn’t sound any better even after Reiner tuned it. And he stopped for cool animals he would spot on the way. Tour guides have very sharp eyes.