M-whY

At 6:15 in the morning, my alarm went off. Fifteen minutes later, it went off again. I rolled out of bed and unchained my prepacked bags from the bedpost. It took about ten minutes to wash my face, throw my bedsheets in the laundry bin, and make a quick breakfast. I was outside waiting for the bus by 6:40.

An Austrian girl with her pack also stood outside. Any backpacker up at this hour had to be catching a tour.

"Are you going on the Groovy Grape tour too?" I asked.

"Yeah. The bus should be here by quarter til right?"

"That's what I heard."

Utta and I patiently waited outside. Minute after minute passed, and still no sign of the tour guide. Both of us had specified to be picked up in front of the hostel, so we weren't worried about being forgotten. But when half an hour passed and the bus still hadn't shown up, something had to be up.

"I'm going inside to call them," Utta announced. "Watch my backpack for me?"

She disappeared inside the hostel. She was back shortly with the reason they were running late.

"The tour guide overslept."

Here I was, trying to be prompt and punctual, and our tour guide had overslept. At least he could've told us he was going to sleep in. I could've used the extra sleep as well.

He finally showed up an hour after scheduled.

"Terribly sorry, guys. I reckon you've heard already, I sorta overslept." He was both apologetic and cheerful at the same time. I forgave him instantly. Some people just have that personality that makes them hard to stay angry at for long.

Utta and I were the first ones to be picked up, so consequently, I got the best seat in the house, right next to the driver. We zigzagged around town, pick up the rest of the passengers. 23 adventure seekers in all. 18 girls and 5 guys. And one other glaring statistic. Only one American. Me.

"Hi guys, my name is Steve, and I love to sleep," he began after we were all comfortably seated. "Really sorry about this morning, I reckon you all heard by now why we're running late. Promise I'll make it up to you. When something like this happens, you know you're in for a good week! From here we head out of Adelaide, hopefully we make it out before the traffic starts. Rush hour here lasts only for about fifteen minutes, but it can be hell if you get caught in it. Any questions? Any answers? All right, let's go!"

We hit the road, and everyone seemed to in good spirits.

"If I had known you all were gonna be this happy, I would've slept an extra hour!" Steve joked.

It was about an hour to Clare Valley, where, like Barossa Valley, wine is the major industry. The fastest growing region in South Australia, it produced great wine and would only be a matter of time before the vineyards started receiving international recognition. It also happened to be the last place to stock up on supplies at reasonable prices.

"I'll give you some time to buy some things," said Steve. "Film, batteries, drinks... Things start to get expensive from here on out. Let's meet back here in about half an hour?"

I took the opportunity to call my airline, Garuda International, to see if they had resolved my ticket dispute. They hadn't, but promised to email me as soon as they heard back from LA. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get online in the next few days, but it was better than nothing.

From Clare, we drove two hours to Quorn. Quorn had a heavy English influence, evident from the wide, well planned, streets, as opposed to the narrow, unplanned, streets of German influenced towns. From the trailer behind the bus, Steve produced a substantial amount of food for lunch. With everyone eager to help, preparing and cleaning up took no time at all.

Steve says you gotta eat well.

"Is every meal going to be like this?" I asked Steve as we got going again.

"Aw yeah. You gotta eat well on a trip like this."

Our first real stop was at Yourambulla Caves, an important aboriginal heritage site. We hiked about half an hour to the top of the hill, where we saw some aboriginal paintings in the rock. Known as songlines, part of the message were actually directions to Uluru, a couple thousand kilometers to the north. The entire story, though, are only known to a few people. A person has to be initiated several times into the aboriginal Circle of Knowledge to know the entire songline. It was a tightly guarded secret.

The flies at the caves were insufferable. At first, I thought it was only me, since I hadn't had time to shower in the morning. Until I saw everyone waving their hands in front of their faces.

"Flies getting to you already?" asked Steve as I brushed the pesky bugs aside.

"Yeah, any way to get rid of them? Does insect repellent work?"

"Nah, not really. They don't live very long, only 24 to 36 hours, and since food is so scarce out here, they can get quite aggressive."

"Well, they can't eat people."

"No, but they sure like to annoy the hell out of us. You'll get used to them."

I think I'll go crazy first.

We continued on down the highway (there will be many more pictures of roads to come, I love taking pictures of them), along miles and miles of mountains known as Flinders Ranges. Steve had done well with his shopping and he produced and endless supply of snacks for us to much on. As the sky turned orange, we saw emus jaywalking across the highway, wild horses kicking up a storm of dust, and cattle grazing on the dry bush. We turned off onto a dirt road (I told you) and spent the night among the peaks at Angorichina. Angorichina used to be a hospital for war veterans, and the last patient checked out sometime around 1972. It had since been converted into a caravan park.

Steve wasn't kidding when he said we would eat well. Dinner was a feast of salad, potatoes, beef steaks, pork satays, sauteed onions, and my favorite, kangaroo meat. While the temperature during the day was quite hot, the temperature dropped as soon as the sun disappeared over the horizon. Someone built a fire and we all gathered around, chatting and getting to know each other.

Like Steve said, this was going to be a great week!

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!