Saddler Springs

After enduring a couple of weeks in the lecture hall, we set out for the outback early in morning on Monday September 24. The bus ride was quite the adventure to say the least... good thing we had the best bus drive in all of Australia at the helm. After about 11 hours on the road (well... most of them could be considered roads) we officially arrived in the middle of Nowhere (Saddler Springs).

Check out this view of camp showing the main building (kitchen and mess hall) and the fire pit.

The activities of the first day consisted of an all day hike out to Carnarvon Gorge through the dry Eucalypt woodland of the Australian outback.

What a spectacular view. This place really made you feel small...

On the way back from the gorge, several bush fires were set in order to reduce the fuel load build-up and promote the regrowth of the fire-loving flora of the outback. This is the fire that I got to set! Not every day do you get to the forrest on fire...

The mission of the second day was to tour the outback and visit a couple of Aborigional art sites. This human figure is the largest Aborigional art figure in the world! It was pretty humbling knowing that this was painted thousands of years ago.

In the evening on the third day, a small group of us hiked up a ridge behind the camp to watch the sunset. Here's a pic of Doug (& Andrew) showing how he felt about the situation.

Here is a view from the ridge behind camp... some beautiful country.

And finally the sunset. The next morning all of us reluctantly packed up and set out on our next adventure...

Peace. -Dan