Steven's Australian Adventures: Saddler's Springs

I just got back from another crazy adventure. This time in the semi-arid Western Queensland. We spent the week at Saddlers Springs with the amazing John Hall learning all about the ecology and lifestyle of the outback. It was a very long drive out west (about 11 hours). We left Brisbane around 7am and arrived in a town called Injune to pick up our 4W cars. Little did we know that we would come to know Injune very well........Eventually the road turned into dirt and the the bus could no longer take it. Everyone loaded into the 4W drives and we left the bus at one of the homesteads. We arrived at a camp with no electricity, drinking water provided by rainfall, open air cabins inhabited by bats, and a wonderful outhouse. There was literally NO ONE for at least 100 km in every direction. It was simply amazing. We spent the first night at the campfire and went to bed early, exhausted from the long trip. During the first full day we explored the area and learned about some of the ecology. We saw a huge goanna, which is a type of lizard that can grow up to 6 ft in length. We saw one that was about 3 ft climbing up a tree. There were also tons of wild roos and walabies...and.....we saw our first wild emu with baby chicks!! It was so much cooler to see them in their natural habitat free to roam rather than contained within a cage. After a day of exploring we set out traps to do a population study of yabbies. (Kind of like little crayfish) We spent the latter part of the afternoon exploring the nearby creek to document the various species present. While in the creek Nicki got a HUGE leech (around 7 inches), check out the pic below. Before dinner we ventured out on what we were told would be an "evening stroll." Turns out it was a 2 mile hike with no trail, directly up a steep mountain. We summited for sunset and watched the moon rise over the valley. After a long day in the field we returned to have a feast of authentic Aussie BBQ, complete with Kangaroo! It was the first time I tried Kangaroo and it was really good. Kangaroo is really hard to cook because it can easily be overdone, but it was perfectly tender. We also had sausages, steaks, corn on the cob, and potatoes. After the huge meal we hit the hay. I slept under the overhang of one of the cabins, which turned out to be a good life choice. During the night there was a huge thunderstorm and the people sleeping under the stars experienced a rude awakening. It was pouring, and stormy all night. The next day we woke up unaware of the adventure ahead. The bus was doing fine until we reached a steep, very muddy hill soaked from the night before. We got halfway up, and got completely stuck. Our bus driver Peter, (who was one of the coolest bus drivers ever, by the way) tried for more than an hour to get over the hill but we just couldn't do it. While Peter was trying to get out of the mud John taught us the lyrics to Waltzing Matilda, along with all of the words meanings. We retreated in defeat and took an alternate, much longer way out of the camp. We took a different road back to Injune to regroup and figure out what we were going to do. We stopped at the Injune roadhouse for some lunch and decided that we only had time for a certain lookout an hour a way. We went to the lookout with a beautiful view, then as another thunderstorm was moving in we found out that the pipe for the AC on the bus was punctured. The bus was in danger of overheating and we had to go back to Injune. We arrived around 4 oclock and we were extremely hot, as it was around 90 F outside and we had no AC. We went to the local community pool in Injune and John convinced them to let us into their kiddie pool. So some of us cooled off and played current tag in the tiny pool. Time passed and no one was sure exactly what we were doing. Finally we got the news from John, we weren't going to make it back to Saddlers that night. It takes 2 hours from Injune to Saddlers and we had to use the 4Wlers. But there were not enough 4Wlers to hold all of us so we would need to take multiple trips. Basically it would take around 6 hours for all of us to get back to saddlers, and then 6 hours tomorrow morning to get back. John pulled some strings and we ended up sleeping on the hardwood floor of the Injune Community Center. We returned to the Injune roadhouse and had dinner there. By now the entire town was talking about the 32 stranded Americans. The cooks at the roadhouse said it was the most exciting thing to happen in a long time and people would be talking about it for weeks to come. After dinner the cooks took a picture with all of us. During dinner I witnessed the most spectacular electrical storm I have ever seen. Hundreds of flashes were seen throughout the night. Later we returned to the community center and John told 2 scary ghost stories, followed by a comfortable sleep on the floor. We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day to get to our main destination:Canarvon Gorge. Canarvon has a beautiful river running through it, and has provided a refuge for many subtropical species of plants that could not normally exist in the arid environment. Upon arrival there were 10-15 roos, some with baby roos!! The river in Canarvon gorge exists as a result of an ocean that existed millions of years ago, and covered much of inner Australia. The ocean deposited hundreds of feet of sand, which was compacted into sandstone. The sandstone was deposited upon an impermeable layer of shale. The sandstone is very permeable to water. When it rains all of the water flows down, then hits the impermeable basalt. The water then flows out into the canyon forming the river. We hiked up the gorge and went to this place called the moss garden, which was a waterfall surrounded by ferns. At the end of the hike we witnessed the art gallery. The art gallery was an area with aboriginal artwork on the rocks, hundreds of years old. It was unreal to be looking at something so ancient, written by a lineage of aboriginals that no longer exists, forced into extinction by white settlers. We had a moment of silence and took it all in. Finally we hiked back and made the long trek back to saddlers. As we were approaching Brisbane we surprised Peter with Waltzing Matilda. Then, he requested that we sing the star spangled banner. This was followed by another Aussie song by John and Peter. Next we responded with proud to be an American. A battle ensued between patriotic songs and it made for a very enjoyable bus ride.

We all returned back to Brisbane, very content with the week we had just experienced. I am now back in Brisbane for the next week and a half then off to our final field trip to Heron!