July 7, 2010

On day 11 we spent a lot of hours on the bus traveling. We stopped from morning tea in some random time in the Outback. There was only one café, which was running on a generator, which blew out because there were so many of us ordering food. Here is where we picked up 2 hitchhikers! They were a guy and girl in their mid 20’s and from Germany. They have been hitch hiking through Australia for 8 months, and had been waiting at this café for 2 days trying to get a ride. Colin (our professor/ tour guide) made sure it was ok with all of us for them to join us to our next stop and of course we all said yes! We would never pick up hitchhikers in the U.S! The girl sat next to me and was so fun to talk to, they both had such rich stories and were living such a cool life. For 9 months the only things they owned were the bags on their backs and a saxophone. After Australia they were heading to Canada to back pack/ hitchhike for a few more months. We dropped them off at our next stop which was again in the middle of nowhere. The bus had to drive through mini rivers from time to time in the outback so one time we all decided to get out of the bus and walk through the river. We hadn’t seen a car in over 2 hours mind you and just as everyone was in the middle of the river we saw 3 cars coming our way. All 3 cars sped up and went really fast leaving us all soaking wet from head to toe! Everyone was drenched with this dirty river water and had to get back on the small confined bus!
Our next stop was Hughenden for lunch. It was a surprisingly big town considering all the other towns we had passed through. There were people around, a petrol (gas) station, a traffic light, and a mini library! After lunch we got back onto the bus and drove to Winton. We stayed at a place called Banjo’s. There were 3 pubs in town. We all went out and were determined to find real cowboys! There was another State of Origin game on (the Maroons (QLD) vs. the Blues (N.S.W)) so of course we had to cheer for the Maroons! Whenever there is a state of origin game the bars are packed so everyone in this town was at the pub! We met a lot of great people and got to hear about their lives, which was so cool to hear about. So different than anything I’ll ever know. Colin stayed out until the bar closed with us, and took some shots with us. It was another fun night in the Outback!