I can’t believe that my time here in Australia has flown by so quickly. Today is the 13th of March, 2014 meaning, I have so far completed 4.5 weeks of my seven-week exchange. This experience has been amazing and surely, I will never forget it. Going on exchange is probably one of the boldest, yet smartest things I have ever committed to and followed through with. Before coming to Ballarat, I had never been away from my mother or father for more than a period of five days, making the decision to leave home for a long 49 days was a difficult decision to reason with, prompting hours of thought and second guessing. I never viewed myself as a particularly adventurous and independent person until now. It is safe to say that this experience has matured me, making me more confident, independent and self-aware.
Last week Matt, his father and I embarked on a five-day journey, visiting King’s Canyon, Uluru and the city of Alice Springs. This trip was amazing. Other then seeing wild kangaroos with my own eyes, I also got to catch a glimpse of wild camels and horses all located within the barren, sandy Australian Outback. We began our journey by flying out to Uluru. Uluru is located in the small, tourist industry driven town of Yulara. Yulara is located essentially directly in the centre of Australia. Uluru is a sacred rock formation created millions of years ago. The rock, is sacred to the aboriginal community who has inhabited the region for thousands of years. The rock is known for changing colours during mid day, sunrise and sunset. Getting the chance to experience the variation of colour first hand was fantastic. While in Yulara, we decided to challenge ourselves, by fully walking around the massive rock. In the past, people used to climb all the way up Uluru, today, it is highly frowned upon as the rock is sacred to the aboriginals of the area and climbing it is seen as very disrespectful. The walk around Uluru was a whopping 14 km. It took us roughly four hours to complete and we had to start quite early at 5 am due to the fact that the weather in Central Australia is BLAZING HOT. If we were to start the walk around mid day, we would have probably walked in around 38-40 degrees celcius heat versus a hot, but much cooler 25-30 prior to noon.
After spending two days in Yulara, we drove to King’s Canyon. King’s Canyon is a beautiful canyon in the middle of the desert. The canyon is quite large in height and very long. While visiting the area we partook in a 6 km walk, which highlighted the scenic views to be seen within the range. I enjoyed this a fair bit more then the Uluru trek, due the fact that we had more leeway to explore and do as we pleased as the burden of upsetting or being disrespectful toward the aboriginal community was nonexistent. After completing the trek, I decided to take a helicopter ride to get a better view the area. Riding in a helicopter for the first time was so much fun, and the views I got of the area were breathtaking.
The last two days of the trip were spent relaxing after much walking in Alice Springs. Alice Springs is a very nice town home to approximately 32,000 inhabitants. While in the area, we took part in site seeing, visiting the School of the Air, a reptile museum and the Doctors of the Air information centre and museum.
The School of the Air is a school much like LCC with the exception that its students live hundreds of kilometres from each other. The School of the Air is a government-funded school providing students from far and wide across Australia who live in remote areas access to education. Through software much like Skype, students participate in class though video chat. The school is now over 50 years old, prior to 21st century technology; the school relied on radio to conduct its lessons.
The Reptile museum we visited was very interesting. I got to take an up-close look at some of the most venomous snakes on the planet! Luckily, a glass window separated me from the reptiles.
The doctors of the Air are an amazing organization providing medical aid to remote areas across Australia. As the name suggests, the Doctors fly to places throughout Australia to help people who do not have access to the luxury of medical facilities in a close enough proximity. Visiting this museum was very cool; we even got to see a live map feed of all the flying doctors current flight locations! –Ryan Hawa ’16
