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6 min readNov 28, 2016

A journey to the Red C

Hey! Long time, no writing. Lots of things are happening at once and when connection to the outside world often is very limited, if you travel outside the major cities in AU, it gets harder and harder to actually get some writing done. But here we are!

From where we left of last is was now another week, another helpx place. Working for Karen and Bob at their hobby sheep and alpaca farm in the Adelaide Hills was wonderful. By accident we were a whole lot of helpers there at once, so we had to be flexible with accomodation (I say we, when in reality i stayed in a cozy cottage all week while others had to stay in a room in the house or in a carravan outside. I took one for the team indeed.) Anyway, it was great fun, lots of laughs, good talks and karaoke. Yes, karaoke. I gave some Class A uncomfortable and nervous performances, I must tell you.

Weather was manic, as it is in most of the southern part of Australia during spring, and went from 30 degress full on sun, to storm, to extreme rain, to hagel in just a few days. You never get bored at least.

Most memorable was my days off when I could go explore the area a bit more. On one of those days I went on a 25–30 km hike in the area. No, i didn’t know it was actually that far when i went. I started by climbing the biggest rocking horse in the world (i swear this is a thing, i even got a certificate). Then I got chased around by a peacock at the animal park next door. The walk itself then took me about 6 hours. I trespassed on private property (it was part of the heysen trail though, so it was all good), I ran out of water half way through, 600 flies molested my face constantly, and I got lost in a forest in the last hour. So there I was, still walking, trying to remember the survival lessons I have never received, while my legs were slowly disintegrating, and as I heard the frightening roar of a koala somewhere in the forest, i was wondering if the furry buggers would taste any good. When I finally came back, my legs switched off and I walked like I was in a monty python sketch for days. Ahh, memories..

Then came the day when i was bound for Alice Springs. I decided to book a tour with a company called Groovy Grapes from adelaide to alice, 6 days, 5 nights, where Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon was included in the tour (probably the biggest part of it actually). Highlights? Of course seeing Uluru for yourself was amazing, but i actually preffered the more diverse landscape at Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon and really, you haven’t had an australian adventure untill you’ve slept under the stars in a swag. Simply amazing. In denmark you would probably freeze to death, not be able to see the stars because of the clouds, or start swimming during the night because of rainfall. We had a pretty tight schedule, with wake up time every day at around 4 am. So if I hadn’t been so damn tired in the evening I could have spent all night looking up at the millions of glowing lights above us.

We were quite a diverse group, with people of many nationalities, ages and temperament. And it all went really well. Really interesting to learn about the aboriginal culture as well, not so interesting to sit and sweat in a bus for 5+ hours every day, but it was made up for in the end. When we all arrived in Alice, we were all pretty sleep deprived but somehow got a really nice last dinner together anyways. It never stops to amaze me how many great people you meet here, and how alike we all are in many ways, despite our slight cultural differences.

So now next stop is Cairns. Whats going to happen there? No idea. People tend to freak out on my behalf when I tell them how weak my planning of this trip has suddenly become, but i’m just enjoying the freedom to (within the budget..) do whatever I want. Diving and surfing are on my ‘to do’ list, it is after all the speciality of the east coast and great barrier reef. (I wrote this before i got to cairns. It’s hot. And humid.)