"what's a woodpile"
By John Godwin
First flies, then toilets, then showers. François can see
the connections, but he is confused. François is from
Amiens in France.
He is on a 2-day outback tour in Central Australia, sleeping in a swag, pushing a 4WD
Troop Carrier out of sand, and getting to know flies
intimately.
He sort of understands the sign language that
accompanied his tour guide’s instructions about using
one piece of paper for the bush toilet. But the
explanation about how to work the wood heater for the
hot shower finishes with: “just get the wood from the
woodpile”.
Completely baffled, he asks: “what’s a
woodpile?”
François is on an “adventure tour”. He is 30, and willing to try anything. But ‘adventure’ is what you make it. In Australia adventure is all around
you, whatever your age, and whatever your budget. Whatever you do, you will experience the
spirit of the Australian landscape, with its history, its challenges, and its
beauty.
There are a number of companies ready to take
you out into the bush in a small group, introduce you to traditional landowners
and their dreamtime stories, take you to canyons and gorges that take you
breath away with their spectacular and contrasting colours and their steep and
narrow climbs, and give you an insight into the extraordinary hardships of
early explorers and settlers.
Minute-by-minute adventure for 10 tiring hours a day.
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But the country invites many adventures. Painters and photographers talk about ‘the
light’. Australia’s light delights and
inspires. If you want to challenge your
own artistic ability to interpret the colours and moods of the landscape
together with like-minded travellers, then how about joining an expedition on
the Larapinta Trail? Starting in Alice Springs, you will walk through the landscape on the
now well-known trail, and have creative time to work with an experienced
artistic director who will lead you to wilderness locations well off the beaten
track. This is an experience open to
both professional and amateur artists, and it is one that you may well find is
easier to express in your artistic medium than it is in words.
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