Chillagoe

Back from another adventure! I've spent the past two days on a super-field trip, the Chillagoe camping adventure. Chillagoe is a mining town a few hours west of the Centre, semi-Outbackish. Truth be told, it's probably the closest to the Outback my allergies can handle. We left Tuesday morning and drove to Dinbulah (about a halfway point) where we received a 'bush tucker' (that would be food gathered by Aboriginals) lesson from a local Aboriginal man and his brother and then they gave us boomerang and bullroare- a string and piece of wood that you whip around to make a helicopter noise- lessons. Even with the wind, the boomerang was easier to throw that I expected, and I got both the regular and hunting (three points) boomerangs to return.




Continuing onto Chillagoe, the driving conditions became a little primitive. Dirt roads and lack of air conditioning meant very dusty and dirty passengers, so we went for a swim in a local creek. Extra-careful due to a recent sighting of a brown typan (very, very dangerous snake) we played water polo with our professors.
Then we set up camp, had supper and conked out under the stars. The next day we combined field lectures with an afternoon of caving and more creek polo. It was an experience for sure, with a visit to Balancing Rock (take a guess what it could look like) and a cave where I kept smacking my head. By the way, Chillagoe is mostly savanna (trees and grasses) with rocky outcrops which support a Dry Vine Thicket (a type of rainforest, believe it or not). It was incredibly hot the whole trip, a sweating-in-the-shade type of situation. Today, we had a brief geological tour before re-experiencing the hot and dusty drive back. Showering has never felt so good. Only a week and a half before mid-semester break, my classes are heading into crunch time. I'll try to put up pictures when I've got a little bit of time!