Looking Back — A Year Ago This Week we Left the Outback

A year ago this week, we said goodbye to the outback. It was bittersweet for us. We were ready to come to the US and live nearer to our family, but we loved our twelve years over in Central Australia. The kids were all born there. In no particular order — here are some photos from the Outback (animals and other stuff). For many, many more — click on the Where We Used to Live-Australia link.  When I started this blog, that is where we lived (I guess I had no eye for the future!)

We had many amazing friends over there. We found out last week that one family we are particularly close to is going to move to the same town as us! Hooray!

This is pretty typical scenery.  This was taken on a camping trip along a dry river bed.

We always wore hats and often wore fly nets when we went hiking or camping because the flies were so bad.

Above: This is a thorny devil.

We used to go feed the wallabies behind a local motel all the time (about once a month).  You could by a bag of food for a dollar and the rock wallabies would feed out of your hand.

This beautiful place is called Simpson’s Gap.  I used to do a lot of mountain biking and when I was training for mountain bike races I would ride my bike out there (roughly 20km each way).

This is a Galah (ga-law).  They are pretty, but make an awful squawking noise especially since they fly and feed in flocks.

We had bird seed out on our fence and attracted lots of birds including galahs above and Port Lincoln Ring-necked Parrots (below). Port Lincolns are often seen together as a pair.

Stuart Desert Pea

I took the kids hiking at Standley Chasm all the time (above and below). The chasm was awesome looking at noon when the light came straight down.

Each year there were camel races in town.  They were great fun to watch and a big tourist attraction.

This is a redback.  We had them all around our house. Ugh. They are related to the black widow and they are venomous. We found them outside the house fairly frequently. We heard lots of stories of people being bit by redbacks. In fact, my running partner once left her shoes outside the door. When she put them on in the morning, she was bit on the toe. Redbacks like dark, secluded spots and unfortunately one had found its way into her shoe overnight.

You also hear lots about the poisonous snakes in Australia.  We know of a number of people who were bit by Eastern Brown snakes. One was our friend’s son who was 10 at the time. He had to take anti-venom and was just fine.  Another was a father who lived outbush. He went out to the shed at night. A while later he was suffering signs of a heart attack. They took him to the hospital, but no one realized he had been bitten bya snake until it was to late to save his life.

The kids loved the Reptile Centre because you could hold the lizards and one of their (non-venomous) snakes. Below, LD was holding a blue-tongued lizard.

This of course is Sydney. We flew in and out of Sydney whenever we flew back to the States (which we did reasonably often since there were lots of weddings, funerals and rotation trips in the 12 years we were there.)Tasmanian DevilWombatLittle ED feeding and an emu.Feeding the  kangaroo in South Australiaechidnakoala

After 12 years living in Alice Springs, Australia we had a lot of good friends and a lot of good memories!  It was hard to leave, but it was also time to move to the U.S. so the kids could be close to their family.

For many, many more pictures of our travels and adventures — click on the Where We Used to Live-Australia link.

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page!