damn, this trip just keeps getting better and better.
i was apprehensive about a 3-day, 2-night self-guided tour on an island with 9 strangers for all the obvious reasons. the backpacker culture is a strange one; in some ways it’s a throwback to the early 20’s and its collegiate debauchery but at the same time there’s a thirst for “authentic” experiences which is refreshing. i’ll probably post again about this as i reflect more on it…
in any case, the scenery on the island is top-notch. from lake mckenzie to wabby lake to the shipwreck to indian’s head, there’s tons to see and 3 days isn’t nearly enough time. it’s not a small island either, so we spent a lot of time just in our 4-wheeler, driving around on the beach from place to place.
the gang consisted of a bloke from Glasgow who was nearly as sarcastic as i am, a couple girls from Canada, a few chaps from Ireland and a trio from England. i was definitely the odd man out as the sole american. we quoted Anchorman religiously and enjoyed ourselves enormously.
the one bizarre caveat here was the behavior of our campsite host, wayne, an aboriginal. historically, the aboriginals have had serious problems with alcohol because their metabolism and body chemistry is so different. in most parts of australia, it’s illegal to serve more than one drink to aboriginal in fact. that’s part of the reason it’s somewhat troubling to hear wayne exhorting us all to “get fucked up.”
cultures that exist in such proximity–as the white and the aboriginal do–are bound to spill into each other. i just wish it was a little more reciprocal and not just a one-way adoption of all the worst aspects of western culture. the aboriginals can do so much better than mcdonald’s and budweiser; i wish we would learn something from them instead of the other way around…
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