On the way to and from the 2008 International FF Conference at the Gold Coast, the Mulhollands and Rowlands travelled together in the same car. At that stage our club had had the previous two inbound exchanges cancelled and by the end of the conference we had learned that the upcoming inbound had also cancelled – 3 in a row! We all knew that hosting is probably more than 50% of the lifeblood of any club and Adelaide was facing very lean times.

The in-car conversation turned to how the club might take up the slack and create a 'lifeblood' of our own. Roy, being an outback man, put forward the idea that we create our own excitement by planning a club excursion to the Flinders Ranges and set about making it a reality – anyone who participated in that program will be able to tell you what a success that was! As an extension of that idea, we talked about how we might entice exchanges to 'choose' Adelaide as a destination because of its being the 'Gateway to the Outback'.

Best way to start was ask FFI to create a 'Global' exchange into Adelaide, with an optional extension into the outback – which they did.

By the time we began work in earnest we learned that yet another Adelaide bound exchange was in danger.

Planning for the 'Discover the Outback' global type exchange ran into a couple of snags in the early days, the major one being that Perth had also been allocated a Global inbound exchange as part of the regular FFI program and our dates clashed with those by several days. Since there was potential there for travelers to come on to Adelaide after Perth, we could see the wisdom of changing our dates to fit in with that program. This worked very much in our favour, with all but one of the overseas ambassadors participating in the Perth Global Exchange prior to coming on to Adelaide. We also recruited well from Australian clubs – members who hadn't previously visited the outback areas taking the opportunity to do it with friends. In the end we had 23 ambassadors for the 5 day home-stay – 16 from USA, Canada and England and the remainder from other parts of Australia. Thirteen of these then continued on to the Discover the Outback program, joined by 6 of us from the Adelaide club.

Feedback from Adelaide home-stay ambassadors was universally positive – they enjoyed the leisurely pace we set for daily activities, and the tone of the program seemed to suit everyone. There was a good mix of history, socializing, good food and pleasant surroundings. The welcome afternoon tea at Partridge.

House was a success where the emphasis was on relaxing together with nice food. Equally (or even, perhaps more) popular was the tour of "The Cedars" home of the famous South Australian artist, Sir Hans Heysen and the following Australian lunch of pies and pasties followed by the German 'bienenstich' cake, specialty of the local township of Hahndorf.

During a 5 day home-stay it's practical to have only one formal occasion. In this case it may have been meant to be formal but we decided to make it anything but! Our everlasting gratitude goes out to those ambassadors and club members who entered into the spirit of the exchange dinner or, as it turned out to be, Emu Airlines Flight to Nowhere. With engineering expertise supplied by several of a male club members, sewing ability of one of the EDs and painting skills of Robin, we constructed a mock-up of an aeroplane fuselage within a local hall.

Seating was airline style with an aisle for meal and drink service. Guests were required to check in and proceed through security (sometimes a strip search was necessary) before being offered honorary membership to the Mile High club (no initiation necessary) prior to the boarding announcements. Our excellent cabin crew went through the required safety announcements prior to take-off – and, indeed, appropriate announcements continued to be made throughout the evening – almost no other entertainment required. An airline meal was served, meeting universal acclamation. There has been a multitude of praise for the event, some even saying is was the best event ever held by the Adelaide club – high praise indeed. It was interesting to receive a number of e-mails, after the event, expressing thanks and praise, and to continue to have the evening discussed throughout the following trip to Alice Springs.

The final day of the Adelaide home-stay was a free one when many hosts took their ambassadors to the Barossa Valley and then gathered at the Rowland's home for a take-away meal get-together. It was an early night due to the 0630 departure for the Outback trip the following morning.

Monday May 3 rd the first of the outback travelers were picked up by Groovy Grape Getaways, the first group at the Mulhollands at 0630, a couple more at 0700, along the road, and then the last 7 at the Rowlands in the northern suburbs, heading for the Flinders Ranges where we would stay for the first night. We saw enough kangaroos on that first day to satisfy anyone's need. A great day's travel with excellent scenery – morning and afternoon tea stops with legendary cakes and slices prepared, in advance, by Heather Rowland. First night's dinner was a BBQ of Kangaroo fillets, chicken pieces and sausages – we all assisted with meal preparation and cleaning up and the system worked well. Our driver/guide, Flick Builder was second to none in devising most interesting salads and accompaniments to all our meals along the way.

 

 

This report would go on forever if I were to itemise absolutely everything we did and saw, but it's necessary to say that the planning and care aspects of our travel and feeding was truly excellent. The second day we hit the dirt road and traveled alongside the abandoned Ghan railway track – even collecting some old wooden sleepers for our campfire at William Creek that night. This was to be our first night in swags – under the stars. It took a while for us all to prepare our swags, a demonstration required, and lay them out around the campfire ready for bed. This was a quantum leap for some of our travelers – one aged 81 years and several others in their 70s. Some took quite a while to go to sleep as they marveled at the myriad of brilliant stars visible in our southern skies, away from the city lights.

Early the next morning the larger part of our group took a light aircraft flight over the almost filled Lake Eyre – something which might not happen for another 20 or 30 years.

Another day's travel on the dirt as we traveled across Anna Creek Station, the largest cattle station in the world, not fully stocked at the moment due to the recent drought. Next overnight stop was Coober Pedy where we slept underground at the local backpacker's inn. That evening we ate pizza and drank wine as we gazed at the 'Breakaways' a truly beautiful geographical phenomena half an hour out of town, where the hills resemble beautifully layered cakes.

A long drive the next day, brought us to Kings Canyon and another night under the stars in our swags. Next morning we 'did' the canyon - divided into 3 groups – some walked the canyon floor, some took the canyon rim walk, accompanied by Flick for the 'talk' as well as the walk, while the last group went very quickly so that they could accomplish both the rim walk and the canyon floor walk. We had expected the weather to be hot but it remained quite cool and made our expedition much more comfortable.

Then, after lunch, we set off for Yulara Resort campground at Uluru (Ayers Rock). After quickly taking possession of a great campsite, we drove out to the sunset viewing position and were lucky to get there early enough to claim a table in a great spot for viewing the many faces of the rock as the sun went down - as we ate our burritos and excellent guacamole and other accompaniments. There was singing around the campfire that night – and we discovered the excellent voice of Dudley Smith from Perth.

Departure next morning was early, very early, in time for sunrise on 'the rock'. It was freezing!!

Returning to the bus, we found Flick had prepared beautiful pancakes for our breakfast and the steaming coffee went quickly to our toes to warm us up as the sun slowly rose. The remainder of the day was taken up with the mysteries of 'the Rock' as some climbed, some walked the perimeter and others checked out the culture of the surroundings. Later, a chance to explore the shops before dinner and another campfire evening.

Flick seemed to have a 'thing' about sunrise, so next morning it was out of bed in the wee hours in order to see sunrise on Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) – another freezing morning. After breakfast it was the 1.6km hike through the Valley of the Winds to the amazing lookout there. This walk might well have been the highlight (although there is definitely an argument for Kings Canyon) as we marveled at the interior of this amazing rock formation. By the time we left Kata Tjuta it seemed we had viewed it from every angle. As we drew away there was a 'herd' of wild camels and we had to stop to watch as a couple of males were engaged in a fight. Now we were on the road to Alice Springs and the end of our journey.

Once we were all ensconced in our lodgings, we set out for a 'last supper' at Flick's accommodation. Probably two-thirds of the group elected to order camel steaks for their meal, with varying results – the meat must have come from different animals as some found theirs very 'chewy' while others had very tender pieces. It was a lovely evening – the last with all of us together, since some were moving on the next day and others were headed for home.

There was one day's grace in 'The Alice' and we all went in varying directions according to our interests. Eleven of us visited 'The School of the Air' from which the children of cattle stations and outlying townships receive their education by way of computer generated lessons. Of course, in the early days it was quite different and those lessons were generated by pedal wireless. Our group made a donation to the school of 10 books – notated as being from all of the clubs represented by FF on that particular trip.

The next morning it was another early start for 13 of us as we joined with Flick again for the return trip to Adelaide, straight down the bitumen. We called in to Iwantya Arts where a couple of us collected art we had selected on the way up – this had been an excellent stop, with an opportunity to talk to the local aboriginals as they painted.

Overnight was spent at Coober Pedy again, in the same underground backpackers as on the way up. We all enjoyed great Greek food at the local restaurant, the first $10 value included in the price of the trip.

A long day's drive for the final approach into Adelaide as we stopped to investigate the fascinating Lake Hart and called into Woomera for our lunch stop.

For the Adelaide club, the connection made with Flick has great potential for the future. We cannot imagine anyone better with whom to place the touring needs of our members or visiting ambassadors. Although, in this instance, she was employed by Groovy Grape, she has an 18 seater bus of her own (or can hire a bus of any size) and scales her prices to a level which is eminently satisfactory. She is a driver/guide/companion/cook. The food we received was excellent (and ample) and all dietary needs were taken into consideration.

For our Outback ambassadors this trip was quite a test – we had hoped to attract some younger members, which there were only two of – most of them aged 65 and over and they handled the challenges with great aplomb. It was a delight to be a part of and we will be looking for more opportunities to offer the same trip or others which will fit into this category, in various time-frames. So much potential if we can get clubs around the world to appreciate our position.

In summary, there is no doubt that the Adelaide club can rise to the occasion, embracing new ideas and challenges, as was demonstrated in this two-pronged exercise. We need to ensure that the entire membership is educated in the changing nature of FF travel as new generations begin looking at the option of becoming members, The old ways were exactly right for those who were early members and will always be remembered as the halcyon years. However – things DO change and we must be thinking one step (at least) ahead of the pack.