Riding the bus to school was a right of passage for all kids growing up. You start out as a scared little kindergartener trying to fit in with the older kids until you grow into one of the cool kids who rules the back of the bus. Then, once you finally feel comfortable with this mode of transportation, you switch schools and start at the bottom again. For me, riding the bus was something I always was a little afraid of. Being in afternoon kindergarten I got to ride to school with all my friends, but on the way home the bus was filled with loud older kids who I didn’t know. The troublemakers ruled the bus and always got us yelled at. My friend liked sitting in the back as I tried to convince him to sit up front with me away from all the chaos. We had a transfer at the public school where I clung to my older neighbor so I wouldn’t get lost in the mass of children. As I grew up it got better, but a part of me would always be fond of the quiet morning rides to school with my handful of other afternoon kindergarteners.
Since being in Australia I have been on 5 bus rides that have lasted over 12 hours. Driving is one of my favorite activities, but being stuck in the back of a hot, bouncy bus that smells like fish and throw up has caused an involuntary cringe reaction whenever someone mentions a bus ride. However, traveling through the Australian countryside by bus has offered me a unique experience of viewing this country.
Sydney
The second weekend in Australia, right before classes began, we took a bus trip to Sydney for Marti Gras weekend. The bus left Thursday night and arrived 12 hours later in Sydney Friday morning. We all thought an overnight bus wouldn’t be that bad, we could easily sleep and feel well rested for our big adventure in Sydney the next day. We could not have been more wrong. Because of the cool weather outside and all the warm bodies inside, the windows were constantly clouded with fog, meaning the bus driver had to keep the air conditioning on. Having only been in Australia for a couple of weeks, I still assumed it was warm everywhere you went, so I did not bring any pants. My friend Carol and I huddled together for warmth, wrapping ourselves in our bath towels and extra T-Shirts. As if this wasn’t bad enough, somehow the entire bus smelled like rotting fish for the entire trip. No one knew why or how--maybe someone thought it was a good idea to bring dead fish in their bag or had jumped in a putrid pond before boarding--but entering the bus your nostrils stung with the stench of decaying fish. After the 12 hours straight, then three days of short bus rides, we were all driven a little mad by the final 12 hours home. Someone tried sleeping on the floor, I’m pretty sure I heard sobs up in the front of the bus, and when I looked over at Carol in the middle of the night her laptop case was on her head, which I believed to be a completely normal way to sleep. Arriving back at school Tuesday morning around 7am left me 2 hours to shower and power nap before my first class where people still probably remember me as the girl who smelled vaguely of fish.
One Fish Two Fish
Generally, the bus rides on One Fish Two fish were not that bad. The first day they were filled with games and laughter, everyone getting to know each other as excitement filled the air. We were all content with the bus situations since the temperature was regulated and the air did not smell like seafood. By the end of the trip the bus rides got quieter as everyone cherished this time to catch up on much needed sleep. We took in the scenery from Brisbane to Cairns, seeing banana farms and palm trees line the roads. However, there was one ride that will forever cause an involuntary shudder to run down our spines when “overnight bus” is mentioned. The guides admitted that this overnight bus taking from Brisbane to the Whitsundays would be the worst part of the entire trip; so everyone thought it would be a good idea to drink, what else is a group of 60 twenty year-olds to do on a long bus ride? Knowing my own history with carsickness I refrained from drinking, not wanting the evening to end badly. Not everyone was as careful and after about 4 hours in someone lost control of their stomach. The mood was killed, and for the remaining 8 hours the air reeked of vomit; we even resorted to passing around a bag of Doritos to smell in an attempt to clear our nostrils of the stench; and I was stuck in the middle of the very back row leading to a hot and bumpy ride.
The next morning when I woke up everyone was mostly still asleep. Looking out the window I was greeted with the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. The sky was a mix of hot pink and clear blue. Trees and mountains dotted the horizon as puffy clouds reflected the morning sun’s rays high above. It was an unexpected moment of peace and serenity allowing me to remember and appreciate where I was and the adventure I was on.
Great Ocean Road
Traveling the Great Ocean Road is a very driving-based activity. You drive along the winding road, one side steep mountain cliffs, the other tall blue waves crashing on the white shores. There is beauty everywhere you look, so much it is hard to take it all in and impossible to capture on camera. The Loyola group traveled the Great Ocean Road together led by three tour guides who drove the small van manufactured in the 70s carrying all of us. On the trip we got to see all the highlights: The Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, Torquay Beach, wild koalas, Apollo Bay, and a few other look-out points along the road. It was all fascinating and beautiful, just like so much of Australia. In between naps and staring out the window, we all needed some entertainment so the guys of the trip decided to create a “mortal combat” scenario and bracket all the girls to see who would win in an ultimate fight to the death. I made it to round 2 and lost by one vote after much debate, so I was content.
At this point in the trip I had already become so close with the Loyola group, but traveling the Great Ocean Road with them solidified my knowledge that these were a great group of people. I would not have wanted to do it with any other group and it was probably my favorite bus ride experience of the trip thus far.
Outback
Where exactly is “The Outback”? How far do you have to drive before you are in “the bush”? Do they have bloomin’ onion farms in the outback? I had pondered these questions before coming to Australia and was looking forward to our class trip to the Outback to find some answers. We drove about 13 hours before reaching a town called Broken Hill where we stayed for the majority of our outback adventure. We drove during the day both to and from the outback, which at first seemed like a terrible idea but actually worked out well as we stopped often. I napped most of the day ride there, falling asleep to the repetitive landscape passing before me, until the paved roads turned into dirt and the back seat of the bus became increasingly bumpy and carsickness threatened to turn me into the “girl who puked on the bus”. Luckily I was able to switch seats and made it to the end of the journey vomit-free.
In Broken Hill there were no bloomin’ onion fields but instead a whole lot of nothing that is considered “the bush” accurately named for the abundance of sand, dirt, and small shrubbery that covered the endless landscape. We explored an old mine (reminding us all of the setting of the movie Holes), the town of Broken Hill (reminding us all of the setting for any horror movie), a sheep shearing farm (reminding us of the lovable sheep Babe as we watched their aggressive haircuts), and high mountain to watch the sunset (reminding us that we were literally in the middle of nowhere). People often use the phrase “there is literary nothing out here” to describe a small town or remote location, but they do not know the true meaning until they are standing on top of a mountain watching the sun set over a stretch of land that has literally nothing to break up the empty land of sand and bush. It was an incredible experience that reminded you how very small you are in the grand scheme of things.
Beginning with cold and fishy and ending with empty but interesting the extensive bus rides I have been on will forever be a part of my Australia memories. Riding in a bus with all of my friends has been an interesting way to see the countryside, allowing me to take in all the scenery, vegetation, landscape, and wildlife. That being said, after a few too many grade-school flashbacks, I am seriously looking forward to the flights to my next adventures.
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