2014 Roundabout Tour
Posted by Brian Kucks
on Dec 07, 2014
Bull Ed has had a quiet week at home this week with host son Timo and real daughter Rebecca both away on the Roundabout tour with the other Youth Exchange students.
Here are their versions of the week they have had, with some minor editing having been done.
REBECCA
From the 29th of November to the 6th of December all inbound and most outbound students participated in Roundabout. They visited Chinchilla, Roma, Charleville, the Arcadia Valley, Carnarvon Gorge, Saint George and Pittsworth. As someone that had visited many of the stops I thought that it would just be a week of getting up, packing up camp, driving for hours, setting up camp, going to bed repeat. But there is no way that anyone could describe it like that. No one could have told me how much fun that week could be. Getting ‘nicely’ awoken by Wendy and David, packing the tents to Carl’s specifications and some having to re-pack their tents and singing along to all the songs on the bus. Spending time with everyone and learning so much more about Hungary and all the other countries represented on this trip. We also had the benefit of meeting some Rotarians along the way whose hospitality reflected the wonderful Australian country openness. This successful trip was due to the hard work and dedication of David Bray, Wendy Howitt, Carl Felton and the YEP Committee.
TIMO
On Friday all the rotarian in-/ and outbounds met together. Really cool to see the inbounds again, and I was really excited about mixing with the outbounds too. WE drove off after an emotional goodbye to Heather and Brian :D I sat next to the German girl Deanna, we chatted all the time and I also talked a lot with the other inbounds. There was another guy, Outbound, Lochlan was his name and when we arrived at our camping place he talked with us about his fears of the exchange. At our camping spot we swam all together in the lake, it was really empty and a lot of nice woods. Typical Australian there were kangaroos at the beach, and pelicans in the water. The lake itself was full of seaweed so of course we had a seaweed battle. After that me, Sam, Robi, Victoire and Sarah (outbound to Germany) played touch. Even though Robi hurt his foot we had a fun time. Local Rotarians made dinner for us and I had a great chat with one of the older ladies. In the evening we built up our tent, my tent buddy was Lochlan.
On the next day we travelled to the Toowoomba Lookout with a great view. Took some pictures there and then we went to the oldest wool shed. Could have been cool but the tour guide was extremely tiring. Then we stayed at a pretty hot place, close to an amusement park. We played football and cards. The night was cool and really loud cause of the pumps of the building down of the jumping down.
On the next day we got up early, David, Carl and Wendy are absolute morning people. Terrible. But we had a good breakfast. We went off to Roma, incredible hot but luckily the bus is air-conditioned. A lot of farms and the outbounds laughed about how excited we inbounds were about all those kangaroos. There were also a lot of farms and then in the tiny small town called Roma we went to some Rotarians and I gotta say it was incredible! Such a big house, everything so tidy and well designed. I actually didn’t want to touch anything, cause I thought that I would break it. And the barbie was delicious. We had then a good swim in the pool. I actually don’t remember where we stayed in the night but this day was pretty impressive.
On the next day we had a big hike. Everybody was whinging about it, especially the French girls but I actually looked forward to it, cause I kinda missed it from Switzerland. We walked a long time but it wasn’t really hard work, it was just extremely hot. A lot of people got dehydrated, headaches and sunburns but I can proudly say that I really looked after myself. We went to the art gallery. A wall with a lot of amazing, old aboriginal drawings. We ate there and there was a stick insect on my arm, really cool. We also saw a “Stachelschwein” (echidna). We played some games to make the trip more interesting and that way I met new people. After that most of the people went back but not our group, we discovered other paths and went to an awesomely calming place. On the sides were high cliffs and through the middle a little river with crystal clear water. We filled our bottles and it was delicious. Probably just because we knew it was from out there but it still counts. It was probably the most beautiful place I’ve been since I’m in Australia. On the way back I remembered singing the most stupid and annoying songs, like nicky minaj but it was big fun. Especially walking over the river or Annie falling off while singing.
On the next day we went to Roma again, some people got actually lost in this tiny city. Wendy wasn’t amused. We bought a lot of sweets and a lot of cokes. We had then a swim in the pools, there were two different pools, one with pretty warm and one with pretty hot water. Was really cool. We also had a nice barbie there sponsored by the local Rotarians. After that we set up our tents. Later that day we went to an observatory. It was cloudy so we couldn’t actually watch the stars but the old lady (our tour guide) was so passionately telling us stuff about the universe so I actually remember a lot. Especially the prizes of the stones she showed around and how she told us that she would have to kill us if we dropped them. I had to sneeze but luckily after I handed the stones to the next person. She also showed us the observatory which was really futuristic and fancy. The whole tour was even cooler, cause of the massive storm. Again, for the outbounds it wasn’t even an eye blinking worth but for us inbounds it was really exciting. Also we learned a lot of the Aboriginals and the second tour guide was actually Aboriginal.
On the next day we had lunch in Cunnamulla and a great dinner in St. George. There we met an older man. His name was George, he was a grape farmer and could speak German and even Swiss German. He was hilarious and our stomachs hurt cause of all our laughter.
On the next day we travelled to the Toowoomba Lookout with a great view. Took some pictures there and then we went to the oldest wool shed. Could have been cool but the tour guide was extremely tiring. Then we stayed at a pretty hot place, close to an amusement park. We played football and cards. The night was cool and really loud cause of the pumps of the building down of the jumping down.
On the next day we got up early, David, Carl and Wendy are absolute morning people. Terrible. But we had a good breakfast. We went off to Roma, incredible hot but luckily the bus is air-conditioned. A lot of farms and the outbounds laughed about how excited we inbounds were about all those kangaroos. There were also a lot of farms and then in the tiny small town called Roma we went to some Rotarians and I gotta say it was incredible! Such a big house, everything so tidy and well designed. I actually didn’t want to touch anything, cause I thought that I would break it. And the barbie was delicious. We had then a good swim in the pool. I actually don’t remember where we stayed in the night but this day was pretty impressive.
On the next day we had a big hike. Everybody was whinging about it, especially the French girls but I actually looked forward to it, cause I kinda missed it from Switzerland. We walked a long time but it wasn’t really hard work, it was just extremely hot. A lot of people got dehydrated, headaches and sunburns but I can proudly say that I really looked after myself. We went to the art gallery. A wall with a lot of amazing, old aboriginal drawings. We ate there and there was a stick insect on my arm, really cool. We also saw a “Stachelschwein” (echidna). We played some games to make the trip more interesting and that way I met new people. After that most of the people went back but not our group, we discovered other paths and went to an awesomely calming place. On the sides were high cliffs and through the middle a little river with crystal clear water. We filled our bottles and it was delicious. Probably just because we knew it was from out there but it still counts. It was probably the most beautiful place I’ve been since I’m in Australia. On the way back I remembered singing the most stupid and annoying songs, like nicky minaj but it was big fun. Especially walking over the river or Annie falling off while singing.
On the next day we went to Roma again, some people got actually lost in this tiny city. Wendy wasn’t amused. We bought a lot of sweets and a lot of cokes. We had then a swim in the pools, there were two different pools, one with pretty warm and one with pretty hot water. Was really cool. We also had a nice barbie there sponsored by the local Rotarians. After that we set up our tents. Later that day we went to an observatory. It was cloudy so we couldn’t actually watch the stars but the old lady (our tour guide) was so passionately telling us stuff about the universe so I actually remember a lot. Especially the prizes of the stones she showed around and how she told us that she would have to kill us if we dropped them. I had to sneeze but luckily after I handed the stones to the next person. She also showed us the observatory which was really futuristic and fancy. The whole tour was even cooler, cause of the massive storm. Again, for the outbounds it wasn’t even an eye blinking worth but for us inbounds it was really exciting. Also we learned a lot of the Aboriginals and the second tour guide was actually Aboriginal.
On the next day we had lunch in Cunnamulla and a great dinner in St. George. There we met an older man. His name was George, he was a grape farmer and could speak German and even Swiss German. He was hilarious and our stomachs hurt cause of all our laughter.
On the next day we stayed in St. George and went to Georges Grape farm. They were really nice but there were a lot of sharp stingy weeds which actually went through the sandals. After that we went visiting Nindigully pub, pretty dirty, pretty bogan. We had the most awesome lunch there. A massive burger! It was huge and I thought it was delicious. In the evening we played basketball, football and all the inbounds are having secret Santa. Annie, Gabriela and me talked until 1 am and so we were extremely tired on the next day.
On the next day we went to a park, too tired to talk a lot we just had little conversation but I remember Wendy telling us that the whole park was founded by Rotary. Later on that day we went to another pool but everybody was too tired to swim a lot and then we met again with our host parents. It was an awesome week which wouldn’t be half as funny without all the happy exchange students. I’m also really thankful for David and Wendy for organizing this all. Without them all this wouldn’t be possible. I already saw more than many of my school mates of Australia. I’m really glad that I actually had this awesome opportunity and I¨m really looking forward to Safari.