Mutawinji and Broken Hill

I'm getting all my days confused so I am not exactly sure when I left Mildura, but four or five days ago I left Mildura and headed to Mutawinji with the rest of my group. When we got there we had a barbecue with the elders and some locals and went to bed pretty early.

The following day we had a guided tour around Mutawinji's visitor center and through the caves and the landscape. It was really interesting--Mutawinji is the first land that was given back to the Aboriginal people after it had all been taken away. 

The caves had been marked with handprints and other carvings from a very long time ago, and we got to get a good look at those. That same afternoon we went to the Mutawinji Gorge which was the most beautiful place we have been thus far.

This is a picture of me and my friend Jenna sitting at the gorge. You can't see the rock pools below, but it was really pretty--I'll get some pictures with the water up eventually. 

We were going to stay 3 nights at Mutawinji, but we got a warning on the satellite phone that a storm was coming, and we had to get out of there as soon as possible because when the rains come the road gets destroyed. We took the "Silver City Highway" to get there, which would seem like a paved road, but it's actually a compact red dirt road.

So, we tried to book it out of Mutawinji but we ended up getting stuck on the red dirt road, which had then turned to mud and we all had to get out of the bus and push the back of the bus and the trailer over a half mile to the end of the dirt road and on to the pavement in the rain. It took us a few hours and we were all absolutely exhausted after.

But... who gets to say the pushed a bus through the outback? We do.

Now we are at Broken Hill and have been here for a few days. We went to Silverton yesterday which is a really old town that used to be very wealthy and popular and is now abandoned. Today we went to an abandoned mine and took pictures.

This afternoon we are having some free time and will be leaving in the morning to go back to Mildura to upload pictures. Our exhibit is going to be on Thursday, we have a free day Friday, and on Saturday morning we return to Melbourne where we're going to go to an AFL game that Saturday night and me and two other friends will begin our independent travels.

All is well here, and I hope everyone is well at home!