{"id":204,"date":"2014-08-11T13:16:01","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T17:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/?p=204"},"modified":"2014-08-12T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T13:35:09","slug":"northern-territory-the-nature-of-expectation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/northern-territory-the-nature-of-expectation\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Territory: The Nature of Expectation"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Flash Parker, AFAR Ambassador\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Expectation has a way of bringing travel into perspective. But when expectation is paired with long-distance travel \u2013 in the case of my trip to Australia’s Northern Territory, a 14-hour jaunt book-ended by a pair of 4-hour flights \u2013 expectation also can shape the way you think about place and space.<\/p>\n

Flipping through the pages of the remarkable itinerary prepared for me by the folks at USTOA<\/a>, Tourism Northern Territory<\/a>, and Goway Travel<\/a>, I began comparing the unseen Australia to my own Canadian homeland, if for no other reason than to ground my trip on experience I already understood; I’m big on wide open spaces, the sort of which both Canada and Australia boast in spades. I’m comfortable in the Wild, in places where bison outnumber people, and was excited about arriving in the Outback, where I expected camels and kangaroos to outnumber man five-to-one. I like to think of myself as the rugged frontier type, always game for an adventure, and couldn’t wait to exchange knowing glances with the Paul Hogan-esque wardens of the Outback. Sure, my knowledge of Australia begins and ends with Crocodile Dundee, bushranger Ned Kelly, and poet Banjo Paterson, but there are worse icons to idolize. I was promised camel rides up and over desert dunes; campfires and cookouts under starry skies; and a glimpse at the Australia rarely seen. In short, I was set to experience the NT the way locals see it, and I’d have ample opportunity to compare the Oz in my head to the Oz in my heart, though I promised myself, under no circumstance whatsoever, would I at any point on this trip discuss shrimp on the barbie, dingos and babies, or the abomination that was Mick Dundee in LA. As my plane bumped across the tarmac at the Alice Springs airfield, I scrawled this promise across a page in my notebook, and underlined it twice in red ink. I polished off the last of my James Boag Lager, and set forth for adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201c… so I took a nasty bite from that big bugger, and that’s when I decided to give up spearfishing down south, and move to the Northern Territory for a look at the quiet life,\u201d Laurie said, as he spirited me away from the airport and off into the NT’s red sand. I’d amused Laurie by trying to get into the driver’s seat when he picked me up – \u201cyou’re not driving my bloody car, I just had it washed,\u201d he said with a smile \u2013 and we’d become fast friends. At first I thought someone from Goway Travel was putting me on; Laurie was so hyper-Outback that I thought he might have been a hired hand. But after twenty minutes together, I realized he was just a genuine bloke with a story to tell. \u201cMate,\u201d he said, as he dropped me off at the gates of the Camel Cup, \u201cyou call me if you need a ride anyplace \u2013 even if you need a lift all the way up to Darwin, ‘cuz I got some family up there \u2013 or if you just feel like shooting the breeze. You’ve got my number.\u201d And with that Laurie was off like a shot, no doubt to spend his day boxing kangaroos and wrangling venomous snakes.<\/p>\n

And there I was, on the doorstep of my first great Outback experience. With abandon I stepped through the gates at Blatherskite Park and into a world of camels, sand, and costumes. I arrived in time for the Ms Camel Cup pageant, and was gobsmacked by peacocking ladies in full flight. The young and young at heart loaded their partners into antediluvian rickshaws for a zip around the dusty track, while something called the Honeymoon Handicap captured the attention of the 5,000 folks in attendance. Would-be husbands raced their snorting camels half way around the track, where they popped off, hoisted their future wives aboard the beasts, and continued on toward the finish line. All this before one of the \u201cproper\u201d races had been run. My first impression of the Northern Territory is certainly one I’ll never forget.<\/span><\/p>\n