Day 1 Perth to Wogano Station (540 km)

Everyone was ready on 10 May 2008, at 6:45 a.m. The Pilbara adventurers (or 'punters' as our Australain hosts fondly referred to us as) were quiet that morning, probably due to the activity of the previous conference, or to the time of day and the lack of breakfast, or simply, because we still did not know one another. People courteously introduced one another, “Hi, my name is…I’m from…”, you hoped you’d remember that person’s name.

We were waiting for the ‘buses’, the typical tour buses big groups travel in when they are on the road. When the ‘buses’ arrived: they were more of a Frankenstein vehicle, a combination of bus, van, truck and four-wheel drive. You could even picture these things moving around the red sands of Mars with their big tires and sturdy structure. It turned out that the Mars and the Pilbara are very similar, red, sandy, and VERY far away, so these interplanetary looking vehicles would come in handy.

The trucks would be our ‘life support systems’ for 8 days. Everything we needed was in them, and it’s only because the Pilbara is on planet earth, that they did not carry oxygen. Once we loaded our personal stuff on the truck, they were as good as home.

Ok, the expression ‘we loaded’, sounds like the whole group made an effort to put the bags and suitcases on top of the truck, but one must be fair. It was one of ‘the guides’ (we did not yet really know their names) who huffed and puffed reaching for bags from ‘down below’ to arrange them ‘up on top’. By the end of the trip, this guy had earned our respect for a task that in the beginning seemed very matter of fact but was actually grueling.

So after loading and a small briefing about the adventures and challenges that awaited, we all jumped into the trucks and went to sleep! Those who resisted slumber could see the landscape changed slowly but surely, from gently rolling and forested to flatter and bushier. Red became the predominant color of the earth and eventually, there wasn’t a town in sight. In some ways, it was like the American Old West, but with eucalyptus, kangaroos and emus.

Perth had been dreary and cold that day, but where we stopped for lunch it was sunny and hot. It was a stop virtually in the middle of nowhere and that meant no toilets. So the Pilbara adventurers scattered and looked for a nice private place to find relief! That wasn’t hard, surely in a one thousand kilometer radius of uninhabited bush, we would all be able to find a loo without bumping into each other.

After a quick munch of sandwiches and salad, everybody pitched in to do the dishes and clean up. And then we were off to our first campsite, Wogarno sheep station. When we arrived at Wogarno, it was the perfect time to set camp and go watch the beautiful sunset. Setting up camp for the first time was an adventure in and of itself. Normally you get to a hotel and there’s the bed, shower, toilet, etc. and you just worry about exploring. But in Wogarno (and just about everywhere else we stayed for the next 8 days), if you didn’t set your tent you had no room, if you did not get your cot or stretcher, you had no bed, if you had no sleeping bag then you’d freeze at night. Fortunately, the toilets and showers were not left up to us and they were actually quite respectable.

So when camp was up we had time to unwind, and unwinding meant sparkling wine, cheese, crackers, and poetry on Wogarno Rock while the sun was setting. The only word one can use to describe the moment is magic. Australia was really showing off.

The night was perfectly clear and cool, and the fire drew all of the campers towards its comforting, warm glow. Dinner was a group effort and it tasted good. The dampers for dessert were a treat. Strangers started to get acquainted; there was a need to talk about the day’s events and its highlights. When you share a meal and a conversation around a campfire underneath the stars, you realize why T.V. and modern life are so damaging: they don’t let people share. That night a group of people from around the world discovered they had a lot in common. And names became associated with faces.