Photojournalist David Savage travels Australia on the OZ Experience…
On The Bus…
From Barossa Valley it was a short dash to Adelaide, the ‘City of Churches’. Adelaide was the first state capital city of Australia to get a direct telegraph link to Europe. It is a very architecturally English city and although it is often dubbed as being dull and boring, it does have its ‘Groovy’ areas. Rundle St, East St and Hindley St with cafes, pubs and markets are the places to hang out if you find yourself in town.
In Adelaide my bus had a change of driver. I said goodbye to Happy Hippie Shell and said turn that funky fat flavour machine UP, to Skipper Tom. We soon cruised out of Adelaide and before we arrived at Mt Gambier we stopped in Kingston SE to marvel at the giant Larry the Lobster… This Fibreglass construction is just lovely… I’m trying to be nice, I was going to say it is the height of Tackiness, but I didn’t!
Mt Gambier
We arrived at Mt Gambier just after dark. Our accommodation for the night was at The Jail, (1800 626 844). As the name suggests, this place used to be a jail before locals decided that somewhere more secure was needed to contain Backpackers. The building is a very cold looking place but fortunately I found that my cell contained a heater as well as a wash basin and toilet. The most important and pleasing thing about my cell, with it’s three inch thick metal door, was that they gave me the key with it.
After dinner in the Jail Canteen, we were taken around the back of the building to the exercise yard for Paintball! (The Paintball Company ‘Skirmish’ and ‘Arapiles Climbing Guides’ have joined together to offer OZ Experience passengers a deal. Both activities will set you back $50 saving you $10, the climbing is on the following day at Mount Arapiles.) We were all issued overalls, briefed on the rules of engagement (there are very few), and given a gun with fifty rounds of paintballs. We were also given helmets and goggles and the women got breast protectors. One of the guys asked about ‘Gonad’ protectors and we were told,
“Well, your not likely to send your old man around the side of the barrier to have a look now, are you?!” True, however, horror stories of men finishing Paintball games with swollen blue gonads were a little concerning. I’m sure one Israeli man in our group then nicked off to the toilet to arrange his own padding.
The game began and all of a sudden my heart was racing and I felt a killer sense take over me. I was going to use all of my previous Army training to get through this night. Unfortunately I have no previous Army training, so whichever way you look at it, I was going to get shot.
In the first game the challenge was to grab the flag before the other team got it. As soon as the whistle went I made a split decision to make a daring run for the flag. Da da da da, da da da da (Mission Impossible theme tune). Running from barrier to barrier, bullets whizzing past my ears I grabbed the flag from the middle of the field and as I turned and dived for the nearest barrier, Tom, our driver shot me in the back!
Everything went into slow motion as I fell to the ground, ‘Noooooooooooooo!’ – Duff. I was dead and I hadn’t even shot a single round. There were several more games that night and my luck improved. Don’t miss the Paintball at ‘The Jail’, it is a real hoot and a good way to release much trapped anger.