Teacher Log: Uluru (P. 1)

The by-annual school excursion to the Northern Territory was upon us. Law required at least 5 teachers for the number of students who had signed-up and paid for the trip. At the morning teacher briefing, the principal announced that 4 female teachers had volunteered as babysitters, but a male was needed to ensure “balance”. At the time I was relatively new to the school, thus the principal looked straight at me in front of the entire faculty and asked.

“Would you care to volunteer, Mr. Middleton?”

Though embarrassed, and while dumbfounded into silence, several teacher's cheered me on to do it. In the end, despite misgivings about travelling to the top of the continent with 50 unruly highs school students, I agreed and the adventure began.

Although growing up in Colorado and a short stint as a Boy Scout, camping-out was never at the top of my list of entertaining things to do. I thought, 'A new challenge, and something to remember.' This fleeting thought turned out to be an understatement.

Our bus had a capacity for 90 and we were a group of 55 plus the driver, so we thought, there wouldn't be any crowding issues, which turned out to be true. For the amount of $ the school was paying for the trip, the bus didn't have toilet facilities, which caused problems. The beginning of a journey is always exciting, and the students seemed to suck it up for most of the way to Alice Springs. The rest of the experience was not so cordial.

Though not my first rodeo travelling around Australia, the vast openness of the country's landscape continues to blow my mind. Looking up from my book and through the window, a family of camels are walking in a line northward. The sand from the wind is wisping, circling the three beasts, giving the impression of a lost time, a romantic tale from the Arabian Nights.

Our first stop was Adelaide, and the rain storm, pelting with 20k winds, welcomed us to the “City of Churches”. Because we couldn't possibly pitch our tents, the pre-booked camp ground put us all in campers made for 3 or more visitors. Once unloading and ensuring that the students, all the boys and girls, were appropriately separated, I settled down to sleep.

Suddenly I was awakened by Jasmine, a teacher's aid, telling me that their was trouble on the camp grounds. Grabbing my coat, venturing into the storm, I banged on each camper van, “If you people don't settle down, I will send you home!” In the rain, I listened for any noise apart from the weather. Returning to my trailer, sharing with 3 women, wet but determined to go to sleep, the chaos of the day got the better, and sleep turned out to be effortless.

The morning, I opened my eyes to Jasmine, sitting above me and gazing at my face. I remember a soft tone in her eyes. She jumped off my cot, and said, “I'm sorry, breakfast is almost over. I thought I should wake you.” The 40 something woman exited the trailer, and slammed the door. At the time I didn't think anything about it. Breakfast had almost come to an end, as she said, but a year 12 student of mine, saved some eggs and cereal. While I was eating, the students were packing-up for the next leg of our journey. I noticed Jasmine working hard along with the older students. I would look at her and she would look away.

We managed to leave by 8:00am to clear blue skies, and a happy bus driver.

We had achieved the first leg of our journey from Melbourne to Adelaide. The second leg is a 750k trip to a town called Coober Pedy. This is Australia's gemstone capital, where for at least 100 years, professional and amateur miners tried their luck at getting rich, digging for opals. After several hours, we entered the town at early dusk, causing the surrounding countryside to glimmer in whites, deep browns and copper. Our accommodation is a huge man-made cave, filled with bunk beds, and separated by curtains like a public hospital. As it is a cave, the temperature inside was cool, almost cold, while the outside remained at a constant 85 F. Once I found an area in the cave for all the male students, and the female's their own area, a few of us hit the town to find the entire place empty of life. All except for a single convenience store. We stocked up on sandwiches, hot dogs and chips and returned to the cave.

We arrived to a scene of chaos. It turned out that one of the male students, a year 10 who I was warned about before the trip as a constant trouble-maker, evidently was caught in the female area, peeking through the curtains at a few girls, while they were changing clothes. The infamous Kurt Stoves, sat on a chair at the entrance alone with a scowl on his face. He wasn't a bad looking kid, small in stature, and blond hair that stuck out like he'd just been electrocuted.

“Did you do it?” I asked.

“No Mr. Middleton, those year 12 girl's are trying to set me up.”

It turned out that there were witnesses on both sides denying and accusing, thus an impartial judgement had to be made. And of course this landed on me.

“I'll tell you what, Kurt. I'm going to call your dad, and report the allegations, and tell him that you'll be on “probation” for the rest of the trip.” I said.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“That means I'll be watching you, and you better be on your best behaviour for the rest of the excursion. Got me?”

“ Yea.” an acknowledgement of defiance.

As we shall see, the Kurt Stover incident would eventually turn into a saga, creating havoc for the entire team.

Sleep wasn't too difficult because the strain of babysitting 50 teenagers, all in the throes of hormonal imbalance, all in the direction of propagating the human species, is a bit stressful.

I awoke again to the teacher's aid, Jasmine, standing at the end of my bunk, staring at me. This is twice, waking to find this woman looking at me with a soft expression.

She said, “Good morning.” and walked away.

We departed smack on 8:00am, and our next stop would be Alice Springs, Northern Territory, all without a single incident, aside from a few stops for bathroom breaks, in of all places. the middle of the Australian desert. We arrived to the small city at dusk, with just enough time to pitch our tents on the camp grounds. Thankfully, the same year 12 student who saved me breakfast in Adelaide, offered her services to help with my tent. This didn't get passed my colleagues, who stirred me up for many days to come.

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