After six weeks in the Australian outback, I returned to tropical Queensland to photograph programs based in the Glass House Mountains and along the coast. It was strange to return to the place I trained at in-country in early June; after weeks in the Northern Territory I’d almost started to forget about the beaches and forests that awaited me.
I’d say it was nice to sleep in a proper bed again, but the truth is that missed sleeping under the stars in the outback. It was an adjustment to stay in a nice house near the beach and to have a real kitchen to cook in, rather than the camping stoves and fires we had in the outback. We had lived out of one trailer and the back of the four-wheel drive cars we took everywhere. Now I was driving a 12-seater luxury van on paved roads and I could actually unpack my bag in my room.
The Queensland programs are based between a beach house in famous Noosa Beach and a cozy home in the Glass House Mountains. Students spend the beach week taking surfing lessons, and the other week volunteering at a local school and staying at an outdoor outback-style camp. So, not a total break from camping for me, but it still had many bonuses we didn’t have for the first half of my summer. Namely the German man who runs the place, Richard, who cooked us all wonderful meals and dispensed great advice to all of the students. Richard built the farm in the style of an old bush camp, and he runs rehabilitation programs for youth on the property. Every summer he kindly opens his home to Rustic Pathways and teaches students to work with horses, as well as a few other skills (spear throwing, boomerang throwing, lassoing, etc).
I have one more round of photos to share from my summer in Australia, all of which are from my last ten days in country. They’re a mix of coastal photos as well as a brief return to the outback.
Molly J. Smith 