Red Rock, Blue Skies in the Outback

The Australian Outback is about as close to the spirit of the Old West as you can get these days. It’s a rugged, sometimes dangerous land with spectacular scenery, big blue skies and colorful characters who are often employed as guides. If you can keep up with them, you should have a blast.

On my first trip to the Outback, I joined a camping tour, which included a day of climbing up, over and through gorgeous rust-red canyons. The guide marched ahead at a steady pace, and we scrambled to keep up. When I stopped to take a photo, I realized I was alone, except for the steady stare of a wild dingo about 30 feet away. Respectfully, we circled each other slowly and retreated in separate directions. I eventually found and rejoined my group. Nobody had even noticed I was missing.

The staging point for most Outback adventures is the town of Alice Springs (population 27,000). It began as a telegraph station in the 1870s but today is the base for two of the Outback’s most important and unique services: the School of the Air (because the ranches are so large that children are taught by radio) and the Royal Doctor Flying Service. (Doctors make ranch calls by airplane.)

You can visit the headquarters of both in Alice Springs, and, if school is in session, you can watch a teacher conduct a live broadcast lesson. On the morning I visited, schoolchildren separated by 1,000 miles were in choir practice.

Young travelers can arrange inexpensive independent visits to the Outback through the Nomads World backpacker hos-tel network (https://www.nomadsworld.com), which handles marketing and sales for more than 7,000 backpacker beds in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Vietnam, South Africa and London. Nomads has two-or four-day “Alice Springs Starts Here” packages with accommodations at Toddy’s Backpackers Resort, 41 Gap Road, Alice Springs.

Camel rides are included in Alice Springs’ introductory packages. Before the railroad and roads reached this remote outpost, camels delivered supplies. As modern services moved in, the camels were replaced and in some cases released. Now about 15,000 roam wild in the region.

The two-night package costs about $49 and includes a transfer from the airport, two nights in a four-bed room, two meals, a camel ride around the Todd River and a visit to a kangaroo enclosure.

The four-night package costs $157 and includes airport transfer, four nights in a shared room, four meals, the camel ride and a 30-minute hot-air balloon flight. Package prices are valid until March 31.

Upgrades to twin or double rooms are possible for $5.40 per person for the two-night package or $11 for the four-night package. Participants also receive a Nomads Adventure Card and Travel Guide. The card, usually sold for $12.30, is not required for stays in affiliated hostels, but it may bring discounts at them and for more than 600 other travel-related services in Australia and New Zealand.

Nomads World also offers two-and four-day introductory backpacker packages in Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Fraser Island, Cairns, Darwin, Broome, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.

In Auckland, New Zealand, Nomads has just joined withUniLodge Australia (manager of student accommodations in Auckland and Australia) to develop the first backpacker hostel management company in New Zealand.

Its first project is the Fat Camel Hostel, a new, nonsmoking hostel that is centrally located at 38 Fort St., Auckland. Packages can be booked online at Nomads World.

A two-night package with airport transfers, dormitory accommodation, two breakfasts, a one-day Explorer Bus Pass and Nomads Adventure Card and Travel Guide costs $63.

The four-night version, which also includes a tour to visit rain forests and beaches and learn about Maori tradition and local culture, costs $134. Upgrades to twin and double rooms are available.

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Lucy Izon is a Toronto-based travel writer and author of”Izon’s Backpacker Journal.” You can reach her online at https://www.izon.com.