Week Two has us in an eco-village called Crystal Waters, an hour and a half outside of Brisbane. Brisbane is an hour’s flight north of Sydney, so the heat is pretty intense. When we got off the plane I thought I was in Phoenix. The drive here was beautiful, and we saw a lot of the more rural areas of the country. The road we took crossed the top of a mountain, and we could see valleys on either side, and off in the distance was the ocean. I’ve never seen anything like it, and the landscape here is just incredible.
As for the eco-village, I was honestly expecting something out of The Village (wood huts, no power, and evil monsters). In reality the place is quite modern, and reminds me more of summer camp than anything. The bunkhouses are nice, and we have easy access to water and such. The hike to the eating area is pretty far, and the first thing we saw when we got here was a giant python. Apparently all the snakes here are very poisonous, so that was a little creepy. But, there are also kangaroos and wallabies that hang out near us all the time. I could pet one if I wanted, but I think it might take my face off. They’re cute though, and don’t care how close we are, even to their babies. There aren’t any pets in this place, but with kangaroos bouncing around all the time I don’t think you’d need a dog.
They say there are about 250 people living here, but I’ve only seen maybe two. The village is run just like a housing development, and people run their businesses from their homes for the most part. They also do a lot of school tours like ours, and educate people on the different aspects of running an eco-village. There’s a lot of interesting stuff we’re learning, and much of it could be applied to housing in the US as well. We’re here for two more days, and I'm interested to see what we’ll learn.
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