Location: Stuart Highway, 212 km from Adelaide
Country: Same as always
Day number: 102
Mood: Yum (I'm eating)
Right, as I left you last time we were about to set off to Uluru. When we arrived, we saw a message from the owners of the park (The Anangu people) to please not climb the rock. The reason was that in the past their spiritual ancestors climbed the rock when they first arrived on the planet. Needless to say, it was a respect thing, and I decided that I would not climb. Jerome was just scared of a curse being placed on him and Aya wasn't fussed either way.
Anyway, we did several walks, including a stunning walk called the Valley of the Winds walk at the nearby Kata Tjuta (Which was better than Uluru actually) over a period of two days before watching the sunset change the colour of the famous rock. Very pretty. The fly's were obnoxious, and it was quite expensive, but we were glad we went.
That night, we set off to Kings Canyon. I decided I would drive until 11 PM, so we could enjoy most of the day the next day at Kings Canyon. As we set off, we noted how the moon was full and shining brightly. I had always heard and dismissed tales of the full moon setting animals crazy. I've never believed them until now.
We started off with 4 cows wandering along the side of the road. Nothing big. Then we hit the bushfire. This thing had been burning for 2 days (We saw it on the way out) and was actually burning at the side of the highway. I floored the accelerator and we gunned past it. Soon after that we started noticing the mice. Dozens of mice. Constantly running back and forth across the highway. It was too dangerous and pretty much impossible to swerve around them, so we kept hitting mice as we went on. Soon after that we found a fire by the side of the road next to a broken down car with it's hazards going. A man and a boy had a flat tyre. We weren't really sure how we could help them, but they had no water, so we left them with 4 litres (Pretty much all we had) and wished them the best. Then we had the rabbits running across the road. Those I did swerve to avoid. We thought we had seen everything, when we passed around a curve and there, just staring at us, was a pure white dog (dingo?). Again, I swerved around it. My reflexes seem to prefer swerving to braking, which drove Jerome nuts, but anyway. We proceeded on, and found an owl sat in the lane staring at us as if playing chicken with us. An owl. Sat. After the dog and owl I was slightly on edge and asked the other two occupants of the car "Whatever next? Kangaroos!?"
Yes. Kangaroos. In the MIDDLE of the road. Just sat there. Why on earth they were there I don't know, but Jerome started talking about bears hoping that they would be the next thing to appear. As we passed a crest, I spotted the next thing about 10 metres away. Again, in the middle of the road. Camels. 6, 9 foot tall, camels. If we had hit them, Aya and I, who were in the front, would be dead. At this, because I was already on edge (Almost to the point of hysteria) I cried out "Camels!". Except I may have possibly shrieked it, and there might have been another word in front of the 'camels', beginning with 'f' and of the offensive nature.
It was a hellish drive. But back to the more interesting things. Kings Canyon was gorgeous. Blew Uluru away it was so good. The pictures ARE on the way, I promise! We drove back to the Stuart Highway after that and started our way south towards Adelaide. I'm currently in the car, and we're just passing a little town called Pilma (I think).
Hope everyone is well.
Andy
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