OUTBACK ADVENTURE - Days 5-6

Day 93 - 1st May - Outback Safari - Day 5

I was surprised and delighted to find that the campfire was still burning when I awoke. You can't really get any better than waking up right next to a roaring fire in the morning. We were also greeted with an epic sunrise, the sky glowing fiercely and changing colours every minute. I didn't need any tea, coffee or other pick-me-up to shake off the early morning lethargy, the fire and the sunrise were all I needed.

I saw a small spider that had crawled out of Bob's swag and I took a few close up shots. It was a rather fierce looking creature with a monstrous visage and it looked about twenty times bigger on my camera. I then made the mistake of showing it to one of my camping companions, Suzie, by saying "look what Bob found under his swag!". I had expected her to shudder and then laugh it off, instead I received a look as if I had just aimed a gun at the head of her only child. I felt like such a tool. I forget sometimes how freaked out by spiders some people are. I showed it to someone else, Kylie who was from Australia, and she thought it was positively adorable. Those Aussies really aren't scared of anything.

We drove to the edge of an area called the painted desert and went on a short walk amongst the hills in the area before climbing up to gaze down upon the scenery. The Painted Desert was very beautiful, bleak and desolate, but still stunning to look at. It wasn't hard to see how it got its name. The different coloured sand and rocks seem smeared over the desert in a haphazard manner. We might as well have been on another planet.

Next stop was a brief tour of Oodnadatta where we refuelled at the Pink Roadhouse. We then had a quick look around the local museum to get a bit of background information on the history of the town and its people. Before long we were heading out once again into the desolate wilderness.

We entered the Simpson Desert in an area called Witjira National Park and found a few ruins of an old town called Dalhousie, next to a desert oasis complete with palm trees. We stopped here to watch an absolutely epic sunset, it seemed to be a good day for burning skies, and then continued on our way. A few miles down the road we stopped at a campsite next to Dalhousie Springs and set up for the night.

After dinner our guide Daniel suggested that we take a dip in the small lake next to the campsite. Some of the group weren't so keen until he mentioned that they were hot springs. We spent much of that evening swimming around the lake in moonlight, the water as hot as a good warm bath. It was about as wonderful as you can get.

After our hot bath we returned to our beds and climbed into them, well and truly refreshed. Late into the night we heard the haunting sounds of dingos howling in the distance. Later I was awoken by an almost deafening howl from a dingo that had walked right up to the campsite. I looked around but sadly I couldn't see it.

scenic views aplenty

epic sunset

Day 94 - 2nd May - Outback Safari - Day 6

Almost everyone enjoys a good sunrise right? Well what about a sunrise viewed from a hot spring? We all jumped out of our swags and headed down to the lake just before the sun showed itself. It was a particularly chilly morning which made the experience of entering the giant hot bath even more heavenly. As we watched the sky brighten with its orange glow we unanimously agreed it was the best wake up call we had ever had. By the time we were fed, packed up and ready to go everyone was about as refreshed as you can get.

It was a particularly hot day here in the outback, with not a cloud in the sky to dampen the effect of the scorching hot sun. Shortly before midday we rolled into yet another roadhouse to refuel and refill our water supplies. I was enjoying these routine service stops, it was certainly different to motorway service stations in the UK (if that isn't an understatement then I don't know what is!) and it was always fun to meet the locals of these places. This one was called Mount Dare and it had one building with about four residents living in it. It should be pointed out that the terrain in the surrounding area was completely flat so I can only assume that the name Mount Dare was some kind of joke. Either that or the Australian outback standard for what constitutes a mountain is a mound of dirt that exceeds two feet in height.

I had a few cold beers, always a treat in burning hot weather, and we returned to the vehicle to press on out into the ever increasingly hot desert. We stopped for lunch in the middle of the red sands and reflected on just how much it would suck to be stranded out here on your. Actually it might have just been me that thought about that but it still does go without saying, this land is incredibly hostile and, I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Aboriginals are bloody supermen to survive out here for so long. I am certain that when we finally all kill ourselves and our planet with nuclear war, the Aboriginals will all survive and take over the earth. And they'll treat it much better that we did so it's a very comforting thought.

At one point we took a detour down an extremely rough track (even by outback standards) to visit the geological centre of Australia. It seemed like such an arbitrary position to visit, I mean it is kind of meaningless if you think about it. It's not as if this place looks special or possesses any strange properties. It just happens to be the most central point of the country, not that you could tell by looking. They should just put the plaque next to the main road and lie about it instead. I promise you that nobody would find out. I mean how many people do you think have double checked to see that this place really is the middle point eh?

We spent quite some time driving today, we had a lot of ground to cover. We grabbed some firewood just as the sun was setting and once again we set up camp shortly afterwards. It was time to light a fire once again and this time I thought the fireplace could use a little sprucing up so I gathered some red rocks and arranged them in a circle around the fire, a traditional Aboriginal practice. The fire burned fiercely after it was lit, entirely due to my stone circle of course which allowed the spiritual energy of the land to fuel the flames. Oh man what am I on...oh wait I'm just high on life, hardly surprising given what I'm doing right now.

Dinner tonight consisted of baked potatoes, sausages and kangaroo meat on skewers. I'd never tasted the meat of Australia's bouncing marsupial before but I found it to be quite tasty, not entirely dissimilar to venison, though sweeter. Tonight I decided to stargaze in solitude once again so I found a quiet spot away from camp. This time however I donned my headphones and listened to some of my favourite music whilst watching the sky.

Jazz and stargazing, you can't really get more spirituality uplifting that that. Food for the soul indeed.