It was a sad morning this morning, as we packed up our belongings, bundled them into their rightful positions within the tin can and ‘The Beast’ and bid farewell to Uluru, Kata Tjuu, Kata Tjuta, and of course Yulara. Our time here is done and it has come to that time where once again we must continue on our journey, our deviations done and dusted, much like my aching legs, we will now be pushing closer to home with every kilometre we travel.

On the topic of my legs however, I must admit that as I lay in bed this morning, the alarm having sounded, but been switched off to give us a few precious extra minutes in which to gather our thoughts, acclimatise to the again frosty cold, while giving the babies a warm embrace, my legs felt good. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t have known that they had carried me on lengthy hikes and scrambles and climbs. Well, I wouldn’t have known until that is, until it came time to move. It was then that I felt the burn, the unfamiliar feel of my thigh muscles swimming in a searing bath of lactic acid, thankfully they only hurt when I move them. I’m sure it was the slightly unsteady walk back from the bus stop to the caravan after dinner last night that did it!

Working through the pain, we were all ready and set to hit the wide open road once more, when a couple of blokes ambled over, jaws agape, staring at ‘The Beast’. We lost nearly a ¼ of an hour as they chatted animatedly about our rig, sounding only slightly jealous of our set up. Adding these two kindly folk to our list of goodbyes, we slowly navigated our way out of Yulara, onto the highway, heading into the great blue yonder.

Along the way, we stopped at the dune, from which we caught our first glimpse of Uluru on the way in. From the very top, which compelled me to stretch out my running gear once more, I collected a container of soft, red sand, the texture of which matches that of talcum powder. While a picture might be worth a thousand words, with this bursting to breaking point container of dirt, we can actually show all the folk at home just exactly what this land is like, because even a camera can do it no justice.

Up The Dune I Go…

…To Fetch A Pail Of Sand.

As we passed through Erldunda, the home of the oxygen thief air compressor, we stopped only briefly to top off the tanks of ‘The Beast’, only to get chatting to a bloke who used to live in our neck of the woods, but now resides and works at Yulara. I offered to swap places with him, but he wouldn’t be in it, and after yakking to him for a while, I think I know why. It sure was tempting to turn back around and go see if there were any positions available to which I could apply my skill set.

Sadly, when we did finally head back out onto the highway, it was to despondently head in our planned direction of south, trying doggedly to push from our minds the contemplation of packing up our lives in Melbourne and moving to the great Red Centre. I just don’t think I would enjoy it so much out here if I was made to actually do some work here as opposed to gallivanting about on holidays with hardly a care in the world.

We were still mulling this over when we passed at speed, the border separating the Northern Territory and South Australia. It was another wretched reminder that our trip is in its final stages.

At only a few minutes past 3:00PM ‘Shazza’ pointed us off of the highway, down a rutted dirt track to tonights road side camping ground. Pulling in from the road, a wide open asphalt sealed area spread out in front of us, already home to a few other vans. Stopping here, we would have been closer than I would have been comfortable with to the others, so we followed on foot, a narrow track of dirt that led further into the bush. It was down here that we found an open tract of hard packed earth, upon which we could park the tin can.

Negotiating a deep wash away with the van in tow was the only obstacle between us and out back nirvana, far removed from all of the other campers and plenty of room to ignite a blazing campfire later on. Naturally, as is the nature of the bush, we hadn’t even finished setting up entirely when we found ourselves almost surrounded by other like minded campers. Thankfully for the most part they are distant enough so as to not present an issue to us, although I am betting that they, one and all, will be ruing their decision to prop nearby as soon as I fire up our generator later this evening.

In the mean time, while I set about adjusting the delicate dish through which we will be able to get a picture to appear on the TV, Bec scurried about collecting what little firewood is about. I have a feeling that her pyro tendencies are going to be well and truly put on display this evening. It was lucky that we had brought a few hefty branches with us, that we have been collecting whenever the opportunity has presented itself, as there is little more than kindling left scattered sparsely about the grounds of this camping area.

There was time enough then for Bec to have an afternoon nap, while I sorted out a few planning and itinerary matters, before we cooked a quick and simple meal of bangers and mash. That was a bit of come down from last nights delectable feast, but when we are free camping we do like to try and keep things simple. Only after dinner did we venture outside to add our own flickering firelight to the other dots of red and orange flame visible through the trees at the surrounding camps. Sitting by the fire, words were hardly necessary, as we both sat staring in awe at the mass of glittering stars spanning the night sky above us, embracing the all encompassing silence of the bush around us. It was a magical time.

The Flames Get Higher.

Enjoying The Show.

Throw Another Log On The Fire.

Having only tossed a couple of stout logs onto our fire, it burned down to a bed of glowing, hot coals rather swiftly, at which time we retreated inside, where we decided that the power producing hum of the generator and the colourful flickering LED lights of the TV were preferable to the golden sounds of silence and sky full of stars.

Until next time, have fun, stay safe and don’t forget to write.