Baby Wipes and Outback Dust

Here I am, sitting in an internet cafe in Darwin, the end of Derek's and my adventure. As we've discovered, cities in the Northern Territory tend to be boring. We spent a few hours just sitting in a park in the sun, and now we're wasting away time here.

I'll do a quick overview of the trip; all you really need to know is that it was AMAZING!

Driving south of Alice Springs consists of long, long distances with very little scenery change. We made it to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in time for the sunset on Monday, then woke up early for the sunrise. Uluru was a mixture of inspiration and disappointment/boredom. In the end, it's a big rock that a tribe made some myths up about. I was especially disappointed with the Cultural Centre, but I'll discuss that in a later paragraph...we were running low on gas and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) at 44 kilometres away from the main road (Uluru is 13 k), so we got close enough to take a few pictures and drove off.

Kings Canyon was beautiful. You can hike around the rim and go down into a green oasis called the Garden of Eden. I fell down the steep stairs they had built to make that part of the hike "easier" and was left with a bruised bottom for a few days!

Australia is the only continent with wild camels still, and Derek and I experienced this first hand. We almost hit TWO camels while driving! The first time I was driving; he was reading a book and I was trying to decipher a sign when I turned my eyes back to the road and saw the huge beast standing in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and just repeated for about five minutes, "A camel...my God, a camel! You need camel insurance out here!" The next, Derek was driving. I saw the pack and reached for my camera, thinking that Derek would see the camel in front of us; when he didn't slow down, I started saying, "Camel...camel...CAMEL!" I got a few pictures of the pack, hooray!

North of Alice is much more rewarding to drive through. We saw all sorts of cool places such as Wycliffe Well, the UFO sighting capital of Australia. This guy capitializes on his sightings by painting the roadhouse with scenes of alien abductions and UFO landings. It was quite a sight! In Daly Waters, a tree that John Stuart (the explorer that the Stuart Highway is named after) supposedly carved an S into is fenced off, next to the steps and a few weathered "artifacts" from the telegraph station that was once there. It was a bizarre memorial site.

We always parked on the side of the road and looked at the stars for a bit before heading to bed--usually around 8 PM. It gets so dark, and there's nothing to do in a campervan. Last night (in Darwin) we were having trouble staying awake at a nightclub! Also, as there was no toliet in our van, so guess where we got to pee....I got good at squatting in the middle of the Outback.

I loved Devil's Marbles. They're huge boulders that were eroded into smaller (but still massive) boulders precariously perched upon one another. I released my inner child and climbed all over them for about an hour before we continued on.

Our van only had a tape deck and my laptop wasn't very good for playing music, so we bought two tapes--the Pet Shop Boys' "Very" and "Latin Fever," horribly awesome covers of "Latin" songs. I was definitely rocking out to some of them.

My experiences with Aboriginal people have left me feeling confused and slightly angry. It's hard for me to see past the stereotypes at this point: it seemed like every Aborigine I saw was trying to beg money or needed to shower. It's harsh, but that's how it felt. At Uluru, the cultural centre seemed to cut up and commericialize Aboriginal culture for the tourists. Then there's "authentic Aboriginial art" signs EVERYWHERE, with paintings and digging sticks that feel extremely overpriced. I didn't want to participate in any tours where we could "speak to a REAL Aborigine" because, once again, it felt so forced. I'm sure that if I lived in the culture, I would see the nuances; as an outsider, however, I was left with a confused and frustrated picture of the Indigenious culture here.

In closing:
Baby wipes and a hat are just as good a shower.
"To baby wipe" is now a verb ("I need to baby wipe after that hike, I feel so gross").
Always hold down the flusher for 5-10 seconds when using a roadhouse's toilet.
Some people prefer the remote life of the Outback to the city (I heard a few "I'm a refugee from Sydney.")

Countdown to the States: 4 days.