Well, I was up early to catch a ride to the pick up point for the Groovy Grape Tour to Alice Springs. Met Tasha and the bus at 6:45 am, and continued on to other hostels to finish the pickups. Our last pick up was Sara(Minjeong), from South Korea...she was still in bed! No worries though, she was down in 5 minutes ready to go! She sat beside me and we quickly became friends.
The first destination was the Flinder's Range, then on to the smaller towns of Quorn and Hawker. We then heaed out to our first night stop at Angorichina in the Parachilna Gorge where we made camp in a fairly nice facility that was locally run. We all helped make dinner, and some of us got to experience kangaroo steaks for the first time! Sleeping quarters were good; but it was crazy hot...went DOWN to 36C overnight.
Breakfast came early as some people (Minjeong) decided to go bike riding before we left! As we picked the bikers up at the rendezvous site, we notice my friend Minjeong bleeding from several places, knees and hands mostly! Apparently two kangaroos jumped out of a roadside bush and knocked her off of her bike! That, or she fell?!?!? After calling for a Medevac airplane, we decided that she could probably continue with just a few minor repairs until we reached Alice Springs. So we canceled the Medevac flight and banned Minjeong from riding bikes on the rest of the tour!
Destination outback, with a day of driving the dirt ahead of us. From Marree, rich in its history of camel trains, along the Oodnadatta Track, we followed the Old Ghan Railway and its long abandoned railway settlements. This is remote territory, with red, stony plains stretching to the horizon. At William Creek (South Australia's smallest town, population 9) we camped outside under the desert stars sleeping in what are called swags...canvas covers that fit over the sleeping bags. We arrived at about 7pm, unpacked our swags (bedrolls) and headed to the local pub for beer and dinner. It was John from Ireland's thirtieth birthday so we had a fake birthday cake...all chocolate, so none for me! We retired to bed at about 10:30pm with Minjeong being sure to set her alarm, which was right beside me, for 5:30am so we wouldn't miss the sunrise!
Sleep was good, and right on schedule, Menjeong's alarm went off! Whoo hoo, we're up for the sunrise! And it was gorgeous...at 6:30am! Oh well, at least we didn't miss it. We're on the road again at 7:00am or so, heading or our next destination of Cooper Pedy! On the road again...
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