You folks not from around these parts?

Trip Start Feb 14, 2007

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Australia Tennant Creek, Australia
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

We left Mount Isa and headed west into some stunning if not repetitive scenery. It's not half as barron or as red as we had expected, although cattle ranches are the size of switzerland and mustering is done helicopter. Long drives down roads that do not have junctions or bends for 100's of miles meant 'I spy' games were somewhat short lived. Once you have done; sky, trees, grass, roadkill and sun you are pretty much done. Lots of singing ensued with driving classics (you may recognise from school or if you have ever met my mum) such as 'oh you'll never go to heaven', 'the quarter masters store' and 'the ants came marching'. By the time we had reached Tennant Creek we had exhausted all 6 of our compilation CD's and for godsake Meatloaf if you really will do anything for love then for the love of god no more, purlease.
We arrived half an hour ahead of ourselves having not realised the time change as we had crossed the state line (HALF an hour, I mean really?)

eating illegal oranges

. We were also smuggling illegal goods in the van and not very discretely either. Of all the worries I have had, being caught by the interstate police and banged up in a good for nothing, rootin tootin, 2 bit, outback town jail for being in possession of 3 satsumas and breaching all quarantine laws wasn't going to be one of them, although the nearest penitentiary was called 'Fanny Gaol' (snigger snigger). I can see now why Paris Hilton was worried about doing time. However we managed to eat our highly illegal fruit (hmm doesn't stuff taste so much better when you know you shouldn't have it?) and that was that.

We rolled up to our campsite and met Shane who worked there. As soon as he realised we weren't a pair of grey nomads like the majority of other guests he promised free beer in exchange for burning copies of our music. This was hastily before we presented him with a pick n mix bag of Bonnie Tyler, East 17 and Teach Yourself Spanish. Instead of beer we opted to rip about 200 kerzillion tunes from his pc, it was like porn for musos. He had everything from Patsy Cline to Peter Andre (not that we opted for either of those two) and 10 compilation CD's later we were ready to hit the road again, with the excitement of new music. Now unless you too have been on a year long road trip with the tease of a broken mp3 player or a very limited selection of music from the bargain buckets of 'Music Word' this may sound trivial but Shane rocked our world

outback scenery

.

That night we sat round the campfire (which Chris nearly actually stood in he was that cold) listening to a local bushtucker man regaling stories of gold digging, eating gobble snotties and poems about his long dead dog. We ate leaves, herbs and berries and a very over bbq'd kangaroo tail. I tell you what, it tastes just like chicken...(hold on a minute bushtucker man where are the witchetty grubs? And do you know Ant & Dec?). Having frozen our extremities it was time for bed so with the smell of campfire in our hair we went straight to the van. Yep without even taking our clothes off, we simply added more on top including woolly hats and extra socks. I just hope the fashion police don't come knocking. What with Chris's Lego man hair and my Kevin Keegan mullet, this socks over trousers and hat in bed look will surely secure us both a night at 'Fanny's' without bail. Helen I can always try and get you a guest pass ;)