Outback yes....Bloomin Onion no!

It's Monday again in Townsville. Lindsay and I just finished a wonderful meal of grilled lamb and a goat cheese/fig/tomato/spinach salad, which we washed down with a nice South Australian Pino Grigio. Don't think for a second that we don't know how incredibly lucky we are to be here enjoying this amazing experience.

Last weekend was no exception. After a bit of political maneuvering I was able to wrangle last Friday off. At 10:30 we left Townsville and headed into the interior of the continent. A bit melodramatic perhaps, but this was our first venture into the real "Outback". By the way I did ask our Australian friends when we would know if we were in the real Outback. They said if the ground at your feet is red, you have driven more than 4 hours to get there, and the locals ride horses, you are in the Outback.

So from the low coastal plane we crossed the Hervey Range Mountains for about 130K until we hit a T in the road. We swung a right and for the next 4 hours we played chicken with the Road Trains. I have done a bit of traveling, but I have never seen anything like this. For hundreds of kilometers there is a single lane road that is to be shared by all. When I say single lane, I don't mean one for each car. Essentially you drive on the one lane until you see something coming at you on the horizon. If it looks small or medium, you steer your car half the way off the road so your two outside tires are kicking up red dust. If it looks like something out of the Road Warrior you pull off as quickly as possible and pray. The Road Trains are semis pulling 3-4 trailers behind them. The ground shakes as they pass by. Needless to say, we were very cautious. The other tricky part of driving on the road was the hundreds (honestly) of kangaroo/wallaby carcasses that littered the road. The beasts see the headlights and freeze. Road Train 1, kangaroo 0.

We listened to a dumb book on tape and after 3 hours stopped at a "roadhouse" for a chicken burger and some chips. 2 hours later we arrived at Undara National Park, home of the famous Undara lava tubes.

We checked in and got set up in our campsite. About an hour later our four other friends arrived. Friday evening was a typical camping night with a fire, sausages and roasted marshmallows. By the way, we need graham crackers. We have been talking up the s'mores and even though it shouldn't be hard to impress a culture that enjoys vegemite, a s'more without graham crackers just isn't a s'more. (Lindsay was very content however with a roasted marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies).

The next day we took a tour of one of the lava tubes. For those that don't know, when a volcano erupts and the conditions are right, a natural cave/tube is formed. We took the tour with about 20 other people, not one younger than 70. Apparently they are referred to as the "Grey Nomads," the elder folk that roam the country in camper vans in search of cheesy tours and early bird specials. They were nice enough. One of their campers had the greatest slogan I have ever seen: "Adventure before Dementia" (which to be truly appreciated must be said with an Australian accent). I was thinking of adopting it as my own until I came up with a better alternative: "Adventure before Placenta" (which also sounds better with an Australian accent). Lindsay thinks this is gross.

After the lava tour we returned to the campsite and Lindsay and I went on a "Bush Walk" with two of our friends who happen to be biologists. This was spectacular. We saw so many animals/birds and learned so much. We saw many varieties of kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, and betongs (pronounced bah-tawns). We also saw parrots, bush pigs and all sorts of fowl. It was a great hike...no snakes.

That evening was another great night. All six of us had wine and brie on a huge rock outcropping overlooking the outback as the sun was setting. We had kangaroo steaks and corn over an open fire. And later we sat around and looked for shooting stars in one of the most impressive skies I have ever seen.

All was perfect until the Australian Blair Witch Project that night. I was fast asleep dreaming when something woke me up. Something was outside the tent making noise. All of a sudden it started bumping the tent. I was sure it was a dingo and I was prepared to tell the authorities how a dingo ate my Lindsay. But we looked out of the tent and there was a betong, one of the mini kangaroos. Lindsay laughed at me and we went to bed.

The next morning we got up at 5:45 and went on a 12K hike in the bush. It was great to be out there. We all had a nice time. We got back to camp, packed up and back to Townsville we went.

As I am sure is obvious, we had a wonderful weekend. We'll post a link to the rest of the photos soon.