Mataranka-Alice Springs

So you know how I said I was going to bed... I may have got distracted...
We went over to the boxing tent, where they had a huge line up. Some woman called Holly was trying to get a fight, but when she eventually got told she could pick a woman to fight, she wouldn't pick one- she wanted to fight a bloke! So he wouldn't let her fight. Idiot. As it turned out, they put her in with some guy later, who had already been smashed in his fist three rounds. I don't think he swung a single punch. I don't know if he was exhausted, or if he just didn't want to hit a woman. Either way, she looked pretty stupid. There were a couple of mates who wanted to fight each other-the slightly bigger one knocked the other guy clean out before the first round. Took him a minute to come round. I guess that debates been settled... And some little Italian backpacker got matched up against a guy that was a bit bigger than him-he just didn't have the weight to match him. He couldn't walk straight, but they had to drag him out to clam him down, he was so fired up. So lots going on. There was about nine fights all up, and it didn't finish until about 1am.
After the boxing tent, I was ready for bed, so I went to go find the bathroom before I went to bed. It took me over an hour to find a toilet block that was open. Obviously I haven't had much sleep the last few days, so I was exhausted, pushing around in the dark, in sandy ground, and pushing round in circles. Needless to say I was highly unimpressed! I even went for a drive down into town, and the public toilets were locked, and into the caravan park, same thing. Eventually I got help to push the almost half a kilometre in the sandy grass to the only toilet block that wasn't locked.
When I got back to camp Al (one of the many people I met while staying at Jonno's last week, a notoriously cranky man) came and helped me set up camp. We had a rather interesting chat about how lucky we both are. It was surprisingly deep and honest.
I slept so well! I did stir when someone was playing the guitar in camp, but they sang ok, so I didn't mind. I was woken up this morning to a bit of a raucous... One of the girls had a can of hair spray, and had painted one of the horses, and Al's head, Pink! He responded by throwing her pillows up the tree... By the time I left, she was standing on the truck, trying to rope them out of the tree!
Luke, Larry, Robin and I left camp to go find breakfast. There was a big wait, so we went down to Mataranka Bitter Springs for an early morning dip instead.

Larrimah 'Pink Panther' Pub

After our swim, we all parted ways. I had yoghurt and juice in the esky, so I skipped the bacon and eggs and hit the road.
I was feeling very tired still this morning, so I didn't get very far before I had to pull over for a power nap at Daley Waters. It really is amazing how much it helps. I only stopped for about fifteen minutes, but I felt amazing afterwards! I continued onto Threeways for a late lunch and fuel stop-182.9c/L! It's amazing driving over such distances, watching the changes in the landscape... I made a realisation today. How aeroplanes take off. I had my hand out the car, and noticed when I tipped my hand slightly up or down, it was thrown accordingly. It has always amazed me how such a huge piece of machinery could fly, but when I had my hand out the window, feeling what effect the wind on my hand, it suddenly made perfect sense! But that's just me...

Daly Waters

 It was interesting going through different towns, that I had been through before, and sorting out my memories. Turns out those shops I thought were in Alice Springs, were in Tennant Creek. We had stopped at the cultural centre there. And the small 'town' of Ti Tree, I also remembered stopping there. I think it may have been an art gallery... I had no idea where it was, until I drove through it again. I also had a quick stop to have a look at the Devils Marbles, which are still as beautiful as they were in 2006. When we were there last time, I had been panning to go up on the rocks after sunset, and spin fire. I went to bed, having forgotten about it, when Mum came to remind me. I was tired, so I said I'd do next time. I can't spin fire anymore. Or climb the marbles. Moral of the story. Do it today! Don't put it off! We can't know if we will have a tomorrow.

Devils Marbles

The sun set about an hour out from Alice Springs, and it was actually really good to keep me awake, since I had to really concentrate, so as not to hit anything that may jump out in front of me! I didn't see much road kill below Tennant Creek, but I had seen about twenty dead cows before that!
I was very happy to get to Alice Springs!
It was great to see Sandra and Leon, have a good meal (after my meat pie at lunch) and to sit down and watch Miss Marple! That's me for today!

Devils Marbles

Distance travelled: 1070km
Time driving: 9.5hours
Total distance: 9350km