Christmas in the Desert

Things couldn't be more different.... Our last Christmas was in a city of just under 20 million and in almost freezing condition. Today, we are in an Australian outback town with under 20 people and 40 degrees heat.

With the day off, we decided to visit the Cullyamurra Waterhole where one could find ancient aboriginal rock carvings. Having made friends with the local rangers and getting their consent and directions, we started early on Christmas morning, 5am! With CB rally driving skill, the drive out to the waterhole was short and speedy. It was then on foot along the creek to get to The Choke, the narrow part of the river. This is where our search began. 5 pairs of eyes started looking around for the carvings. After several minutes, our driver found the area. We saw rocks with engravings, which wasn't obvious at first but realised that they were all over the rocks around.

After our morning adventure, it was pancakes for breakfast, thanks to EG, our resident chef. An hour nap later, it was Christmas lunch, followed by mini putt-putt and finally karaoke. With an open bar, it was a wonder everyone lasted till 7pm.

 Although we were not with our families on this day, we still had a good Christmas, especially with the opportunity to see the ancient rock carvings up close.

Oversize

After a couple of weeks of not having the same day off, we were finally rostered together for the day. We went for a drive looking for M, who we met at the pub and had agreed to let me have a go at driving the grader.

The grader is a big machine, relative to my size. It is used to smoothen the corrugated dirt roads. After a 5 second briefing on how to operate the machine, I was off. There is not much to it. Just remember where the brake pedal and the accelerator are, keep the vehicle in a straight line and that the dirt is shoveled. While it was fun driving for a short period, I don't fancy being in there going at 10km/hr, having to grade 30km.