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Day One April 17, 1999
We got a late start and realized quickly we would be
forced to stop a few hours short of the planned destination. As we were driving, we became
aware of some of the other new things we would have to get used to like, kilometers per
hour, steering wheel on the right side of the car, and the lack of petrol stations,
restaurants, hotels or even other cars. We took comfort in the fact that, even if we
dropped our transmission or had a precision collision with a large emu or kangaroo we had
enough food, water, gas-burning stove, and battery powered refrigerator to last days in
the bush.
We made a slightly out of the way excursion to an area
called "The Pinnacles" at one of WA's (Western Australia) many ,vast, national
parks. Located in the desert but within view of the ocean, the pinnacles are large
limestone pillars that were at one time part of massive sand dunes. They hardened over
time, and when the rest of the dunes blew away, it left hundreds of stone towers on the
desert floors.
That evening, after sunset, fearing the above-stated
kangaroo collision, of which we had seen the mutilated, carcass remains aplenty, we pulled
our van onto a rocky dirt road and made our first camp of the trip. Since we had no tent
and needed no fire this was a relatively easy process. Pull over, park, and…..well
that was about it.
As we sat on folding chairs, eating a supper of spaghetti
and tomato sauce (the first, but far from the last), we watched the stars sparkle and
glow. Because the nearest lights, besides passing trucks on the freeway, were miles (or
kilometers) away in the endless sky, the millions of stars were very clear. The moon was
but a fingernail clipping, and the murky milky way gave hints of a galaxy far, far away.
We thought back on our Everest Trek, and Indian Thar desert camel trek. The moon was the
same, but we, and the stars, were different. |
