May 8, Katherine and south

This morning we had business to attend to. This tire people couldn't see us until 11, so we did some grocery shopping. We had broken the glass part of the French press coffee pot, so we found a new press. We also needed a map for Queensland and we found that too.

The tire was down to the cord, so they put a new one on. We ate lunch while they
changed it and then we we off.

We stopped at Daly Waters, a funky outback bar. They weren't serving food yet, so we took pictures and got back on the road. It's a good thing we didn't stop for a beer because down the road in Elliot there was a roadblock and Samson was given a breathalyzer test.

We drove straight through to south of Renner Springs. Doing it that way we were very aware of the changes in landscape and plants. At first there were big trees, and we could see the variations in the green from yellowish green to bluish green to silvery green. Then the trees became sparser, then shorter. At Renner Springs the tropic north gives way to the red center. It became rockier and the trees gave way to shrubs and grasses among the rocks.

We camped in a free camping area north of Three Ways. At around 9 pm there was a knock on the side of the camper. We opened the window and a young man asked if we had a little electricity. He had a computer file he needed to transfer and needed power to do that. Even though we weren't plugged into power, we carried a power adapter for the cigarette lighter to convert 12 volt. So we had him come in. The cigarette lighter power thing was for US plugs, but we also had a universal adapter for plugs. The tv in here works on 12 volt so we unplugged that and plugged everything else in. The extended plugin was so heavy the young man had to hold it up while another man transferred the file. Turns out the first man was French and the Englishman had written a résumé for him that he needed to put on his computer. There was a second Frenchman who stood outside because it was crowded inside. The Frenchmen were camping in a car and the Englishman was backpacking, but had joined up with them. The Englishman had been in Australia for 15 months, the Frenchmen for 3 and they had met picking apples in Tasmania. A lot of young foreign people backpack or travel in camper vans or cars and pick up work where they can.

Pictures - Tire, Landscape, Samson at Daly Waters Pub, Daly Waters, Landscape, Road