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Our last day in the Bush started with a 5am chorus of "Good morning starshine....." from Bernard. Pleasant as that was, it came just as we were getting to sleep, after a fitful night of tossing and turning, hearing wild animals walking about on the gravel outside the tents, and scratching on the tent walls, and at one point it even sounded like something was trying to dig its way into the tent in the corner by Tony's head! When I told Bernard about it, he just gave me a funny look and said it was the long grass and shrubs moving against the tent in the breeze! (I'm not convinced!)
We drove to King's Canyon, and after a scrambley climb at the start, up a very steep 130 metre ascent, we spent the next 3 hours hiking around the canyon, up and down countless steps (both those that were formed naturally in the rock, and man-made 'Jacob's Ladder' effect wooden ones). It was real 'wild west' country, with wonderful far reaching views. Bernard showed us Kangaroo tracks in the dusty soil, easy to spot because their tail leaves a long straight line. The French people got very excited when they found more tracks, until they realised it was Tony, drawing lines with the side of his trainer!! We completed the walk before the weather got too hot and set off on the journey back to Alice Springs. We stopped for lunch at 11.00, and we were ready for it, after the early start and so much walking. While we were getting the meal ready, a ranger came and showed us a baby python, which he'd rescued from a spiders web. It was pretty feisty and kept trying to bite the ranger's hand as it knew it couldn't crush him to death! Anglo- French relations were very good by now, and we were sorry the trip was coming to an end. But more excitement lay ahead, as 240 k of the drive was along a corrugated red sand road! Brilliant!
When we reached Alice Springs we found that our rucksacks were covered in red sand which had worked its way into the luggage hold of the bus!
We had a leisurely time the next morning, as we had a lunch-time flight back to Sydney. We had arranged to hire a car, so picked that up when we landed and set off on the final leg of our time in Australia, 3 nights in the Blue Mountains rainforest area, which is less than 2 hours drive from Sydney. It was strange being back on our own again, and I had to think twice before I spoke to people, as I found I kept saying 'Bonjour'!........
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