M-whY

"Be careful when you approach the cliff edges," warned Steve as we scrambled around for photos. Though the rock looked solid, there have been cases where the sandstone gave way, dropping unfortunate tourists 300m to their deaths. Back home, open ledges would never fly. The first time someone fell over, some lawyer would've made a fortune, and railings would've been put in immediately.

Living life on the edge.

"How come they don't just put a fence around the edge?" I asked.

"In Australia, the mindset is people need to be liable for themselves," explained Steve. "And even if a railing was put in, you'd still have people climbing over it to take pictures and stuff. The concept of public liability isn't as strong here as it is in the States."

"If a person died while on a Groovy Grape tour, would Groovy Grape be responsible?"

"Nope. We'd feel sad of course, but we'd just move on."

Steve told us about some interesting native vegetation along the way. He pointed out a plant that produced a milky substance that dried quickly, perfect for a natural bandage. "Once we had a girl who fell and split her knee open. We sat here for half an hour using this stuff to stop the bleeding." He spoke of a another that when chewed, made you as high as a kite. "Aborigines used to use it to slow down their metabolism. They'd be able to travel huge distances without water while on it."

Steve is quite the flirt.

Sounded like something that would be interesting to try. "So where can I find this plant?"

"Oh, you gotta find it in the right time of year, like in June or July I think."

Darn.

We took a detour through the Garden of Eden, where the moist conditions allowed for ancient plants like the cycad to continue thriving. The Garden of Eden also had a waterhole, the first body of water I had seen since I left Adelaide several days ago. We stopped for a short break.

"Hey, there are a couple girls missing," someone noted.

"They're probably up ahead somewhere. We'll catch up to them. It's hard to get lost on this trail." Steve didn't appear too concerned. I guess there wasn't any reason to be. Groovy Grape wasn't liable for anything anyways.

A tanning bed.

It's an interesting phenomenon, how people take tons of pictures in the beginning of a hike, and then slowly cut back as the the day progresses. By the last hour, we were all too keen on getting back to the air conditioned bus to pull out our cameras. Back at camp, we loaded up the trailer for the last time and started our journey to Alice Springs, the final stop of our tour. We took a shortcut through the Ernest Giles Highway, which wasn't much of a highway if you ask me. But only 100km long, it cut out two hours from traveling on more conventional roads.

"So do you dread the trip back to Adelaide?" I asked Steve. It would be a two day drive for him, which seemed like a daunting task to do alone.

"Nah, it gives me plenty of time to think and reflect about life on the way."

"Any breakthroughs?"

"Oh yeah. Plenty of breakdowns too," he grinned.

We arrived at Alice Springs a little past 6:00pm. At the 'Welcome to Alice Springs' sign, we paused for pictures.

"Group photo! Group photo!" everyone shouted as we all rushed to the sign. A collection of cameras lay in the dirt.

"Uh, who's taking the pictures?"

"I don't know, that's a very good question."

Everyone ran back to their cameras to turn on the self timers. With the chaos that ensued, I wondered if anyone would get any decent pictures.

"How did yours turn out?" I asked Utta when we had gotten back on the bus.

"Not bad." She showed me on her camera's LCD screen.

"Mind if I copy it to my laptop?"

"Sure, just don't erase anything!"

Steve gave us a quick tour of town before dropping us off at our respective hostels. We all agreed to meet up at Bojangles at 9:30pm for a drink, which gave me a couple hours to do some laundry. At the appointed time, everyone showed up at the bar.

Though we all had plenty of time to get dinner, none of us had eaten. To make matters worse, the bar kitchen was closed, so we couldn't even buy ourselves some overpriced food. For seven days, we ate whatever and whenever Steve told us to. We were like animals that had been in captivity for too long. Now back out in the wild, we no longer knew how to fend for ourselves.

At least there were plenty of beer nuts!

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!