And introducing Evan, my latest hitch-hiker. A year abroad student I found near a large rock 440km's from Alice.

 
You call this a Desert?

I'm Back at the Stewart Highway. Another 500km's since my last Opal Rant. Van now mostly running on proper petrol is still alive. In fact its braved flooded roads (yes in the middle of a Desert) that killed one hire car and scared several Diesel Hire Van's into stopping. I drove straight through it was only a foot deep.

The rains held off long enough to make King's Canyon awesome.  I drove to Uluru in the rain, but it cleared for the classic sunset photo. See previous post. Yesterday morning it was cloudy again and we poked around Uluru in the cloud, frankly a blessing from the frying sun.

Kings Canyon too was cloudy, which is not photogenic, but again it was pleasant walking. I'm actually quite glad after a 250km drive through floods, I'm glad if I'd walked it in the 35° heat, or god forbid worse, over rocks for hours for about 10km, I'd be dead right now.

Again, I'm online using my phone as a modem. Last night was beyond the reach of even mobile. So photo galleries to follow when I get cheaper internet!

Again the brave Tarago has helped out the less fortunate and kept running, I seem to have sacrificed my, frankly incredible, starting for a 25% fuel economy increase. Taken a message of a rescue truck sent from Alice (350km's from their broken down car) to the Swiss Couple who didn't make it through the flood. And carried one of them to her other half back at their car. I found her, passenger in a diesel campervan, stopped at another large flood, a flood the Tarago, one of 5 vehicles to stop was the first and, while I was there, the only one to cross. I was too busy shouting YES! and waving my arms to remember take a photo, which I now regret.

This flood had sand bars.  Big ones. This is the metalled road, I'm staying off the dirt. Brave I may be but foolish I'm not.