Oh, it’s been ages since we slept so well. The clear outdoor air was balm for our soul. In the morning we stoked the fire again to cook, make toast and prepare scrambled eggs. We managed everything without electricity, except battery and smartphone recharging. This is where all the extra batteries paid off.
After breakfast we continued by truck. First stop in the middle of nowhere. And at last, early in the morning, we found lizards! After we had explored our surroundings a little, our driver switched our truck to four-wheel-drive and thundered full bore at 90 km/h over the sand track which was better suited to a walking speed. On arrival, after “hopping” along at 180 km, we were amazed that our trailer was still behind the bus.
At Ormiston Gorge we found further lizards and even an extremely beautiful monitor lizard. It was too warm even for him and he shrank back into the shade. In the meantime the humidity had dropped down to below 20 %, making the 40 °C easily bearable. In the waterhole at Ormiston Gorge we saw rainbow fish, gobies and cichlids. Catching animals is forbidden, so we had to limit our activities to taking pictures and recording videos under water. Generally quite a lot is forbidden in the national park. The parks are there for nature protection and not to entertain people. This we accepted, of course.
The bird lovers amongst us also got their money’s worth. At last the first parakeets! A loud pink cockatoo even joined us in the camp in the evening. Before going to sleep we had a nocternal prowl and came across a lot of ant holes. Thijl showed us a dehydrated snake, which looked like a metallic bracelet – probably a victim of the heat.
