David's Journal Entry

Today was a very short day. We detoured to a farm to try and buy some mango ice cream, which had been advertised on the roadside to attract people just like us. Unfortunately, it appears there had been some sort of rush in the previous days, so the promised dessert was sold out. We did however have the pleasure of meeting Charlie from Meath (Ireland) who appeared somewhat lost having arrived in the NT a few weeks earlier with the false impression it is always hot. The solitary jumper in his luggage had been working overtime. 

A fairly uneventful ride was punctuated by a stop in Aileron, famed for its 17m high, 8-ton statue  'Anmatjere Man' and the slightly smaller but no less impressive 'Anmatjere woman and child'. These metallic marvels were only marginally tougher than the hockey puck burger served up in the roadhouse for lunch, haute cuisine it was not. 

Our day terminated in Connor's Well where we finally experienced the joy of stargazing unencumbered by any unnatural light. The roadside rest area had its usual array of grey nomads pulling in and out, one of whom took great joy in educating Mike in Australianisms. He now knows what a 'walking handbag' is (it's a euphemism for a crocodile) and he is probably marginally more wary of engaging in conversation with unnecessarily direct antipodeans.