A night with the stars

Friday, June 20:

In one way we were glad to be on the move again but were a little sad to be leaving Uluru with its fascinating history and geology behind.

Surprisingly, Wal asked me if I would like a drive so I had 100kms behind the wheel of Rosa towing the Palace along. He said I did great – a big compliment - but I was a bit nervous about the stopping bit. This was the first time in about 40 years I have driven towing a caravan.

Perhaps bitten by an interest in the earth, we decided to camp out at Henbury Meteorites which are 15kms off the Stuart Highway along a dirt road. We arrived okay but it showed our packing was getting a little slack as things started bouncing around. It was a warm day and the camp area is open with a couple of shelters and a drop toilet. It was the smallest loo seat I have ever sat on – no wonder the parks people had added a disabled rail as you needed it to pull yourself up!!!.

We were the only ones there initially so picked out a spot by a shelter and were grateful for the shade.

We walked the meteorite craters – three in all. They must have made a big bang as parts were quite deep though not very wide.

Throughout the day a lot of people stopped by to do the walk and then drove on. By evening there were four of us in the five camp spots and another family pulled in about 8.30 and then proceeded to set up their tent!

I made a casserole and they we settled back to have a drink. A couple in another van had arrived earlier but while she set up camp he took off back down the road and was missing for about half an hour.  Apparently he had not screwed up the ends to his rod tube at the back of the van and the rough road bounced them off along with a rod or two. The rest were just hanging out in the fresh air.

They were a nice couple and we spent time after dinner sitting around their camp fire chatting. While there we were treated to two shooting stars in the crystal clear sky. We felt very special.

One of the Henbury Meteorites.

Another of the craters had lush grass, trees and water.