Australia day 10

6 July

Today we flew in a hot-air balloon. How could we self-respectingly go around the world and not do the Phileas Fogg and Passepartout thing? (Which of us was whom is still up in the air.) We had to get up at 4:00 AM to do this, so we could be picked up at 5:15 AM at our campground's front gate. By the time the bus came for us another group of high-school kids and their accompanying adult filed out to the front gate and got on their bus, too. We headed out into the dark, past the airport, along a bumpy dirt road to an empty field where the bus stopped and the basket being carted along behind the bus and a large bundle on the same cart were placed on the ground. Our pilot, a Dutchman named Franz, kept us entertained with witty banter all the way out there (he told us he liked to talk because he was full of hot air, which was an asset in his line of work). Our bus driver was Rom, a tall muscular Aussie with a few piercings in the top of his ear. He added a few zingers of his own to the banter when Franz paused for (hot) air.

From a show of hands among the passengers, it turned out I was the only person on the bus who'd ever gone up in a hot-air balloon before. Hmmm. What does that say about me?

In the pitch dark two balloons were inflated – ours and the one for the high-school group. I was able to photograph their balloon from our balloon during our flight. Getting into the basket was difficult for Razelle, so muscular Rom helped her and a very heavy-set woman up and in. They couldn't permit Razelle to use her special tripod cane/seat (insurance issues) so Razelle stood the whole hour wedged in between the large woman and me (Razelle couldn't slump to the floor anyway in such close quarters and we were warmer this way from body heat. We lifted off the ground a few inches, floated a few feet and settled back on the ground. We could now say we'd been airborne. Then, with a roar of the flame-making contraption we headed skyward and watched the ground fall away below us. The other balloon floated ahead of us as the dawn brightened.

Before the sun peaked over the rim of the earth we saw our first kangaroo below, bounding a little, hunkering down, bounding some more, etc. Wildlife sighting duly accomplished – as promised – we stayed airborne the better part of an hour before the second and only other kangaroo put in an appearance down there in "the bush". The outback has far fewer features than I had hoped. The view from above it all didn't vary much, but it was an experience not to be missed, just the same. Franz did a good job explaining the features we saw and the dynamics of balloon flight.

Once we were back on the ground, Razelle was helped out of the basket by Rom, who carried her in his strong capable arms (this ride thrilled Razelle more than the balloon ride! – she considered this the fulfillment of one of the items on her personal bucket list) and gently set her down on terra firma.

Next, we all had a wonderful time working as a team squeezing the air out of the balloon and stuffing it back into its carrying bag. Franz broke out the champagne and we celebrated our flight with a breakfast of cheese and crackers, peanuts, apples, cookies and granola bars and canned coffee. On the ride back to our campground, Franz told us he is known by the nickname "the Flying Dutchman." I should have seen that coming. We wanted a souvenir T-shirt for Razelle, but they hadn't brought one her size along. Franz promised to bring one her size out to our campground within the hour after he dropped off the other passengers at their hotel. It took him a lot longer than that, but he did bring it eventually.

We still had a nice chunk of the day left to explore the region. We headed west from Alice Springs into West MacDonnell National Park. There are several beauty spots down the road in there. The first we came to that interested me was Standley Chasm. The short walking trail into the chasm goes over river stones (like the trail into Ein Avdat, near Sde Boker, for those are familiar). Razelle couldn't take such a trail so I went in alone. It was an enchanting place with a babbling brook, ancient cycad plants, ghost gums and a defile between high red rock walls that narrowed dramatically into a cool shady chasm at the trail head. I was in such a state of contentedness when I returned to the caravan and to Razelle in less than an hour. Razelle, however, was not a happy camper. I'd left her the keys to the caravan so she could lock it up and leave if she wanted, but she didn't know how to close the open windows and remained a captive of the caravan until I returned. She thought she'd need to start the engine to close the windows, but all she needed to do was turn the key a bit without starting. Now she knows.

We drove further west, past Ellery Creek Big Hole (we only took a picture of the highway sign because the name had a certain "charm") and then we took the access road to Serpentine Gorge. This access road is 5 km of rough unpaved track. After only 1 km I turned back. I didn't want to harm the rental vehicle. By this juncture, having learned my lesson well from the Pinnacles experience (running low on fuel with no supply available after a certain hour) I decided that venturing any further from Alice Springs was folly. We were 99 km from Alice and it was far enough. We drove all the way back, enjoyed the view of the desert, filled up the tank with a fresh supply of petrol upon reaching Alice Springs and then returned to our caravan park. It was the first time we'd set up for the night before it was dark. All kind of birds greeted us at out campgrounds. It's practically a bird sanctuary, but you don't realize that when you arrive after dark.