Excuses Excuses

Excuses, Excuses

It's a disaster! The tour group has become scattered, the tour guide has been sick, and now the battery has gone flat on the campervan, just when I was about to lead us out to the Rock for the Big Climb!!

I suppose I should calm down and explain...

It's a disaster!!

There I go again, but every time I think of it, the same old thoughts come up. We started out so well.. a nice tight-knit group, the story was tripping along nicely... and now look at us. I haven't seen or heard from most of you for at least 2 weeks, I've been laid up with that most dread of all Koala diseases... you know how much we sleep at the best of times - well with a flare-up of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome it's hard to detect any signs of life at all half the time!!

I'm just off to see the rental company about this pesky battery - they have an agency at Yulara thankfully, and they might have a solution to our problem. I don't want all of you trooping around behind me like a bunch of tourists, so I'll leave you here to read some background to all this...

ozEkoala departs stage right >>>

It all started the morning we woke up at the Olgas. It was glorious. Do you have that word? It means it was a perfectly beautiful morning. I have never seen a more awe-inspiring sunrise. The entire sky was aglow with gorgeous colours - blues, pinks and purples at first, then streaks of brilliant orange lit up the ripples in the cloud cover as the sun rose nearer and nearer the horizon. With that sort of distraction, who is thinking about campervan fridges, and whether they're running off car batteries or not? Anyway, somehow the fridge was left off gas, draining the battery for too long, and the end result was ... flat battery. I'll spare you the rest of the details... you've been waiting long enough already for this moment.
We are about to set off for Ayers Rock... here I come now back from the rental agency... I wonder how I got on??

>>> ozEkoala enters stage left

Hang on... did I just see myself getting out of a snazzy new holden? What's this? Wow - they've lent us a car for the day while our battery recharges! Fantastic! So much for roughing it... but who cares - it'll be nice to live in the lap of luxury for a day. Hey, it's even got air-conditioning! Well, that changes everything. With this bonus we may as well do some sight-seeing today and do a bit of driving around. Sorry... climbing the Rock will have to wait another day. It would be a waste to have this car and leave it parked at the base of Uluru half the day. It would normally cost more than I'm willing to pay to hire a car here! We don't even have to pay for the petrol! No wonder the campervan rental company is called Koala Budget Rentals - that'll help us with our petrol bill!

Would you trust a face like that?

I hate to admit it but I am about to spin a yarn now... Would you believe I have absolutely no recollection of where we went that day in the car??? So I'll be making it up as we go along...

This will test your patience.. how much longer can you wait to start the climb? Your confidence in me must be taking a bit of a battering at the moment, but bear with me.

Just step this way, into air-conditioned comfort!