TRAVEL FEATURE - AUSTRALIA
RICHARD REED
AS INHOSPITABLE AS A PICKLED HERRING
The going from here should have been easy , but the days were getting bastardly hot . We stayed at a campground nearby that hosted curious emus scrounging for food scraps , which was unusual in my book as they ’ re very flighty birds .
A broken camper sat at the side of the road , some poor Japanese tourist driving at night ran into a cow , totalling the entire vehicle . When we checked in at reception , where they also had a small shop , the owner warned us against buying any alcohol for the local indigenous – they were banned . Sure enough , a couple of fellas in a beat-up Nissan drove from tent to tent , offering rolled up fifty-dollar notes to anyone that would buy them grog . We refused , but about ten minutes later saw the car take off and the campsite owners rushed out via quadbike and utes to confront the foreigner that had done the deed . He was harangued violently , screamed at , and we thought it was going to break into a fight . With us all watching on , the confrontation broke up quickly and the vehicles then set-off to chase down the rogue Nissan .
Talking to one of the locals later , drink is particularly ruinous for the indigenous people . The elders elected their communities as dry , with agreements from local shops to refuse sale . Substance abuse is such a problem up in the Northern Territory that even the fuel stations stock odour-free petrol to alleviate sniffing it .
With Steve heading to Alice Springs , we went on a side trip to Uluru . It is astoundingly big , but you only realise its magnitude from afar , as the tourists climbing it were nothing but a small chain of tiny movement . Given the temperature and flies , we were keen to speed on – there is something about Australian flies and their love of noses , eyes and
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