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Today we headed into some slightly more green desert and got to a town about lunchtime where they were having a festival of some sort. We stopped for some street food - I got some cold noodles with yummy garlicky sauce and Shane had meat onna stick. We drove on and into some rolling green valleys again and out of the desert. We had to stop for a while late in the afternoon because a truck had hit a minibus. The minibus was really smashed up and the front of the truck wasn't looking that much better - ambulances arrived but only one sped away. Eventually we went around and stopped to camp off road by a little creek where we got to have a nice wash.

Today was Russell's 30th birthday, and also happens to be the halfway point of the London-Sydney trip (even though we are nearly finished!) so we had a few drinks and a bbq, and also some people had bought fireworks so we had a fun time with those as well. A fun night sitting around the fire, and the first like that we've had for ages. Everyone is feeling better about being at a lower altitude, although we are still at over 3000m and not quite out of it yet. Another chilly night but not so bad as we've had.