The heat rose from the bitumen, making mirages of make believe water under a brilliant blue sky as we headed down Highway One after leaving Derby. Out of the mirage appeared 2 figures looking disjointed initially, but, as we came closer, they were clearly defined as a male and female, both tall, lean and tanned, standing next to their fully laden cycles. They waved us down.

"Hello how can we help?"

" Could you please spare us some water?" asked the male in what I guessed later correctly to be a Dutch accent. "We can't carry enough for a full days ride in this heat".

Pulling further off the road, we turned off the car, and, getting some cold drinking water and a packet of almonds, we joined them roadside with our offerings.

Eagerly they drank the cold water and ate the nuts then asked if they could fill up their containers from our bulk supply. Whilst the containers were being filled we asked them questions.They were circumnavigating Australia on their cycles after already having cycled all the way from the Netherlands! On this 30+ degree day with a punishing wind they had commenced in the dark at 4am. and would continue on, after this break, until around Noon or when they found a shady tree suitable for a campsite. We felt a bit humbled at their mammoth travel adventure. We exchanged details and worked out that they would be heading East on the Nullarbor around Christmas time. As we would be heading West towards home after Christmas, we joked about the chances of us meeting up again.

We had just enjoyed 3 days in Derby, including one of the absolute highlights of our trip, a one and half hour scenic flight over the Horizontal Falls, the Buccaneer Archipelago and the Derby mud flats. Now we were driving deeper into the scenic Kimberley to see the gorges and caves of Windjarna, Tunnel Creek and Geike and, for Frida, more nature, in the form of plentiful crocodiles in the wild. One crocodile in Tunnel creek was so close and so still we joked that it was put there by a tour group leader to thrill his tourists. Frida and I were convinced it was a perfect fake but Avan insisted it was real. Laconically an eyelid slid over an eye and the jaw opened a fraction - Avan was right - and we had been so close to it!

The epitome of Kimberley beauty was calling us now. It was time to tackle one of the (supposedly) worst roads into a tourist site in Australia, the road to Purnululu National Park or as we older Australians call it the Bungle Bungles. It is not that bad really and we had travelled it only last June, albeit in our Toyota Camper not our current one. We arrived with our camper in one piece and in time to go straight to Cathedral Gorge where Frida was simply in awe of the beauty. After a lovely bush camp we set off early to hike the various sites and view points, reveling in the natural beauty of this site recognised by as a World Heritage site.

Lucky for Frida she had not seen the horror movie "Wolf Creek" as the Wolfe Creek Crater was our campsite before tackling the Tanami Track. This spectacular meteorite crater, measuring 850 metres across, is the second largest in the world . The Wolfe Creek crater formed about 300,000 years ago when an iron meteorite weighing thousands of tonnes crashed to earth. Lucky also for Frida we didn't tell her until after we had left the campsite that we had both seen a very large snake near the drop toilet!
 
From Wolfe Creek Crater there is 800 kilometres of the rough Tanami track until Alice Springs. This is the true outback with not much vegetation, rarely any vehicular traffic and no roadhouses or towns. 

To obtain fuel you must go off the road into one of the isolated aboriginal communities which we did at Bililuna in WA and Yuenduma in NT. This is in no way like just buying fuel at a service station. Firstly there are no signs to lead you to the communities, then no signs as to where you go for the fuel.  You need to prepay the amount you think you will buy, serve yourself by using the prepaid card just purchased to unlock the bowser, then if you have over estimated it seems very complicated to get your money back. Meanwhile this is all carried out with a lot of local giggling children hiding their smiles shyly behind their hands next to sullen staring adults. At Bililuna a white couple were running the store and fuel sales as a favour for a friend who had taken suddenly ill. They told us they were counting the days, (and hours and minutes!) before they could leave and hand the duties back to their friend. At Yuenduma, however, we were pleased to find the fuel and shop actually run by aboriginals.

On our last day coming into Alice Springs, we had our first and only flat tyre of the trip. Quite amazing since so much of the 6,622 kilometres we had travelled together in the past month has been on rough unpaved roads. Frida admitted it was the first tyre change she had ever seen and thought Avan had done a rather quick job of it!

Looking around Alice Springs, we were impressed with how much cleaner and neater it was since our last visit. New shopping complexes and much less public drunkenness and "humbugging" (asking for cigarettes, small amounts of money, or to buy artefacts) seemed the new norm. Our camping spot at Heavitree Gap Caravan Park was beautiful with a back drop of the McDonnell Ranges directly behind us.

 In this second half of the trip Frida voted her highlights were the Bungle Bungles, Tunnel Creek, Horizontal Falls, The Tamani Track, and Alice Springs.
 
Frida had booked her flight to Sydney and booked a backpackers with an airport drop off for her last night, and suddenly our month long journey together was over. Dropping her off at the Backpackers in Alice Springs, we chose a date to meet up again in Brisbane before she flies home. Between times she will take the backpacker trail up the East Coast to Brisbane and we will cut across outback NT and QLD.

It has been a fabulous trip sharing our culture and love of our country. Along the way we have been able to see many places and situations through a different lens, that of someone not born and brought up in our Australian way of life. 

  Thank you Frida for roadtripping with us!