Sunset on the Docker River Road...
What a beautiful Sunday in the desert. This afternoon, Astrid and I drove out to Kata Tjuta to walk the Valley of the Winds track. The weather was a little cooler, so the entire walking track was open (when the forecast temperature is 36 degrees celsius or above, the Valley of the Winds walking track is closed from 11am onwards from the first lookout). Thankfully, there was also a nice breeze blowing, which helped to stop the billions of flies from annoying us too much.
It seems like years since I have walked this wonderful track. Sadly, there are two things that really piss me off when I am walking in any National Park in Australia... The first is cigarette butts (a subject that I could write pages about) and the second is toilet tissues. Now apparently I have talked just a little too much about this subject over the years (thanks Mel for telling Astrid)... but... If there is one thing that really annoys me about this track and the people that walk it.... it is the six thousand pieces of toilet tissue that line the track and appear behind every bush... Yep, there are no toilets along the 8km track and it is perfectly reasonable to expect that people will need to run behind a bush every now and again... BUT can this not be carried out without the revolting paper trail that is more than obvious along the sides of this track? I have been contemplating starting a new campaign entitled 'Shake and Dry'... but concede this is probably a marketing nightmare... Unfortunately this seems to be a problem all over Australia and there is probably little I can or want to do - without becoming the 'Shake and Dry' ambassador and public face of a rather embarrassing National Tourism campaign...
So after a lovely walk and a chat with Rangers James and Mel, we drove out along the Docker River Road (just a little way) to watch the sunset and enjoy the amazing colours of the sky and the spectacular silhouette of desert oak trees (some ancient living examples and also some skeletal remains of trees long finished)... We crossed paths once again with Rangers James and Mel who came rattling down the dirt road in their Parks Toyota 4WD ute (Ranger Melly is back at Uluru and has just started work with Parks, so was learning the ropes of the KP shift or Kata Tjuta Patrol). After sunset we slowly made our way home. A perfect day in the desert...
