Daly Waters...again...

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The events last night....hillarious:

We arrived about 8pm in Daly Waters, (my second time here due to my previous Cairns->Darwin trip's detour due to flooding ...i'm a local!), set up camp and sorted out tea; a beef pot noodle with chunks of corned beef mashed in - delicious - yes, we'd managed to buy some food from a local mini mart.

Several jugs of beer later, there's a commotion outside and I rush out to see a good old fashioned Aussie punch-up taking place. First there's just 2 guys, then 4 and there's punches being thrown left right and centre, shouts of "Who the bloody hell are you!?" and all sorts...it was wicked, well, until one of the locals turned up with a baseball bat....

Anyhoo, the night was progressing along nicely, we were all pretty drunk and having a laugh until... I notice there's another commotion in the American camp (we had a group of about 6 yanks with us). On investigation I found Mike, (the little schoolboy-looking kid), looking rather pale and find out that he'd borrowed the key to the coach and managed to snap it in half. The key doesn't only open the coach, (which we were now all locked out from), but of course starts the ignition. Hmmmm. So, we're 902km away from Alice Springs, stuck in Daly Waters, (population about 20), and locked out of our coach, which we couldn't even start if we broke in. Joy.

Looking for an emergency backup plan, we consulted the tour guide - Greg.

Now, up until now we'd not really been impressed by Greg. Infact he was a bloody disgrace to the profession:

Local Knowledge: 1/10
Humour: 0/10
Personality: 1/10
Flirting with the girls: 8/10
Patronising father figure: 9/10
Complete Arse: 10/10

...

We explained the situation to Greg.

To put it mildly he wasn't impressed. To put it accurately, he went ape-shit, huffing and puffing, shouting, even trying to accuse me because I'd borrowed the key before Mike and may have weakened it! I couldn't help but burst out laughing at the whole situation, which, needless to say, didn't go down well, starting a fresh tirade of abuse.

Now, everyone had had a few bevvies, and therefore fire had to be fought with fire and instantly the 16 of us 'tourists' had formed an unspoken but unbreakable bond. We moved in for the kill.

Where's the spare key Greg?

What? You travel in the middle of the desert and dont have a spare key?

Can't you just phone base?

What do you mean there's no one there? There must be an emergency 24h phone number, you're supposed to be in charge of the welfare of 19 people?!

Why wait till morning?! Some of us have to get connecting flights and if we phone now they might be able to get a replacement to us by morning!?

etc, etc

But Greg had sensed the air. He recognised our semicircular attack formation and all defences had been raised, the drawbridge was up and he wouldn't listen to reason, gesticulating wildly and shouting that there was no point in doing anything till morning since we're in the middle of nowhere. Now, he may have been right, but he was being a complete arse and not managing the situation well at all.

All this had been going on in the middle of the pub, which by now had cleared save for an audience of locals who were thoughly enjoying the show.

In a big huff, he finally agreed to try and start the coach, since someone had somehow managed to stick the key together. He got in, turned the key half way, saw the dashboard lights flash and declared it was fine. By now we were too wound up to argue further, so even though he didn't get the coach going, we left it, and went to bed praying it would start in the morning.

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Photos

Daly Waters
Joris, Suze, Karin, Mike, Offilie, Yank, Yank, Charlotte, Tom and me

Daly Waters
Charlotte, Offilie, Tom, The old guy and me