How’s That Meat?

The year was 1996 and I was on my way to Uluru to meet some friends for a tour through outback Australia. After I got my luggage at the airport in Alice Springs, I tried to figure out where I was supposed to meet with my travel companions. J had left his old car at some shed somewhere in Alice Springs the last time we’d traveled together and was supposed to arrive on the same day.

Since I was traveling pretty light and had some time I decided to walk around a little. What a strange place Alice Springs is, out there in the middle of nowhere and still busy like a small town anywhere else. It wasn’t too hot for this time of the year in Alice Springs but the Todd River was dry as a bone.

The sky was getting dark by the time I finally met up with J. at the shed. We prepared the car for the road,  hooking up the battery and and rolling the car out into the open. I remembered to check for critters after I noticed a high concentration of spiderwebs on the back wall of the shed. We removed ten red back spiders from the outside of the car and five from the inside. Since the red back spider is considered dangerous we did a quick pressure wash vacuumed the inside before we filled the car with our stuff.

Sine we wanted to get going we picked up some take out and started our drive It was about 500 km to Uluru and already getting dark.  J. mentioned that he had a great place for us to spent the night at a roadhouse where he knew the chef from some time back.

We made less progress than we’d hoped, driving on the dirt road that was supposed to be the shortest way. We had a couple of near misses (wallaby, kangaroo,cow), a flat tire and some minor motor problems. We thought the starter gave up after a quick stop to refuel but it turned out some cable was fried so J. used a big coin to short the contact at the starter.

We made it to the ranch around midnight, hoping someone might still be up since we where getting a hungry again. The chef and one local – who knows what his business was – were still up and pretty drunk.They handed over some cold beers. “I guess you and your friends are hungry, mate?” the chef asked J. who said, “Well, you got that right!” The chef went into the kitchen and appeared 20 minutes later with three plates, each filled with a big piece of meat, two fried eggs and some potatoes.

We ate all the food like it was days since we had our last meal and enjoyed the beer as well, chatting about where to go and what to do while out on the road.. With a big smile on his face the chef said “So, how did you like you meat boys?” We all said “Thanks, it was very good”. He then let it out “Would have never guessed it was camel eh?” And with that, he handed us another beer.

Julius Sommer is the under-recognized other half of the Nerd’s Eye View team. You’ll see his photos here on Nerd’s Eye View and in our Flickr stream. He’s a native German speaker — this is his first written post for Nerd’s Eye View. Fun fact? This story takes place about three days before we met for the first time at Yulara, the national park around Ayers Rock.