Full Circle
Day 130: Katherine to King's Creek

'And he was over eighteen stone,' adds Ian admiringly.
It'll be an early start and a long day so we turn in around ten. There is a cabin nearby which is a toilet and bathroom for the whole camp. As I push open the door I'm confronted by a stark naked man from Leicester. (He tells me this later. It wasn't apparent from his body.) His mouth falls open and he gasps: 'Michael Palin!' Grabbing his towel and wash-bag, he rushes off into the night.
It's ten past ten at night in the centre of Australia. I'm lying in my swag, looking up at a glorious sky, clear and sharp as only desert skies can be. Far away, shooting stars blaze briefly, closer to, bats sweep and curl across the sky. A cooling south-easterly breeze wails through the wispy, mournful branches of the desert oaks. There's a clean, clear, elemental purity to the world out here which is so pleasing that I fight to stay awake. Across the other side of the encampment Basil has no such problem. He's been bitten, quite painfully, by two bull ants.
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PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Full Circle
- Day: 130
- Country/sea: Australia
- Place: King's Creek
- Book page no: 188
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