Finke Desert Race Campout gets underway

In the morning more camping prep work was done to get ready for our
adventure out to watch the largest and most exciting annual off-road
race in Australia. Called the Finke Desert Race, it is an event in
which dirt bikes, ATVs, buggies, trucks, and dirt bikes with sidecars
all compete to go 230 kilometers down from Alice Springs on a tough dirt
road to the town of Finke (along the Finke dry river). Then the
following day, the Queen's Birthday, they return racing the 230
kilometers back. Dad placed the swag (a large foam mattress that is
covered in canvas and is fantastic to sleep on for most Aussies when
sleeping outbush) on top of the 4WD and latched it on tightly, then he
and Uncle Tom went out to get some cooking gas for the portable grill
from the camping supply store and then picked up a brand new Nissan
X-Trail rental 4WD so that everyone could fit comfortably on the drive
down the track. After loading the food into the X-Trail, we stopped off
at Subway for a bite of lunch to eat while setting off on our adventure.
We drove down to what many folks call the 'Steps', about 100 kilometers
down the course of the Finke Desert Race. All the kids slept most of
the way except Amelia who did a good job reading. 'The Steps' is a good
spot many like because there is a rocky hill the contestants must speed
up and through without losing control or vehicle parts. It's a tough
section to get through and a good place to spectate since many problems
generally occur on this section. It's not so good as a camping spot,
however, because it is open and exposed with little-to-no vegetation or
shelter cover from trees or anything. Mostly it's just dirt. But you
can see for a good long distance and the vast open night sky is
something to behold.
Once we arrived, we managed to find ourselves amongst numerous families,
many of whom were Daddy's coworkers, and it felt as though a small tent
city had suddenly been erected out of nowhere. We set up our camp,
consisting of three small-to-medium sized tents (1 swag just fitting in
one tent, 1 queen size blow up mattress just fitting in another, and 2
little thermarest blow mattresses for Dad, Mom, and Logan in the third
tent). We also set up a kitchen and food area, consisting of a
vestibule that another family generously lent us to keep us protected
from the harsh sun. Harsh even considering that we were in the heart of
the winter in June.
For fun soon thereafter, we watched one of Dad's coworkers launch his
water powered rocket he'd built up with a hose nozzle used as a pressure
release valve. It consisted of a 2 liter soda bottle as the main rocket
body (could only be used once generally as it would break upon
landing). Several tries at this, starting with 30 psi pressure, and
then up to 45-50 psi, and the rocket was reaching heights of a couple
hundred feet. A bunch of coworker's kids, sitting on the roof rack of
their 4WD truck, would be funny when counting down to the rocket's
launch by announcing 4...3...2...1...0...-1...-2...-3... until it would
finally reach the desired pressure for launch.
After that Amelia and Dad, er, Uncle Tony, took a really nice hour long
walk north, then east towards a forest of ghost gum trees lining a dry
river bed far off in the distance, then over a hill ridge, and then back
to camp. We talked about many things, including the hoof tracks of cows
and camels, of bugs, of rocks, and how it looked like Mars and how
aliens might think of earth should they discover it millions of years
from now. From there we discussed sci-fi movies like the "Blob" and "War
of the Worlds". Really good time.
Upon our return, Dad got out his little hot air balloon kit, which
turned out to not be so little. The balloon itself was colored with red
and yellow stripes and was about the size of an adult (in height) A
little cotton ball was dipped in an alcohol based fuel, whereupon it was
then set down in a can and put alight. With our official launch control
helper of Amelia the first time, and Nathaniel the second, we held the
balloon until the heat from the cotton ball would fill the balloon with
hot air. Then letting go, it easily cleared a few hundred feet and
would gently come back to earth several hundred more feet down wind. All
the kids, along with Uncle Tom (the first time), ran as fast as they
could to retrieve it upon landing.
Dinner time and we ate food as cooked on the portable BBQ grill,
consisting of BBQ chicken kabobs on wooden skewer sticks, hot dogs, and
corn on the cob. Mom had brought and made a 7 layer salsa and guacomole
based dip that is always to die for with some good tortilla chips.
Also, we made our first attempt at some traditional outback pioneering
day damper bread, consisting of 3 cups self-rising flour, one can of
beer, one fourth teaspoon each of sugar and salt... and a quarter of a
cup of water. The secret of which was in really kneading the
ingredients together over and over into a nice dough. It was then
placed in a medium sized cast iron dutch oven (Mom and Dad won
incidentally at a dance party a few years back). Putting the lid on,
you then place the dutch oven in a small pit created next to the
campfire and lined both underneath and around with hot coals retrieved
from the campfire. Then some more hot coals are placed on top of the
lid as well (not too many!), then wait for about 20-30 minutes and
voila! Damper bread! Oh so good with butter and honey! In this our
inaugural attempt, we managed to burn the top of the damper, but using a
knife the burnt bits were cut off and the inside was simply moist and
wonderful!
Sitting around the campfire amongst the vast beauty of the bright stars
and the easily visible Milky Way, Dad was about to put Logan down for
bed when all of a sudden we received the biggest treat we could've
imagined. A full fledged fireworks show in the middle of the heart and
remoteness of the outback. This was no small event, it was easily as
big, if not bigger, than a town 4th of July fireworks display. It had
all the biggest fireworks you would have encountered before, including
the huge blossom type fireworks that fills the entire night sky. And to
see it in the open air and open night sky surroundings just added to the
immensity of the kaleidoscope of colors before us. At first, Logan up
in Daddy's arms, he seemed to really enjoy them. But as they grew more
frequent, more intense, and with louder bangs, Logan genuinely became
frightened and pushed his face into Dad's chest, not knowing what to
make of the calamity, even with Dad's reassurences and calming tone.
When it was all said and done, this professional light show in the
outback had done its job as it was both mesmerizing and exhausting, and
it ended just about right in time for us to take a breather. As a side
note, the fireworks display was put on by our friends from the Penny
Farthing Bike Shop in town, one of the very few licensed businesses
allowed to sell fireworks (one day a year on June 30 is the only legal
day for people to buy and launch fireworks in the Northern Territory).
Anyway, the Bike Shop always has extra left-over unsold fireworks from
the previous year and this is their opportunity to set them all off.
Mom, Logan, Nissa, and Aunt Cynthia all went to bed about 7-8 PM, while
Dad and Uncle Tom cleaned up. Afterwards Amelia told Uncle Tony a scary
ghost story. Nathaniel was in bed, but got back out to go potty with
Uncle Tony lighting the way for a safe location. On our return, Uncle
Tony sat with Amelia and Nathaniel around the campfire until around 9 PM
when we all retired to our tent and bed, or so we thought....