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We've crossed into the Northern Territories! With it, we've also crossed into a different time zone: for some reason Central Australians need to go back half an hour in order to feel special.
We've spent the last couple of days driving for twelve hours, getting up at 5.30 to be on the road for 6.30, so we can get to the camp before dark. The night in Mt Surprise was really cool: we were met by this bearded chap, who in very short shorts, talked us through his snake collection, and broke a lot of the myths surrounding snakes. We got to handle a load of pythons (got some good pics, that I'll be able to share when I get back), and Megan handled a poisonous snake.
Probably the scariest part was when he showed us some of Australia's natives: 11 of the top 25 most venomous snakes live in Australia, and the top 8 are all from down under. The top three were also right in front of us, with only some plywood and glass to stop our growing friendship from turning sour! The most interest part, was that if someone gets bitten by a Taipan: the world's deadliest snake, if they lie down and put a compression bandage over the wound without panicking (venom is passed around the lymphatic system!), there will be little effect for 8-12 hours. So, now we need another Steve Irwin who can talk to us about spiders!
The next night, we went deeper into NT, and it has got warmer and dryer, with the foliage getting even hardier. We also had our first bush camp! Gone were the heady luxuries of toilets, running water and showers, and some of the girls had a quick lesson in how to pee standing up!
It was worth it though, watching the sun set with no-one around to watch the ruddy light set the red ground on fire. If only I hadn't been reading a murder mystery about people being killed in the middle of nowhere!
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