Extraordinary Day

My second day at Ayers Rock was pretty amazing on so many levels. I picked up two Japanese hitch hikers, my car can really only fit one extra at the moment. I met up with a single dad and his delightful daughter from Adelaide and we swapped divorce stories (his were better). I belted out some tunes on a piano at one of the hotels and had a crowd of people singing Billy Joel and Jackson Browne tunes. Oh and to top things off I was offered a job. You will have to read on to get the juicy details.

The hitch hikers were hilarious, on a number of levels. You've got to understand it's pretty hard to hitch hike at Ayers Rock. Firstly it is probably 25 kilometres from the nearest anything, secondly you can only get there in a vehicle and thirdly you need a pass to enter the national park. So it was with no small degree of incredulity that I stopped for these two guys. Well my Japanese is lousy and one of them couldn't speak English at all and its really hard to do sign language when you're driving a car. It turned out that they had been left behind by their tour bus and they were trying to get back to their hotel. Once we'd figured out a way to communicate we were talking about what they had been doing in Australia and then what I had been doing in Australia. 

Some of you may remember that I was in Darwin recently. I remembered as well, but not quite quickly enough. So there I am happily talking about the bombing of Darwin, and the car went really quiet. It was then that I realised these guys were Japanese and it was their country that had conducted the bombing. Well you know me, it's not like I was going to stop. Talk about having a Basil Faulty moment and not mentioning the war. So after I had finished insulting their country and calling them imperialist running dogs while waving my private parts in the direction of their emperor I changed the subject and bade them farewell as I dropped them at their hotel. I should have told them not to worry, that all was forgiven...."look I'm even driving a German car". But alas they were gone and with them any chance of me being any more culturally insensitive. Don't get too upset with me though, it's not like I dropped bombs on them or anything.

From there I met up with David and Keely, his precocious ten year old daughter. We kept on bumping in to each other. We first met when a group of us got talking at the sunset viewing area of Ayers Rock. It sounds like an idyllic place but when you're there it's like you and 500 of your closest friends if you know what mean. The next day I bumped into them again as we were all walking around the base of the rock. It's 10.4 kilometres all the way round so bumping into anyone you know is an achievement in itself. We got talking and decided to catch a band that was playing at the nearby lodge and grab a bite to eat that night. The band was pretty ordinary, the meal was ok but the company was great. They were an absolute delight and we discovered that were going to be in King's Canyon the next night as well so we met up again. More to follow, including embarrassing pictures, in my King's Canyon post. 

But the next bit was when it started to get really weird. The night before I'd had dinner in the Arnguli Grill. At about 10.00pm, when the restaurant was empty and I was ready for bed I spied a piano in the corner and asked them if they minded if I played a few tunes. I tinkled the ivories for about 15 minutes, bade them farewell and went to bed thinking nothing more of it. The next night I returned to the adjoining bar for a drink and was pounced upon to play again. I politely declined as I was heading out to see the band with David and Keely. 

However still being in need of liquid sustenance and not being quite ready for bed I returned to the bar at about 9.30pm and my night got more bizarre. Having had a beverage or two at this point I went straight to the piano and started to play. After my first song someone called out a tune that I happened to know, so I played that. Then a glass of wine arrived from in the restaurant with another request that I knew, so I played that. At this point a bit of a crowd started to build and at one stage there were probably 15 people all crowded around the piano laughing, singing and drinking and just generally having a good time. Now the resort General Manager appears, he had been dining in the restaurant. He buys me a bottle of $ 65.00 wine and asks me if I would like to work there one weekend a month. 

Now obviously its a long drive from Muswellbrook to Ayers Rock and I pointed this out to him. I said that there would be significant issues with transport, accommodation plus food and drinks and therefore I thought it would be highly unlikely that we could make the arrangement work. Never the less he insisted on taking my details and assured me he would be in touch. While the chances of it actually happening are next to zero it was both flattering and a nice ego boost for him to take the time to single me out like that. So for all of you who said I wouldn't come back from this trip now you'll know where to find me. That'll be me behind the piano at the Ayers Rock Resort. Come and visit me there, I will be able to give new meaning to the phrase "Rock Concert".

I left Ayers Rock for King's Canyon the next morning. Before I departed I decided to take one more drive around the rock. I hadn't planed to but the rock itself was just calling me, it had made such an impression. I had to see it one last time. Adding 80 kilometres to my driving day didn't seem like a burden. The burden came when I paid $ 2.26.00 a litre for petrol at King's Canyon, a new Geek Wanderlost record. But more of that soon.