The next morning Karen cooked the grubs (called Maku) crispy in butter, and Patricia and I each tasted two segments. We both wished our stomachs had felt better, because they were delicious – a bit like buttered popcorn and hard boiled egg.

Then we headed off to see if we could find the “Surveyor General’s Corner” the marker of the corner of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territories. Karen had gotten a “mud map” from a friend in the village, and she and Phil (a retired Army Lt. Col.) had some lively discussions over which map would be better to use to find it.

We did eventually find the markers (there are two, from two different surveys) – the first road we had taken using the mud map was the right one and we had come within 50 meters of the marker. The only difference between the “proper” map and the “mud” map was that the whitefellow had thought to tell us about the windmill that marked where we should take off the main track to find the marker.

Then we decided we should use the mud map to see if we could find a rock formation that tells part of the story of a big goanna (lizard), and whose name is also one of Marty’s nicknames – “Nintukka”. We headed off the main road again toward a town called Walytjatjata. 38 km later we turned off that small track onto an even smaller track. At that point Maureen says that she only has 1/2 a tank of gas left in her small car, so maybe we shouldn’t go on this ‘wild goose chase’. But we decide to leave her car behind and take just the two with two tanks of gas each (excuse me – petrol). We follow that track to the end which brings us to two small tin houses that are currently not occupied. Karen hops out in the 112 degree heat and starts to look for the rock formation. Marty goes with her, but everyone else is either telling Patricia, who is headed that way, that she shouldn’t go, or telling someone else they shouldn’t go. “It is too hot, we don’t even know if the rock formation is over there…yada yada yada”. So she obediently stepped into the shade of the house and we waited for Marty and Karen to look for the formation. They come back in about 30 minutes and sadly, have not located the rock. So we all pile into the cars again and head back out.

We pick up Maureen’s car and start back to the village where we know we can get Maureen’s car filled with petrol. 45+ kms later we stop so we can discuss where we are. We are pretty sure that if we were on the track we were intending to follow we would be back to the main road by now. Just as we get ready to discuss it, a car comes by. Now please note, this is the first car we have seen since we took off the main road and it will turn out to be the only car we see on this particular track that we travel for more than 5 hours. We wave them down and mention that we were wondering if we were on the track we think we are on. They say “If you are going to Yulara (the resort near Uluru) then we are on the right one. We weren’t actually
going to Yulara right then because we had decided that we needed to head back to the village and get Maureen more fuel, spend the night there and then take another route to Yulara, although we had considered taking this track earlier.

Karen had figured out that we had made a left turn so she knew where we were but the rest of us hadn’t figured it out yet. Anyway this turns out to be good, because it is just [another!] 170 km more to Yulara and Maureen’s car, topped up with the 20 liters of petrol that is in the trailer has plenty of fuel to make it to Yulara. So we continue down this track to Kata Tjuta and Uluru. A perfectly wonderful, crazy, and hot, hot, hot day. We spent the last hour or so driving toward Kata Tjuta – a specatular rock formation only a few miles from Uluru (Ayer’s Rock).