Back of Beyond

I found my parents. Sort of.

Mum called from some semi-unintelligible place in rural Queensland and said they were planning to hit the famous Birdsville Track, once known as "the loneliest road in Australia" (that's saying something). It was opened as a cattle route in the 1860s and passes through both the Strzelecki Desert and Sturt's Stony Desert.

Sooner or later they're going to end up at Uluru (which was called Ayers Rock when I was a kid). Now that's a place I'd like to see.

Where are my parents?

This much I know: my parents are somewhere in the desert, in Australia.

This is not very helpful, since 44% of Australia is desert (and a further 37% is "semi-arid"... I think that included our backyard).

Mum called a few days ago and said, "I just thought I'd say bye, we're leaving in half an hour" – as if they were going to pop out to Grandma's. They've been planning their desert trek for a while, but evidently didn't tell any of their five children much about it.

I emailed my brother a little while ago and said, So, are Mum and Dad going to Ayers Rock, or where? He emailed back:

"They left in the Landrover. Stan and Glenys went too, they took plenty of food and will be gone for a while. Hopefully Dan knows where they went."

Yes. As a family, we have it so together.