Australia: Tales from a Canadian Nomad: Road Trips and Backpackers

I left Alice this morning about 8am, right on schedule, and just a few minutes outside of town I came across a backpacker hitching a ride, and thinking about the LONG and not particularly interesting drive ahead of me to Darwin, I pulled over and picked up Francis. He was from Melbourne, just 19 and finished high school last year and hitching around the country to check it out. He was nice enough, we had a lot to chat about and the miles flew by. Before I knew it, we were in Ti Tree for a pit stop and ended up with two more backpackers stuffed into the Rav, this time it was Shep from the UK and Derek from the Netherlands, another two nice guys. The gas mileage went wayyyyy down with such a big load, but when I stopped to fill at Wyclef Well, Derek had the gas paid for before I got inside, which was real nice. We continued on for many more miles, and stopped at the Devil's Marbles, which were rather interesting and there were way more than I thought there was when I read about them in the tourist guide. It was a nice little hike around them, and a good stretch of the legs.
From the Devil's Marbles we drove on to Tennant Creek for a top up of the gas, and then shortly after we dropped off Francis at Threeways, which is where the Stuart Highway meets the eastern highway to Queensland, which was where he was headed. Onward from there with Shep and Derek and we drove on to Elliot. It looked a little dodgy when we first stopped but asked around and the campground was the only one in town and no one was there. The campground is just behind the gas station and has a pool, showers, bathrooms, and firepits. I set up my tent and before long we had some cold beers going and storytelling began again. Just before dark we headed to the pub 100 metres down the road and got some local made pizza, which the boys wolfed down a large each...I didn't care for it much and only ate half a small pizza. Too much ham for my liking, and it's weird ham they have here. Back to the campground and invited some of the campground/shop/gas station workers who live onsite to come over to the site for some beers and chat, which was most entertaining. Now they've gone back to the pub, most of them, Shep has gone for a shower and here I sit in the dark with my wireless stick blogging and uploading photos.
Tomorrow we head out for Katherine Gorge to camp and do a hike, and onward to Darwin on Friday. The two fellas still with me were most appreciative of the ride all the way to Darwin, and have told me so over and over that I must be their guardian angel. Poor buggers could't get a ride out of Alice yesterday so walked for about 17kms before getting a ride to Ti Tree where they had been since yesterday trying for a ride. They're quite entertaining, not grotty at all, and polite to boot. They've managed to sweet talk the Irish gal working at the campground into letting them sleep in an empty staff room tonight so they're happy, as they didn't have tents or mattresses. I'll be out in my tent with my foamie, as I've given up on the damn air mattresses...two uses and it left me flat on the second use. Crappy ass shit.