Day 14, Wednesday 4/07/2012, Purni Bore to the Lone Gum

Although we all managed to keep warm enough in our beds, last night was pretty chilly. It is -2°C now at 7am. Peter is unable to get water out of the T Van as his pipes are frozen and there is a cup with water frozen solid.

The bolt holding Peter’s Foxwing awning onto the car has rattled loose. Lucky he noticed and could tighten it before leaving. All of Haley’s socks are either wet or muddy so she’s sitting in the car with gloves on her feet, making her look like a monkey. Hilarious!

It was such a wonderfully exciting day 4WDing across the Simpson today, heading east on the French line for a bit on baby dunes, then chucking a right to head south down the Rig Line. It is quite fast along here as it is a clay track following a swale. The Pockrans had fun chasing a camel along here and Jordan and Jack had a go driving. I then had a turn driving where the Rig Line swings back to the east, once again climbing dunes. This is our first taste of some larger dunes. We were treated to a dingo sighting again and saw a wedge tailed eagle take off with a rabbit in it’s claws.

The desert is so green. Greener than last time we were here. There were more flowers in 2010. Looking closer you can see that the majority of bushes have flower buds. We must be a few weeks too early. It will be amazing when they all bloom. It is so much more fun when you’re doing the driving. Don’t come out here and not have a go, it’s what it’s all about! For lunch we pulled over in a swale that had a big washaway and trees which made for some fun running around exploring.

 

The Rig Line now becomes the WAA Line which is where the real fun begins. No more packed clay track. We’re into the real orange, sand dune driving now with dunes from 5 to 20m. There are plenty of washaways and the track often zigzags up and down the dunes. Finally Fiona had a turn driving and you couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. Lisa and Stuart have been sharing 50/50, but Anthea still hasn’t had a go. I’ll have to keep encouraging her as it would make it so much more exciting.

Halfway along the WAA Line Lisa and Stuart noticed a clunking noise as they turn left. The rear stabilizing arm had come loose as the bush had shredded and disintegrated. The boys managed to fix it by cutting up some spare rubber matting into squares. They layered 4 of them and cut a hole through the centre using a pocket knife. They cut a 5^th one to use elsewhere as a washer. Great job boys, we were soon back on track. To fill in the time and stretch their legs, most of the women and kids set out ahead walking along the track while the repair work was done.

 

Not far along Peter pulled up as his car was making a loud tappety sound which was quickly fixed by topping up his oil. He has done amazingly well, getting over everything. You wouldn’t know he was towing a trailer.

Jordan, Jessica and Madison had a turn driving once we were heading south in the swale on the Erabena Track. It was Jessica and Madison’s first drive, how exciting for it to be in the Simpson Desert!

We arrived at The Lone Gum at 5.15pm to find it deserted. We have the whole place to ourselves in the middle of the Simpson Desert. Everyone set up a basic campsite pretty quickly. Dinners were all cooked at the same time while the kids got the fire going. It was lovely to all eat together around the fire.

Col and I lost our coffee today. The lid had come off and coffee was everywhere. Col did a great job of emptying and sweeping out the cupboard. He also took a quick look at the water tank as we have been losing water into our food storage (lucky they all have waterproof packaging). He thinks it is a leaking pipe connection. Time for the magic tape. Lisa and Stuart seem to have run out of gas. Maybe the tap was bounced on? It looks like they’ll be cooking on the fire more often, although they already were doing that a bit. I’ll share my gas burner if they’ll donate some coffee! Our radio charger doesn’t work either and we have to keep swapping radios with Bruce. It’s not fun when it goes flat and you can’t hear the conversations. The internal lights in the T Van have shaken loose and the wire snapped on one of them. Bruce lost a D shackle from his tow hitch. I guess we were all a bit “shaken” today.

There are a huge number of little marsupials running around us tonight. They are slightly larger than a rat and rounder, fluffier and cuter. After getting photos of the giant orange moon, the kids stole our cameras and were running around getting amazing photos of the little marsupial moles. They’re such great photos, I’m sure Australian Geographic would want them!

Casper had no trouble at all today over the large sand dunes even though it is only a “People Mover” (not)! It got to a balmy 21°C today after our frozen start this morning. Everyone is around the fire reminiscing about the day’s exciting driving adventures the cool bush fix and how clever our kids were at driving. Col set up the thunderbox with a sunrise view of the Lone Gum. He’ll have to be up early tomorrow!

Day 13, Tuesday 3/07/2012, Purni Bore

Such a beautiful sleep in! We awoke to a glorious day in the Simpson Desert. Bruce and Fiona had already hiked around the lake. After breakfast and a coffee Col and I (Jordan and Jack were still asleep) went for a walk around Purni Bore. Amazing, I just love it! There are literally hundreds of birds: crows, zebra finches, kites and ducks to name just a few.

I’ve decided I’m a bit of a convert now. After seeing the number of people camped outside the fence, it would have spoilt the place if there were that many people camped in here. It really is like Pitt Street along the French Line in the school holidays. I’m glad we’re not squished in along the wire fence with everyone else. I love our private swale. It’s a lovely desert walk to the lake and we still have the novelty of having an artesian fed shower.

It really is an amazing nature walk around the lake. It was created in 1963 when a French Oil company drilled through the Great Artesian Basin that is at a depth of 1400m. When finished they capped the pipe, but it eventually eroded and 85°C water flowing at 18 litres per second formed the lake. Since it was affecting Dalhousie Springs, it was recapped in 1987 causing the Lake to shrink. Since then they have maintained enough flow to sustain the wildlife that has come to rely on Purni Bore.

I did a second walk with Peter, Madison, Haley and Chelsea. Poor Anthea stayed in bed most of the day feeling unwell. Peter tripped over a branch and did well to land on his stomach, saving the camera from the sand. Chelsea slowly slid out of the baby-carry back pack onto the ground where she thought “yes, I can play in the sand!”

The Pockran family headed out for the hike soon after and it wasn’t untill later in the day that we convinced Jordan, Jack and Jessica to go over to the lake to start their “Grilled Bear” project. Suddenly they were full of life and all excited about the movie they were going to make. Madison and Michael were so excited to be invited to be a part of this little adventure. They grabbed a backpack each with food and drink and headed off into the desert.

Lisa had another packing disaster, with 2 milk cartons breaking open. We have ours in a plastic lined container, lying on their side which seems to be working well.

Bruce is busy looking at Peter’s electrical problems again. Col wants me to do his dunny photo soon. Maybe I should do it now while Lisa is modelling. There is a huge moon again. Fiona says I could “get a double moon”!

Day 12, Monday 2/07/2012, Oodnadatta to Purni Bore

We were told by our camping neighbours last night that Purni Bore (my favourite spot in the Simpson) has now been ruined. It has been roped of like everything else that’s nice. I’m so disappointed!

The Pink Roadhouse was our first stop, and a must.

This is the last fuel, water and food supply until Birdsville. We also emptied our rubbish holders, bought a few bits and pieces and listened to an Aboriginal busker. Michael and Madison gave him some money.

The Roadhouse is for sale. I think they should get Stuart to freshen up the paint job. The town is bigger than I expected and lays claim to being the hottest and driest town in Australia.

Our turn off to the right towards Dalhousie is not far north of here. The road was quite good, with our average speed about 70 to 80km/hr from which you need to slow down for the occasional corrugated or sandy patches. Ensure you also slow down for any cattle grids as they are “jumps”. You can tell that you are closing in on the Simpson as you start to see the occasional small dune.

After driving through a 7km claypan, the landscape dramatically changes again to a gibber plain (stoney desert), broken up by several creek beds. After another turn right onto a smaller track we pulled over at a creek bed to collect firewood (before entering the National Park) where we were treated to finding some gorgeous geckos.

It is a lot bumpier and rocky on this track with scenery of expansive flat gibber country, red dirt, rocks and yellow grass, then crossing several twisting, sandy creek beds. Our speed was about 50km/hr here, slowing further for any obstacles.

Just before the thermal springs are the Dalhousie homestead ruins. They certainly had gorgeous views of mesas from here, and palm trees in their garden.

 

Everyone just adored their 1hr soak in Dalhousie Springs, our natural day spa! It was so rejuvenating with natural minerals, 36 to 38°C artesian water and the 3 to 4cm unique gobi fish that exfoliate your legs. 1hr about pulls it up though as you become overheated (and sunburnt as you shouldn’t wear any chemicals in to contaminate this water), the kids were especially sensitive to the temperature, going quite red in the face.

After a quick lunch we continued on towards Purni Bore.

I always love stopping to let the tyres down, about halfway along where it starts to become sandy, as there are always good flowers here and I have plenty of time to play with the camera. There were my favourite Poached Egg Daisies, although they mostly seemed juveniles.

I was so sad about Purni. Last time we adored our camp site on the edge of the lake. We pulled up a couple of swales east of Purni rather than at the side of the road next to the new fence.

Everyone in the group seems upset with our camp site and want to camp elsewhere due to bushes with prickles etc. Sorry but most of the desert is exactly like this (you’ll all be in for a long week if you don’t like this). At least from this spot, we’re not on the side of the road, we have our privacy, not squished in with the crowds and still have access to the lake for bird watching with a short desert hike. A 2 night stay is very much needed so everyone can have a sleep in, a break from packing up and a chance to just explore the desert and amazing wildlife that Purni supports.

I love the colours of the eastern sky at sunset, pinks and purples with a giant moon.

Some of our collected firewood made for a beautiful warm and social fire. Jack, Col and I saw an amazing shooting star. I should say asteroid! An orange fire ball with a tail. Peter didn’t see it but heard the ‘woosh’. Wow. I wonder if some of that landed on earth! Peter decided if it did, the crater should be named “Jack’s Crack”!

Peter had another electrical problem today with the kid’s 12V outlets blowing.