Hooky's Water Hole to Mt Dare

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After a quick breakfast and pack up at Hooky’s we headed the last 7km to the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta. Topped up on fuel, grabbed a few supplies, had a chat to some locals who said all the tracks are open regardless of the recent rain, and headed North up the track toward Mt Dare.

It was around 240km to Mt Dare and it took us the best part of five hours to get there. Not because of excessively long stops but because the rain had turned the track to fun!!! The first 150km odd was fine, with a few expected corrugations and slow bits, but after that it got wet and muddy. Awesome!

While the driving was slow at times we got some great video footage and still shots of all of us going through various creeks, mud holes and massive puddles. This is what we came for and we have loved the day. The photos should tell the story better than I could tell it in words.

Some unexpected news met us around 16km from Mt Dare. They had no diesel! Shit. Some travellers on another track told us they had just left Mt Dare to head elsewhere due to the lack of fuel. None of us had enough fuel to guarantee we’ll get across the desert. We headed on regardless, thinking we’d head up to Finke and North if things don’t go our way. Once we got to the Mt Dare Hotel we spoke to the owners who said they’ve got 2,000 odd litres of diesel coming through the night and they’ll sell it on a first come first serve basis at 8am on Monday morning. We’ll be lining up at 7.30am tomorrow!

We’ve had a shower, a couple of blokes have had a shave and we have all washed our smalls for the first time in a week. Dinner is on now and we’ll head to the bar a little later on. There is even Mercury Cider in the fridge!

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