Mt Dare to Purni Bore

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The race to the pump was on! This morning the station manager was going to start pumping the diesel at 8am. To be sure that we’d get what we needed we lined up at the pump at around 7.40am. We weren’t the only ones with that idea but there was plenty of fuel for everyone’s requirements.

After leaving Mt Dare we headed south toward Dalhousie Springs where we were contemplating staying the night. It was only 70km odd away but it took us a fair while to get there as the road was pretty ordinary. Dalhousie Springs turned out to be brilliant. The spring itself is around the size of at least three Olympic sized pools and it is heated naturally from the Artesian Basin. We all got in and had a paddle around for a while. They have noodles and tyre tubes for everyone to share as well. Talk about warm! I had to hop out after half an hour or so and it was a highlight of the trip so far.

From there we headed to where we are presently camped (Purni Bore) as Dalhousie Springs had heaps of people and that wasn’t what we are after. The Purni Bore was a mistake from the French who were looking for oil in the 1960s. The water comes out of the ground at around 85'C but now they let it flow up a pipeline for 200 odd metres where it settles in a spring – a bloody hot spring!

The drive on the way out, which is around 65km, is preparing us for the Simpson itself. Lots of dunes, massive puddles from the recent rains and plenty of hazards to keep us down to around 35kph. Tonight is the first night without a fire as this National Park has tighter rules. I understand that we should be right for fires again once we hit the desert in the morning. The Simpson starts around 25km from here & then we’ll take the following four days, give or take, to get to Birdsville. From there we are planning for Innamincka but nothing is in stone.

A bit of drama before bed last night. Firstly we had a fox come up to us, at least within ten metres. Phil grabbed a dagger and tried to chase him so Neil could get a fox hat. No luck. The next bit of drama was Dave Cox from Mt Dare bought a vehicle he was towing into our camp. The poor buggers had blown a transmission and were getting dragged back to Mt Dare for the princely sum of $3,300. We gave them all a cup of tea and then they were off. The couple being recovered had a baby with them which probably made the whole scenario a bit scary for them.

Lastly, Phil decided he wanted to have a look at the feral cows (cows escaped from nearby stations) that were making a hell of a racket. Neil, Phil and I wandered off into the bush to see if we could get a look at them. As we got closer we could tell from their tones that they knew we were there. Closer and closer we crept until we heard a snort, a scuffing of ground and some (minor) crashing of bushes. We were off like a shot. Pansies. Back to camp, a quick change of strides for Neil and we hit the sack.

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