After the rain on the previous night, it was surprising to see how quickly the earth had absorbed the water. In spite of this, there were still very large puddles laying around.
Other than our grey water hose, we had little to do to prepare for our departure.
We left just before 9:00am and spent the next couple of hours driving to the South Australian, Northern Territory border in a fairly strong north westerly wind. Whilst this wind was not as bad as what we experienced driving from Broken Hill to Peterborough, it still made us consume a lot more fuel than what we have budgeted for. We actually believe that the wind cost us an additional $25.00 in fuel today.
We have never seen the land so green. Part of the trip today was adjacent to the Simpson Desert but we saw no evidence of the presence of the desert. The time time we travelled the Stuart Highway “He” had a walk in the desert across rocks and other desert formations. Due to all of the greenery, we have no idea where this place was. We are also pleased that the recent rain has reduced the amount of roadkill normally expected in this area. Over the past 600kls, you can count on one hand the number of dead animals.
We stopped at the border and took the mandatory pictures (on foot in SA, the other in the NT) before heading to the Kulgera roadhouse where we stopped for lunch.
After lunch one of our group went ahead to have an advanced look at our intended overnight stop. We were not optimistic about the state of the proposed stop and this was confirmed with our intended stop being covered in mud and water.
We booked into the Erldunda roadhouse caravan park (Desert Oaks). “She” managed to get four loads of washing done and four hours of sunshine combined with a strong wind got most of the washing dry. Other members of our group also took the opportunity to catchup on washing.
We enjoyed happy hour before venturing up to a lookout to watch, and photograph, the sunset across the desert.
With no television available (we still have telephone and internet coverage), we had a quiet night.