Clay pans to Batton Hill

What a wonderful pink sunrise this morning. We had a lovely steak last night at the Hay Hindquarter Restaurant (in our camp set up with table cloth and all) and an early night for me. This shower invention has been a huge hit and most refreshing morning or night. Quite a few people have used it now and a few others have them too. This is something I highly recommend and rate a ten out of ten.

After packing up this morning we discoverd that we needed to achieve 260km till Batton Hill however, my research tells me that 120km a day on sand is the average achievable goal. The seven car convoy is going to have to stay on the tracks in order to avoid getting bogged today I think as we lost 2-3 hours yesterday. We are travelling north on the track and at 10am it is 23°.

We have just come into radio contact with another group - it seems it would be Jenny....who does ABC documentaries with another lady and Jenny's husband is the cinematographer. So we are awaiting pass over. The other Cars pulled over as they are travelling as a pair while we are a larger convoy. The other cars have cling wrap on their vehicles to avoid scratches and barnacles from rubbing along the duco. We are travelling north while they are going south. I believe due to the way the dunes are going the direction we are travelling is very difficult. In one hour we have done 13km give or take a bit as we didn't put the odometer on until we had done a bit of driving. The other people will find  it challenging as we have churned up two dunes. Quite badly. They told us that the last 8hours for us (their first 8) was hard due to the turning of the steering wheel in order to swerve the trees.

380km now since Birdsville and we have another 300km until the next fuel stop at Jervois. We have a full tank of 90L plus 40L in jerry cans. W have 15-16L to the 100km on fuel consumption so feeling very confident. We met one man getting 4km per litre and he was towing a caravan with a boat on top 25L/100 is so much more than us. Today the drive is less arid than yesterday because we are in a river bed and there is so much more grass with the sighting of this new species - a white flowering fluffy grass. There are more eucalyptus trees growing in this region too. The contrast of red sand to the green grasses is amazingly beautiful. Instead of sand dunes like yesterday we have been confronted by rock ledges which were an issue for cars without a lot of ground clearance but Rob made it through carefully with the good guidance of Urma who got out and kept a look out for him. It's now 12:30pm and we are driving in 35° heat but all good in our single cabin ute.

We are now travelling across Madigan's track. He was doing scientific explorations in 1930s and there are no tracks at all just GPS coordinates and thanks to Dave and Robyn we have managed to find 3 of the camp locations that were used in his expedition in 1939. No shade at all just low lying grasses and small tufts at that but they are so green and the contrast is just again so amazing for my Victorian eyes to see. Lunch was shared between camp 13 and 10 where we were able to simply pull out our wraps from the centre fridge inside the car and add some fresh tomatoes that are now on rations and we are one happy couple - eating with no flies! 

Food thoughts

1. I like naming our restaurant each night

2. Freezer is not freezing. But Tim is not worrying about it and I am not to worry either

3. Make a thermous for a morning coffee break

4. Fruit cake makes a good morning tea snack

Literary Thoughts

1. I finished reading Naveed and loved it so much - watch out for the ending you will need tissues

2. Started I love you more - some good ideas such as the XYZ principle (maybe I can share later)

Life thoughts

1. A positive attitude - the only thing we can do is play on the one string we have , and that is our attitude - happy couples have a happy set of attitudes

2. You are only one good thought away from a good feeling - Sheila Krystal

Fun facts

1. Lost tent pegs out of the tray

2. Yesterday dropped Pete's tool kit - sockets everywhere

3. Thanks to Wynd family I had a morning tea coffee today

4. So many other insects today - coloured moths, butterflies, tiny white and yellow mini butterflies and dragonflies have been around us today

Improvements

1. Buy Ajax surface wipes

2. Pack a square self folding tub - saw it at the caravan and camping show

3. Job allocation

4. Oz tent fly - but we are keeping the flies at bay with hats and neem cream and bushmans fly spray