We finally get to the real playground… an equal mix of excitement and trepidation at the unknown that awaits us…
Dalhousie as always was spectacular and dragging yourself out of a warm bed before sunrise, to go for a dawn swim is so worth the effort and you will never forget the experience. The only downside to camping at Dalhousie Springs now, is the blanket ban on campfires…sadly inevitable with the number of people who stay here each season, most of which never brought their own firewood.
We did carry our own wood for use in the desert as we did not know what to expect, but you could make do with gathering your own - the problems of stripping the surroundings of dead wood / living quarters for critters only happens in areas where campers are regularly concentrated (such as Dalhousie, Purni Bore, etc).
Our LC200 used an average of around 30 litres per 100km in very slow driving conditions, which takes a bit of getting used to… about three days of pretty much driving in first gear all day. At one point we made the joke that our original “Dare ‘n Back” trip would have turned into a Dare ‘n F*** Dat” as the progress eventually slowed to a day long, scalloped, mogul filled 10km/h crawl. The blame for these awful track conditions falls squarely on those who feel they are above the advice to leave their trailers behind. It was impossible to get any sort of momentum up the dune faces, so you just have to crawl slowly up, trying not to concuss yourself on the car window or each other’s heads.
We carried 80 litres of water (did not even use half that), plus 100 litres of extra diesel as we had no idea what to expect, so doubled our most pessimistic prediction. We could probably have squeaked through with 40 litres extra (60 litres to be safe), but you would not be in any position to assist others if they were more optimistic than you. Our last fuel top-up was at the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta, which together with our spare fuel got us comfortably to Birdsville.
Somewhere on the trip, our “never do this again”, morphed into “when are we going to do this again”… must have sneaked in during the stillness of the evening, big glass of red wine in the hand, sitting next to the dusty love-of-your-life, sharing the same hypnotised, glassy eyed stare into the flames of the campfire, with the rest of the world about a million miles away…
Негізгі бет Simpson Desert Loop - Part Two
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