Up early this morning to catch the beautiful sunrise.
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| Sunrise in the Simpson |
A quick breakfast then it was off to Poeppel corner, leaving our campsite set up and David's vehicle behind. It took about two hours to get to the corner. It's always amazing when you get to that point where you cross the salt lake and head south along the edge of the lake. So different to crossing dunes.
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| Salt Lake |
We 'planted" our post (after screwing the plaque to the top. It had come off in our travels but was fortunately not lost).
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| Poeppel Corner |
After some morning tea we set off back to our camp to pack up, have lunch and head back towards Birdsville.
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| Heading back ........ More budgies at our lunch stop |
It was interesting listening to the chatter on the UHF. One joker reckoned we had crossed dune number 859. We figured he wasn't serious when he mentioned that a semi trailer was coming and at another time a Valiant Charger. Now I know Valiant Charger's were a great vehicle in their day but I doubt very much that they are Simpson Desert material.
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| One dune after the other |
When we set out yesterday we thought we would do the trip in two days but the slow trip yesterday soon turned the two into three. We camped the night in Eyre Creek. The very soft sand made the tent very comfortable.
Tonight was chosen as our Sparkly occasion. Since we didn't have many tables we set up the 'table cloth' on the sand in the bed of the creek. Jennie had collected red sand which she sprinkled on the white plastic tablecloth along with other adornments including crab shells, battery operated candles (real ones always blow out), and battery glow sticks. We all dressed up in the 'sparkly' gear we had collected along the way but unfortunately at this time of day the flies were the centre of attention. Dinner will have to wait until the sun sets.
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| The 'Sparkly Occasion" - the flies were optional |
For Dinner we had baked beans and bacon along with leftovers from the previous night. We ate in our chairs sitting around the fire (not that we needed to tonight - very mild). We added to the fire a packet of "Mystical Fire" which we had picked up at the information centre in Bourke. It burnt with blue and green flames for ages. Hate to think what was in it!
