Day 10 - Cowards Springs

While we had put our tent right into the trees to protect us from the prevailing winds, that also meant that the sun came straight in as soon as it came up. While that will be an advantage tomorrow when we want an early start, it's not so good for a sleep in.

The strong winds from the West in the afternoon and overnight were replaced by an Easterly breeze in the morning, not too cold and quite pleasant once we got up.

After organising breakfast the kids washed up and went for a dip in the springs. I stoked up the heater system for the shower,  the "rocket" and enjoyed a shower and a shave.

We walked to the museum, which used to be the house of one of the railroad staff back when the Ghan train service was functioning.

Warren then took us for a tour of the broken bottles around the area that may have been the pub. We found the broken remains of some very interesting looking bottles.

There was a geocache across the road, about 1KM walk from the road, so we went for a walk over there. The others thought I'd gotten the directions from the manager/owner of the park, but it was the gps coordinates and the wheel tracks that got us there. A rusty old tin and some very tatty papers, but we could sign it and leave some treasure.

 Back to the springs for a feed and Charles' sleep. Went for a dip in the springs with the kids when he woke, then had to run the car for a bit to charge the auxiliary battery as it was working hard, especially as I'd put in some warm beers.

Emptied the GoPro sd card onto the external hard drive so we could take some more footage later, topped up the oil then started preparing dinner.

Our plan for tomorrow is an early start, some fuel at Willow Creek, check the weather at Oodnadatta then onto Mount Dare via Eringa Waterhole, Bloods Creek and North to Mount Dare.

We need to do some laundry, and it's going to be a long day, so an early start will be helpful. 500km on dirt roads, fortunately the roads are supposedly in good condition, so we may be able to average 80Kph.

A coolish night, very little wind, but clear so the stars are bright. This may be an indication of abnormal weather as the owner/manager said it's cooler than usual, and there is rain forecast for Wednesday.

A good night for star watching, we shall see about the rest.