Day 12 - Mount Dare to Dalhousie Springs

Today was meant to be a leisurely start and an easy drive to Dalhousie Springs. I think Warren was determined to get a good spot at the next site though, he left as soon as he could get away. Considering that the plan was for a nine o'clock departure, we were happy that we got away at about 8:45.

We negotiated the rutted exit from Mount Dare, then I decided I should air down a bit more for the expected corrugations. The front to 26psi and the rear to 28psi, a quick glance under the bonnet and I found that the main battery needed water. So we got away a little slowly after all.

It was slow going, we averaged 20-30kph, especially over the loose rocky sections, we where found that we could sit on 60 for a smoother ride, unless it got too rough and we slowed down to 20 until we were able to speed up again.

We came to a section, overlooking a gap through a pass, the road cutting back and forth to get down. Clo and I got out to look for a geocache, we ended up on top of a little hill with nice views.

Not far from Dalhousie we came across a salt pan. While we readied the GoPro, Warren came over the radio, we then found that we were quite close and he told us where they were camping. We arrived about 11:00, two hours for seventy kilometres.

It was quite warm where we were setting up, so we put up the tarp first, then setup underneath. Later we found this made it considerably cooler in the tent. The kids enjoyed swimming in the hot springs. We eventually got to visit them after some time, when we'd finished setting up. Some small fish, I think gobys, would come out and nibble at your feet while sitting on the steps with my feet in the water, but just brushing flies away with your hand would scare them away.

I was wearing an Oceantrek crew shirt, and another camper approached us and said he'd been on the boat. He was from the Ryde club and had heard about Mick's accident and Oceantrek's incident. They'd planned to go to Arkaroola then East, but road closures made them reconsider. They'd been to Coober Pedy instead.

Organising water we found a sign near the toilets. While the water here "looks" good, there is drinking water back towards Mount Dare at 3 o'clock creek.

Other things we learned, buy supplies before Oodnadatta and Mount Dare, they're very limited and at least double the price. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, we're pretty keen to move on, we shall see if Warren has listened.