Gismo Queen and her King

Well, after all the drama about whether we would be able to get onto the Birdsville Track, the first 60km have proved to be very good. Now there is rain forecast for tomorrow so we shall see if that holds but so far, so good.

It is also amazingly quiet. Until we turned off at our campsite, we hadn't seen another vehicle since Maree. I suspect that will all change in coming days.

The day dawned bright and sunny in Farina. Who said Farina was a windy place?!  The boys were stripping off to short sleeved shirts as we left the campground, and stopped in at the bakery again, did our underground tour, bought some more goodies, checked out the current excavations at the police station, then wondered how we got out of there. The main track into Farina is currently impassable so there is a temporary higher track, but it is definitely only one vehicle wide and very bumpy. So we waited for some oncoming cars then radioed to say we were coming out and headed off. 10 minutes later, we were turning north to Maree. The road was OK, especially as there are some sealed sections but it was still lunchtime before we pulled into Maree. We topped up our fuel then stopped for lunch then turned north onto the famous Birdsville Track,

Originally a drovers track, and before that, an Aboriginal traders route, the Track has had a few paths over the years but has always been the main link between the stations along here. Not much to see for the first 40kms as it was very flat and treeless (although green from the recent rain). We crossed the dog fence at about that point. It was in very good knick and Neill got a fright when beeping started as he crossed the grid at the fence. He thought something was wrong with the Landcruiser but it turns out it was the dog fence. Instead of having a gate at the dog fence, the beep scares the dogs away. We then stopped at Lake Harry Ruins. There was a lovely hot artesian shower and the ruins of the old homestead. The lake was in the distance with plenty of wAter in it. We kept going.

20km later, we arrived at Clayton Bore. What a peasant campsite with hot showers, flushing toilets, some trees and plenty of spots to set up camp. There is also most amazingly, a hot artesian spa! I got very worried after running it for 20 minutes that the water was still cold but eventually it warmed, and we filled the spa (aka a cattle trough) with 50C water. 30 minutes later it was full. I never thought i would be running across red desert dirt in my bathers in June but this I did, in order to soak away the afternoon in the spa! It was glorious!  After a while, i though i would take advantage of the hot shower to wash my hair. The shower is also from the artesian bore and also delightful. It was just amazing to lie/stand in/under naturally hot water, look out over the bore's wetlands and listen to the serenity. We didn't want to get out.

Eventually, i did to make dinner - a chicken cashew curry washed down with a bottle of red in front of a roaring campfire!! Although we got so desperate for wood we even burnt the axe handle! Not really - it broke so it did get burnt but we're not desperate for wood yet. Another awesome day.