Birdsville to Kulgera Day 22 - Salt Lake past Warbuton Crossing to Georges Corner

Day 22 - Monday 24/6/02
Start - Salt Lake past Warbuton Crossing
Stop - Just short of Georges Corner
Trip Odometer - 231.5 km
Stopped time - 3:35 hr
Moving average - 40.2 km/hr
Moving time - 5:45 hrs
Max speed - 80.7 km/hr

Wolfgang travelled with us along the Rig Road for most of the day until we parted company at the Knolls track junction. He went north along the Knolls track to the QAA line back into Birdsville and we continued along the Rig Road all the way to Dalhousie.

I have never seen so many camels as we did along the Rig Road. On the Anne Beadell last week we saw about 15 in total over the 7 days, but on the Rig we would see herds of 15 camels at a time and in total we recorded 54 in 2 days.

We were also well into our second day on the Rig Road before we encountered any other traffic. It was just another solo vehicle, and they didn't seem too experienced but were having a go. The only reason I say they were inexperienced was that we kept coming across foot prints at the top of dunes and saw evidence of where they had bogged themselves and dug themselves out. Letting a bit of air out would have been far easier, but you can't tell some people. Some people want to learn by their mistakes!

Having said that, just after we parted company with Wolfgang, we blew both our rear shock absorbers and found the going a bit bouncy and had to slow down the pace a little. We weren't carrying spare shocks and with over 3000km of desert to the west to go, we needed to replace them asap.