Rest day at the Desert Queens Baths - Rudall River WA

Desert Queens Baths
Rest Day

Leisurely start to the morning although the decision to down the 2nd bottle of white by the fire last night was somewhat regretted this morning. Breakfast of Jaffles before heating up a bucket or two of water and doing a load of washing. It was hard to find two trees close enough together to stretch a clothes line between but managed to find two gums down on the creek about 100 metres away. It was a bit of a walk but well worth it. I found a large rock to sit the wash bucket on which saved bending at least. Second thing on the agenda was cleaning and tidying the mess in the vehicle. All went well and after clean up and reorganizing of the drawers, I found myself with a lot of extra room, particularly in the shelf system.

A tentative decision has been made to spend more time here on the ATV’s and perhaps forgo the Wapet track till another time. Scott and I then fixed the yellow camp light which had ceased to operate the night previously. Multimeter diagnosed that the switch had burnt out so I had a spare which we jury rigged. Then moved on to the versa-lite and after massacring the switch, found out that the lead had parted right at the cigarette plug end. New lead coming up.

We decided to unload the ATV’s and found that Scott had staked one of the rear tyres on his machine. The location was soon identified and plugged so we’re even in the puncture stakes on the ATV’s at least. Went rode over to the cave on the other side of the valley. A hairy climb due to all the loose rock but managed to climb and then negotiate our way back down again. We then followed the Rooney Creek intending a search for the series of waterholes that lead to Claytons Rockhole. We managed several kilometers in an easterly direction until we hit the un-ravaged scrub. This forced us south to the base of the Broadhurst range once again which we followed back collecting firewood along the way. The burnt off spinifex revealed the signs of a long unused track, perhaps the mythical track that leads down to the Rudall Perhaps the legends were true, where it goes though will have to wait until tomorrow.

As we sat enjoying the late afternoon sunset, 10 vehicles arrived to top off the other four that had arrived during the day. By the way they drove in, I had a feeling no good would come of this. Sure enough, all bleep and on their yearly trip up from the Kalgoolie area. We’d been chatting with another group of two couple from north of Perth and the two couples from Jarra pool. These blokes have started the noisiest generator known to man and despite being over 200 metres away, it will be impossible to sleep. It must be bloody loud at their end because they have to shout at each other to be heard. It’s 9:00 p.m. now, I’ll give them till the end of my typing and then I’ll be over to ask them to turn it off. 4,500 km traveled to enjoy the serenity of this place to have it ruined by 22 inconsiderate blokes (harsh language removed!!)

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