At
the junction of the Calvert Ranges Track and the CSR we met up with some travellers who claimed to be grand nephews of Afred Canning. We had a chat, a cuppa and then moved on.
Revisiting Killigurra Gorge was magic as we were able to photograph some of
the rock paintings which had underexposed the last time we were there in 1994. The
campsite has also enlarged so that two vehicles instead of one could
camp there. We spent the night there in the quiet gorge and the stillness was only to be interrupted by an overhead jet to nowhere at 2.30am!! Durba Springs was showing off its green lushness as usual. There was a lot more
water there since the last visit and only 7 vehicles camped. Further north we decided to have a look at Diebel Springs and followed the track in for the 21km. I had to fire up Oziexplorer to find the right track into the spring as there are no indicators or signs. On the Hema map it denotes that there is a
camp site but all we found was a turning circle on the top of a rocky knoll and Spinifex everywhere else and definitely nowhere to
camp. Then there was a walk of about 400 metres and we decided to givethat bit a miss.The drive in and out was quite scenic though so the drive was not in vain.
We made for
Lake Disappointment and arrived at a small headland in the late afternoon. It was Full Moon that evening (as it was when we last visited in 94) and the colours were just right for photography. We all went for as long walk onto the whiteness. The next day saw us drive past Wells 20 and 21 along a stretch of severe corrugations. Close to
Georgia Bore we came upon the
burnt out Prado ( I have a very nice piece of molten Prado sitting on my desk in front of me!) at the same time as a tag a long mob from
Alice Springs. One bloke was towing an Evernew? Camper/Trailer(caravan type) with a Hilux. It had lots of gaffa tape holding it together. I wonder how they got on.
Freaky cold weather, lots of lightning and rolling thunder and a shower of rain got us all reasonably wet that night and we made an early start the next morning, packing up in the mud. Heading west along the Talawana and its usual mega-corrugations we met uop with another mob who had been turned back by tales of washed out roads in Ruddall River NP. They also said that one of their crew had pulled out of the trip at was camped at the
windmill at the Cotton
Creek turnoff.
Well!!!, strike me down!….We met up with this fella driving a Jeep. He had 8 jerrycans on the roof rack, 2 tents, a large tarp, 2 spare
wheels and a small drum of something. Totally overloaded by a mile. We reinflated our tyres in the sleety rain and pushed on to
Newman via the Talawana and
Billinooka Tracks and the accessroad into Jiggalong Community.