Day 64 21/08/2013 Paradise Bush Camp to Kalkutkatjara (Docker River) Bush Camp.
We were up very, very early today, but the bonus was seeing the full moon setting just before the sun rose. We lit our fire again....mainly for warmth, but also to heat some water for personal washing. We enjoyed a cooked breakfast, did the washing up, and were still on our way by 7.30am! Once again it was a beautiful, cloudless morning, but the road had not improved!!! By mid-day it was quite warm. We stopped at the Warburton Community for fuel and also to look in the Art Gallery there. Unfortunately we did not see anything which caught our eye. Travelling further on, we stopped by the roadside to have our coffee and a few km later, passed a herd of camels. They did not really appreciate being photographed!! We stopped again for lunch. It was good to get a break from the corrugations in the road! By early afternoon we had reached the community of Warakurna. Nearby is the Giles Meteorological Station. This weather station...named after the explorer Ernest Giles, was established in 1956 by the Weapons Research Establishment and its purpose was to provide data for the UK Atomic Weapons Tests and to support the rocket testing programme based at Woomera. It is the only staffed weather station in an area of about 2.5 million square kilometres. The data it provides now is vital for global and local computer models for forecasting and is particularly useful for international flights. Weather balloons are released twice daily and it was really just by chance that we were there when the afternoon balloon was released. However, unfortunately we had arrived on a day when no conducted tours of the facility were available. We continued on our way. The desert scrub landscape gave way to a more treed landscape (mainly Casuarinas), not normally associated with deserts, but in this area there is a great deal of underground water. At one point we were actually driving through an avenue of trees! As we approached the WA/NT Border, the scenery became more dramatic, with stunning ranges, which looked very scenic in the afternoon light. We crossed the border at around 2.30 pm and suddenly lost one and a half hours of time!!! We were now on Central Standard Time. We camped at the Kalkutkatjara Campground...another bush camp, but a little more organised than last night's. There were five other groups of people camped there, but each campsite was some distance away from the other. We were able to light a fire and watch the sun go down on the nearby ranges. Tomorrow will be a short driving day.