FRIDAY 26 August 2016

By the morning the wind is tired and has slunk off to sleep off the big night out. The wet sand has defeated his efforts at sand transfer for the moment but he will be back to work on his master design.

The birds are elusive and so by mid morning we are heading East, listening to some chatter on the radio - some chap has water in his car and is bogged - how we can't imagine - but there you have it. We wade on, we slide around, we bound and bounce up sand dunes and slither down the other side. The sky is blue and reflects in the pools of water as perfect blue.

Around lunchtime we reach Big Red from the West - this is the hard side - there is about six tracks to choose from - we take one in the middle range. We go for low range auto and off we go, the tracks have been dug deep near the summit and we work hard before we crest the dune and run down to clear the summit for following vehicles and position ourselves for a down hill exit to the East.

A couple and their friend have done a video on their phone of our last gallant sand dune for this trip - they promise to send it when they get service.

We wander down and pump up our tyres for road travel and have lunch. The hard stuff is over - the annoying shocky has not leaked again and we have aborted our trip on the basis that it would get worse and worse till it fails. Well it had some hard runs today and if it wanted to leak, today was a good day to download - so does that mean it's empty? We stop and check for it running hot - but it runs cool. Look we had a good time in the desert we just did not manage to cross from one side to the other, but more importantly we did not get to see the birds at the Western end - we hope we can return.

The road into Birdsville is chopped up and still has a lot of water - Nosey the car is filthy beyond belief with enough sand and mud to build our own small desert display when we get home. Just out of Birdsville we stop at the toilet dump and use the hose to wash one side of the vehicle. I drop Sue in town and duck back to give the other side a wash off - our rig looks dirty but not encrusted.

The head East the Birdsville Development Road is like a highway, so smooth, no corrugations - just a few low spots where water still creates short shallow patches of mud - some a little worse than others.

We pass two rest areas, up in very exposed areas with no appeal what so ever - then we see a quarry off a side track and find a great camp by a water filled hollow, with the afternoon sun warming the escarpments of a miniature range - small finches duck and weave in the trees and we think - yes this will just have to do - we can put up with perfection - again.