SUNDAY

We headed off towards Windorah, stopping to investigate some shrubs that looked like they might house some nice birds. We first spotted some lithe ground feeding birds that sort of looked like lapwings but different - they would fly off long before we could stop and get a photo or even a good look.

Well as we approached the Haddon Corner turn off - we made a decision to go visit the second of the three corners. So off we belted down more corrugated roads. The road is actually in good nick so we had a good run through to the corner - yes there are two sand dunes to cross but the sand was hard packed so we did not need to lower our tyre pressures.

We drove South during the day as the landscape and soil types changes from Gibber to rich red sand dunes. We found camel tracks at one stop and at another an old stock yard green inside the fence and dry and brown outside.

We camped half way down the range and were blown away not by the view but by the wind - it just howled all night - we ended up putting down the roof to reduce the noise.

The colours in the rocks at this location were like a watercolourist's paint box. Subtle yellows, greys, reds and purples.

MONDAY

We drove down to the DIG TREE, an interesting place and well worth a visit. The old trees still stand, alive and well. The best part is the carvings done by a stockman 50 years after the event which are still looking good.

We drove into Innamincka to get fuel it is really an outpost. The oil and gas industry have been making money out of this place since the 1970's and yet it does not seem like the local roads have received much of a dividend - yes they have spent money on roads to their various wells but the main roads should be bitumen by now and it is only the Queensland side that knows what the black stuff looks like.

At this stage of the trip we started thinking of an alternative explanation for the leaking front shock absorber. The continual monitoring of the shocky had shown no further leakage, no over heating and no obvious loss of function. We started to put forward the idea that given the day of the identified oil leak we had driven through numerous tracks filled with water and yet in many cases the tracks remained like two separate lakes - one for each wheel track. The idea presented it's self that maybe a car ahead of us had leaked oil into our right wheel track and not into the left. So when we stopped we had picked up the oil slick onto the outside of our right shocky - therefore maybe - we never had a leak all we had was someone else's leak. So we could have continued on and completed our journey - we have been able to confirm this hypothesis but given the driving we have done since without a single drop of oil coming out it is a theory that just may hold water to mix my metaphors.

The annoying reality was that here we were in Innamincka - we still had plenty of time to head down the Strzelecki Track curve North to Mount Dare and attempt the crossing from the West. Yes? No because there is another serious rain event coming though and we would probably just end up sitting at Mount Dare for two weeks waiting for a track that might not be open for a month. We are cutting our losses and heading East.

We stopped in to Burke's grave - and it was touching to hear the story again of a man so arrogant that he could not be nice to the local aborigines who went ahead and saved King's life by sharing their food and local knowledge - the irony being that to all accounts it was a good year water wise and there was no need for Burke to die of starvation.

We drove East past the locations for our water logged camps in May. The road was newly graded and it was hard top spot the locations which had caused us so much trouble traversing.

The Cooper Creek was only a few inches under the bridge and we came through to Nocundra and camped by the river.