Across the Simpson Desert (Day 5)

To Dalhousie Thermal Springs, freaking out, a desert oasis, burnt palms, hot bubbly springs, amazing fish life and party-time.
~ After a very warm night we woke to a windswept camp site. Amongst the dust Tloml's wounded foot was checked and declared good to go. He felt ok thank goodness, but, couldn't walk on it so driving was out of the question. 
Ah, er ... that meant me, I, would be driving.  Wow, major freakout!! I'd gone on a 4WD driver training course before our trip, could do a stop/start hill climb etc., but driving on those roads tracks? on those ruts, berms? in a convoy? (added pressure to keep up).  Sucked breath in and got behind the wheel. Must say, I hadn't realised what concentration it takes to avoid holes (craters) in the road, so developed a whole new appreciation of the luxury of being a passenger all the time! After an hour I was totally over being in 3rd position on the convoy and asked demanded to be put in second last position, just in front of tail end charlie. Much better but, boy, was I longing for that day to end. On a brighter note, at least it gave Tloml a chance to enjoy some of the passing scenery :D

Dalhousie Homestead Ruins

Arrived at the Dalhousie Homestead Ruins first. It truly is an oasis in the desert and was wonderful to see date palms in such profusion out there. Apparently, a few of the rabid preservationists wanted to get rid of them, as they 'weren't native to this country'..bah! (The fact that date and cotton palms had been planted, during some overnight camps, by Afghan Cameleers is absolutely part of our history). Anyway, someone had set fire to them, but that had the effect of only clearing the base of them and had given them a spurt of growth.

We couldn't imagine travelling for hundreds of kms and settling there. The original settlers bred horses for the cavalry as well as running a few sheep and goats. The stockyards were a wonderful example of post and rail workmanship. 

Tloml at the Dalhousie Homestead Ruins (complete with his foot/peg bag)
(The burnt out palms are in the distance)

On to the thermal springs at Dalhousie and set up camp. There were Spoonbills on the water, which was a great sight.

I joined some of the others for a guided walk around the springs with the Ranger. Poor Tloml's lack of mobility unfortunately kept him confined to camp. 
These freshwater springs are an outlet from the Great Artesian Basin. The water temp is 38deg C where it emerges, and cool to 32deg C at the other end of the pools. The water eventually evaporates (what a waste). The springs just bubble out of the ground which eventually form mounds that grow in size as plants germinate and lose foliage. This builds up, along with other debris, until eventually there is too much pressure on the flow of water, and it starts to bubble up somehwere else. 

A strange thing about these springs is the fish in them. there are no rivers or creeks running into the springs, yet there are 5 distinct species of fish, each living in its own temperature zone. If they were to move into another zone, they would die, and as a result, are able to live alongside each other without affecting the others' habitat. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and talk - such an amazing place!

A beautiful sunset which we enjoyed - momentarily. 
Three (small) plane loads of young things en route to the Birdsville Races decided to overnight at the springs and have themselves a party. A few in our group had good cause to grizzle the next morning but as we were both so tired, for our various reasons, we just crashed and were oblivious to everything!


Mileage for the day 90km