Across the Simpson Desert (Day 7)

In The Simpson and to Approdina Attora Knolls Track, dingoes, Happy Father's Day, OKA madness, way out welding. 
~ We awoke at sunrise and heard dingoes howling in the distance - very spooky because it's usually so quiet. Fresh tracks were seen near the camp. 
A cooked brekky, sausages and tomatoes, for Father's Day.

Tloml ogling the OKA

Throughout the trip Tloml had been admiring another group member's vehicle, an OKA, so when its owner offered to let him get behind the wheel, well, it just made his day!  
I got to ride in the back.  It's a huge tank of a vehicle but, boy, what a ride. It just kept rolling (more like gliding) along, up and over all the dunes, never missed a beat. 

The power in the engine 
was incredible, keeping it in third gear, low range, no matter what the terrain it irons out the bumps. Having experienced it first hand ... we both wanted one!!


Back to earth and in our own vehicle again. Saw a pair of eagles along the way, some budgerigars, a camel and some rabbits. Very windy so a lot of sand in our sandwiches!


A few in the group went ahead and missed the turn off to the Knoll's Track because of wrong info in the desert parks hand book. Tackling a sand dune east to west was a challenge to those vehicles retracing their steps because the dunes are so much steeper than the way we were doing it, west to east.
An appendage was spotted hanging from the rear of a group member's vehicle which turned out to be broken shock absorber.  After setting up camp some 10km South of the Approdina Attora Knolls, batteries were assembled to weld it up. All the men had gathered to witness the wonder of welding being carried out under such trying circumstances ;-) 


We'd sustained a bit of wear and tear as well. The roof rack had moved forward a couple of inches (not a good thing). The floor got bashed where the gas tank had been thumping up and down and the side door had a hole bored into it when a stove stand had fallen from the roof rack (someone with good intentions was helping to load - ah well). 


Dunny rating 5/10, points lost because (1) Too far away, and (2) Location in a valley between two trees making access difficult.


Mileage for the day 127km