Across the Simpson Desert (Day 9)

In The Simpson To Old Annandale Station Waterhole, emu bobbing, brolgas, abandoned steam engine and best ever hair conditioner. 
~ The dingo is still around, and on the morning walk it decided to follow at a comfortable 5 - 10 metres. We did 1.3 km which included a sand dune so had worked up a sweat by the time my ride arrived.


Also, when packing up, a fairly ferocious looking spider, same colour as the sand, appeared and reared up on its hind legs in attack mode. Tloml was up on the roof rack and I wasn't going to take it on, so gave it a wide berth. 


Back in convoy and the scenery began to change as the dunes became larger and further apart. We all took part in some emu bobbing - an activity I hadn't mentioned before, but the group did it every so often when needed. The convoy parks alongside the track, everyone has a stretch of legs and if any rubbish is seen it's picked up.  I guess, at a distance, we looked like a lot of emus with all that bobbing up and down!  Lots of exercise this particular day, plenty of empty stubbies found along this section of track - probably "hair of the dog" contributions after the Birdsville races a few days previous.


The flora is starting to change in this area, it's mainly Old Man Saltbush and Eucalypts. 

Crossing Eyre Creek

53 km from camp we arrived at Eyre Creek and it was time for another break. 


After leaving the Creek the road was smooth driving - such a treat, "smooth as a baby's b.." someone was heard to say. However, it lasted for only about 27 km when some difficult dunes were encountered. Or perhaps they just seemed difficult because everyone had been spoilt by the smooth ride. 

All was well and after a bit of a search found the right road to Ruwolt's Bore and cattle yards where we were able to gratefully fill some water containers.

Filling the water containers

Upon arriving at the supposedly dry Annandale waterhole, the convoy stopped and observed with immense pleasure about 30 brolgas near the water. We sneaked up to them but they flew off - the sound of their wings beating over our heads was quite amazing. 

The Annandale homestead ruins was on a sandy rise overlooking the waterhole. They're a real eye opener to life in the pioneering days. Stuck out, miles from anywhere, they established their little home and yards in such difficult conditions. The remains of the house still showed enough of the construction to indicate the degree of care and pride taken. The exterior wall was all cement rendered, so smooth, with filials around the chimney top. Over the years, steam engines had been brought up to assist in the running of the station, and the remains are now half buried in the drifting sand. All that toil, sweat and the eventual heartbreak when the place had to finally be abandoned.

l'll just pretend I was going for a
silhouette shot !

Hard yakka hauling all this machinery to Annandale.
Must have been a busy place in its time.

Still had to observe water rationing but a lot of us were longing to wash our reddirt-caked hair. It just hadn't been possible when you consider that our version of a 'shower' was standing in a bowl and (slowly) pouring one cup of water over ourselves! So the group leaders arranged a big container of waterhole water (a white clayey sludge) which was heated up on the campfire and left to cool for a couple of hours.  After dinner we were invited to fill our bowls and to enjoy.  Now, every single one of us were fairly skeptical at what our hair would be like but, hey, couldn't be any worse than it already was!!  Now, I'm not kidding, but we all came back to the campfire, absolutely glowing! That water was something else, our hair was so soft and silky feeling and looking - no conditioner could compare. Seems because it's content was mostly clay, once it had been boiled and the solids allowed to settle, the remaining water contained certain minerals which had softening properties. This is something I've always remembered - some more enterprising person should follow up on this perhaps, give Pantene a run for their money!


We really look forward to our campfire dinners - get so ravenous. This night's was chicken soup, beef stroganoff and trifle. Tloml and I each had two helpings of the trifle, yum. (Made a special note in my journal that I hoped my darling realises it'll be back to the one pot stews when it's just the two of us on the road!)


Mileage for the day 129km