Day 3

We departed Giles breakaway after a fantastic sunrise and headed to Empress springs.

The Great Central road was quite busy with serval cars heading west, however we only saw two towing campers.

We did a slight detour into Cosmo Newbury and it was interesting to drive through but the Dome cafe I had promised the others was there could not be found so we continued East with the wrecked car count rising to 78 by the time we hit the Empress Springs turn off. 

                                            

Along the road we spotted wallaby's, camels and a dingo that was looking in very bad condition. He was quite timid but allowed us to get close enough for a quick photo before darting off into the desert again.

                                                

The 60klm road into Empress spring proved to be very corrugated and sandy in a lot of places. the track is narrow and provides little option to avoid the ruts and bumps, deteriorating over the last 30 klms to where we were down to 20kph in places and 4h to drag the Jayco through the sand. We managed to arrive at the Spring mid afternoon. 

 Austin and I climbed down the ladder 25 feet to the bottom, I graciously allowed Austin to go first then once he was down asked him to check for any live snakes and things that have been known to fall into the hole before descending myself. Lots of animal bones at the bottom but no water. I expect if we had cleared some sand away we would have found some if desperate, like David Carnegie was when they were shown this spring by an aboriginal male they captured on their expedition. The extract from the book someone had kindly left with the visitors book was an informative read into their trials in this area.

The views across the desert from the top of the ridges were  beautiful and there was a lot of evidence of camels and other wild animals frequenting this area.

Great campfire during the night with everyone telling tales of their  proposed trips and journeys to be undertaken.  I even saw my first shooting star for the trip. Nothing can beat a clear desert night sky and a glass of red or two around the fire.

                                   

   

After a very cold morning we continue.