Day 122: Fri 20 Aug - Eromanga to The Dig Tree (another new road for us), 396 km; total towed: 15 470 km

7-26 deg C, fine and sunny with a nice tail wind for most of the day

After our morning cuppa, we relocated the van all of 100m up the road to the potable water tap to refill the water tanks of the van and the spare in the back of the Cruiser. Whilst that was happening, we had breakfast. We were on the road just after 8 am heading in the direction of The Dig Tree.  Mornos was had on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Onwards we travelled until we reached the Dig Tree turnoff.  As there’s no fuel anywhere near the Dig Tree, we had to watch our fuel situation very carefully.  We worked out that we’d be cutting it too fine if we went directly there and then back to Noccundra, the nearest servo.  We decided not to chance our luck, rather to refuel at Noccundra (27 km past the turnoff) and then back track to the turnoff to The Dig Tree.  Nothing worse than cutting it too fine and then worrying if you are going to make it, or not! 

Lunch was taken at the Cooper Creek Bridge pullover on the road to The Dig Tree. It was then only another 80 km to our destination for today. The road, which is also the road to Innamincka, is now fully sealed (not what our maps told us) and very good in the main. Although the last 14 km through the Nappa Merrie Station is not sealed and very rough. Kind of reminded us of our trip into King Ash Bay, where you must drive with one set of wheels in the grass on the side of the road to avoid the corrugations and potholes. Anyway, we made it to The Dig Tree free camp at 3 pm, a big, tough day on the road for a relatively short distance.  However, initially we took it fairly slowly trying to conserve fuel, but as it turned out we need not have bothered.  It also takes longer when the road is mostly single-lane, and you have to either pull over and stop to let people pass or slow right down for oncoming traffic.  

After setting up camp, we were in need of a nice cuppa tea, aaah that’s better.  Greg got his bike off and went for a ride to find the wild camels we had seen on the drive in.  He located them not far from our camp and they didn’t seem too bothered by his presence, however he didn’t press his luck with the bulls.  Wendy walked to The Dig Tree site and very informative signage to explore the history of the Burke and Wills fateful expedition. 

Lots of animals today, we saw sheep, cattle, emus, camels and one live kangaroo.  No fresh dead ones thank goodness.  The scenery changed from flat to undulating, to flat and barren, to flat and some plant life, regularly, very interesting in that respect.  Saw plenty of gas and oil installations, there’s always something we can dig or suck up from this barren land.