We wake early and cram down some food. The Disco gets loaded up with all the jerries of fuel and water (around 180 litres of fluid), an 80 litre fridge, tools, bins of bits, recovery gear and anything else that would fit. Lucky I had pulled out the back seats for the trip.

I had my concerns on how the Disco would drive with all this additional weight, but the Bilsteins and heavy duty coils (from Graeme Coopers) were easily up to the task. Underway, and all seemed to be going well. We hit the K1 junction and headed down towards to Rig Road. What an easy track....almost blissful after the dunes. Only twice requiring me to drag the 2WD Hilux up the last 10 metres of a dune.

The 2WD Toyota only struggled over 2 dunes

We continued on, passing numerous vehicles (For such a desolate and remote place, I find it hard to believe we passed around 50 oncoming vehicles over 3 days). We hit the Rig Road and turned west. 

You would think there is stuff all out here by the looks of it....

..but it was not hard to find some wildlife.

Not too far into the track, James again radios that the other split leaf is gouging his tyre and needs to be pulled.

Great... another few hours under the midday sun, temps topping 40. After much cursing, hitting of things and stripped bolts, nuts and fingers, we finally have it all back together. We figure it is not great, but will get us to Alice. We aimed (by hook or by crook) to camp at Purnie bore that evening.

It is dark as we approach Purnie, following a dingo as he casually makes his way down the track...moving to the side to let us through, this dog may as well be domesticated, as he really could not care less if we were beside him or not.

I hate setting up camp at night, but this is what we had to do at Purnie. The teasing sound of running water bubbled away in the background. Camp was set, and James and I made our way to the mudhole to wash away the last 3 days worth of sand and grit. Shallow with a muddy bottom, it was bliss...aahhhhhhhhh

Never have I encountered so many bugs in one sitting. As I write in my journal, I have to keep sweeping the pages of bugs so I can see where I am writing. Every 10 minutes I have to stand and shake to remove the bugs, so that they can again start to burry me in a ritual resembling something off "Guinness Book of Records - Prime Time"