Sunrise at Purnie Bore

Morning camp was no different, bug wise, from the night before. Thus after checking out the spring, which runs at 80 degrees Celsius and the wonderful plethora of birdlife, it was back into the cars, knowing that Dalhousie Springs was not too far off, and our next rest spot.

Just some of the amazing birdlife found at and around Purnie Bore.

The track out to Dalhousie is another shocker....some sections great, but the rest through the gibber plains was tedious while fun (in a slippery slidey kind of way)

We pull into Dalhousie, easily recognised by the million vehicles camped there, and head straight for the spring. This place is the classic Desert Oasis, complete with palm trees.

Ahhhhh...After 3 days in the desert, this is living!!

The main pool runs at about 32 degrees Celsius and was absolute bliss. Was floated around (beer in hand of course) for about an hour. We then wandered off to find the source of the spring, a small bubbling hole in the ground surrounded by lush greenery. 

You wouldn't believe that lovely pool was fed by this little thing....

We all decided that everyone travelling from West to East would be really pissed off at the end of the crossing of the Simpson. We crossed it and ended up in this magical oasis of Dalhousie...everyone travelling the other way, would end up in Birdsville....dry and hot, then have another couple of hundred kays of crap track till they hit Quiplie or Charlieville...   If you are going to make this trip, do yourself a favour and go East West. Forget the stories about it being hard, for I think the desert has had that much traffic, it makes no difference.

There were too many people for our liking so we pushed on and decided that Alice would be our stop for the night.

On the way, we stopped at Mt Dare for fuel and a rest. I can honestly say they have the best steak sambo's ever...... If you go through here and don't have one...you are missing out. From here we headed towards Finke, then out to the Stuart Highway (Kulgera). On the way we passed a sign pointing out the "Geographical Centre of Australia" and could not resist.

Yay...the Centre of Australia..!!!

After standing in the middle and doing the obligatory photo thing (and some small circle work) we were back under way to Kulgera.

From there it was a boring stint till we saw the lights of Alice (yes it was dark already)

We pulled into a flashy hotel and treated ourselves to beer and seafood.

DAY 7: Thursday 21st September

We dropped James' car into a 4X4 place to get the leaf packs tightened up etc, then spent the rest of the day doing a bit of shopping and lazing by the pool. Much needed rest and the starting point for the next leg of the journey.