Day 3 Hay River

Day 7 - Day 3 Hay River

Wednesday, 12 September 2012

Still very overgrown and lush (scratchy to some). Not long before we found 'Camp 16' - Madigan's blazed Tree. Madigan blazed his trail in 1939 with 9 men and 19 camels. There was a Visitors book to sign!! Quite a few people had had a plaque stamped up before they did their iconic trip to leave attached to a picket at the site! The blazing on the tree had nearly grown over, but there was a photo of it taken in 1974 that was in the visitors book.

Had to move on. The scenery was starting to become more desert like, lower scrub and we were, although still heading in a generally south direction, starting to cross the dunes, instead of running parallel to them. In fact the first dune took us by surprise as the approach to it wasn't visible. A sharp turn, steep incline and very soft sand, it needed a second run at it. Turned out to be a common approach to the dunes on this section, sharp right hand bend at the base, followed by a left hand turn on the crest. Fun. Found the camels further on. Surprised to see so many, at least 25, but I suspect there could have been a few more scattered around. We were admiring them, but we're reminded they were feral, and probably not doing the native flora/fauna any good. Was a bit more challenging today to find shade for lunch, but it wasn't too hot and it was fine to shelter in the lee of the vehicles.

We made it to Beachcombers camp for the night. This was an old exploratory well from 1988. A bit too much of a 'beach' no trees, so we moved around the corner to set up. We found our first casualties on opening the fridge. It smelt of beer when I opened the medicine chest, sure enough a XXXX gold had self opened, but fortunately only one. Also a couple of cracked eggs - I had forgotten to wedge them down, so was surprised only 2 broken. However, it meant the carton was rather soggy so storage was a problem -solved it by having a large omelette for dinner :) the pumpkin had taken a beating as well, so that was next on the list to be eaten! Another social evening in the delightful company of Inara and Lange.

	Camp 16 -Madigan's Track [Map]		Madigan's Tree [Map]
	Eagle Nest [Map]		Camels on the Simpson [Map]
	Eagle [Map]		Simson Sand [Map]
	The first Dune [Map]		Simpson Flowers [Map]

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