Fri 30th May – Day 22:Dalhousie Springs

The largest collection of artesian springs in Australia, it was easy to see why this area was so important to the aboriginal people, namely the ‘Wangangkurru’. We convinced the kids to finish some school work before venturing across to the springs and boy was it worth the wait – at 39C it is just like a spa only the size of about 3 Olympic swimming pools and up to 14m deep in places! Some kind person had donated pool noodles and we all floated around lazily for about an hr. Back at camp the local dingos were making the rounds of recently vacated campsites so we saw quite a few very skinny dogs up close and personal.
A quick trip in the car to see the Dalhousie Ruins (remains of a homestead, workman’s quarters & blacksmiths shop built of local limestone between 1872 and 1885 – they bred horses and actually tried growing lucerne!), but we ended up poking around there until just before sunset when another dip in the springs became a necessity. The pool had now been descended upon by a group of German backpackers who had turned an old inner tube into a floating bar. Sitting in the hot springs their flushed faces continued to turn a brighter shade of red the more beers they consumed. Their link with nature was complete as they pulled out a packet of obviously waterproof smokes and puffed away while floating around the pristine pool. With the sounds of an impending ‘omm pah pah band’ about to fire up we left for our camp. Wood collection on the way home allowed us a brilliant camp fire with BBQ pork ribs, dingo’s slinking close by and the stars a twinkling overhead! We had earlier finished the last audio book cd set of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, so we had a night at the movies moving the DVD player into the van and all cuddling up under the doona’s for the movie version of the same name. I must say, and we all agreed, the audio book was much better, and it helped fill in many spare hours on the road.
Dalhousie Springs (Witjira National Park $15/night)