Sat 31st May – Day 23: Dalhousie Springs to Finke via Mt Dare.

As Toby’s latest news topic on Dingos suggested these dogs howl but can learn to bark if domestic dogs are nearby. Since the dingo’s here are totally wild their howls could be heard most of the night and the cacophony of different dingo howls was really quite delightful – I tried unsuccessfully to record their howling but our little Distance Ed tape-recorder just wasn’t up to it.
By 7am we were all up watching the sun creep over the horizon and quickly downing food so we could go lay in the springs again – the mist rising off the water in the cool early morning air was quite eerie. These springs are so cut off from anywhere that they have evolved their own eco-system including 3 species of fish only found here. Called the Dalhousie Goby one species love to come up and grab the hairs on your legs, so Chloe was in a constant giggle. Certainly one fish you WONT see on any Rex Hunt fishing show.
Packing up again we asked the kids if they would like to stay but they are restless too and keen for another destination so back onto the dirt where the road seems to be made entirely of ‘Gibbers’ (a desert surface that is covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble). The constant shaking and jarring are really starting to jangle the nerves, every twist and turn of the track brings larger, sharper ones into view and Pete has a hard time steering around them, we cross our fingers and hope the types hold out!
Lunch stop at Mount Dare where we caught up with a couple from Arckaringa who are going to run the pub for a few months. I felt like a counter lunch and was quite dismayed when all that was on offer were pies, sausage rolls and sandwiches – still a city girl at heart (as if they were going to offer full cooked lunches out here when the next traveller might be 3 hours apart!). Sitting next to us was the CEO of ‘Finke’ who told us some interesting goss on her town and the people who live there – suffice to say I will not publish it here for all the world to read but she was quite dismayed at the way the city folk perceived how things were and their solutions to the problems in the outback.
When we returned to the car we discovered our biggest disaster yet. Not even 4 flat tyres and the entire engine seizing came close. The DVD player had stopped working; yes the unit we had praised as being the worlds best had succumbed to the smash rattle of the last section of road. The look on the kids faces told it all, “We will have to start the Are We There Yet” sprouted Toby, “So what do we do now Dad – look out the window?” snipped Chloe. Mum & Dad were doomed. Not so fast! “Just in Case” Pete to the rescue and within minutes he had identified a faulty power connection and digging into his secret stash all was saved. There is a God!
Finally hit the bitumen at 5:30pm and thankfully pulled into Kulgera Roadhouse for the night, hoping they would sell groceries as stocks at an all time low. No luck on the grocery side but being Saturday night all the boys are in from the outlying stations for their big night out – Pete went off to find all the local goss.
Kulgera Roadhouse (Power $15/night)