Madi’s Manoeuvres.

Camp #1 on the Madigan Line to Camp #7. Day 9 – 9 June 2024.

Happy Birthday to Col today. Depart camp at 9:15 dunes ahead.

A lot of moisture in the air, thankfully when the sun crests the horizon everything starts to warm up and dry out.

Driving into the desert yesterday over the dunes with the windows down there was a cacophony of insects and birds. The place is alive with plants, flowers, grasses, shrubs and trees. We have our resident botanists on board, Mary and Col who have knowledge of native plants and it is fun to learn more about the flora out here.

Quick stop and take back at main track to find the marker for Camp 1a.

A few photo stops along the way.

Crawled through a rocky section up Marshall’s bluff, which is a mesa or jump up and you can just see green for miles.

Stopped for lunch about 1:15 at Madigan’s Camp. And both Phil/Mary and my roof racks had slid forward and needed adjustment. Eek. But no damage done.

We found Camp 6 at about 3:30 and decided to head onto Camp 7 about an hour away.

Back on the track at 2:15 with 24 kms till camp.

Saw a hawk of some kind and it posed for ages.

Nice sandy track with many dunes to cross today.

After lunch, I asked Mary Jackson if she ever drove and she said she’d done Big Red once but wasn’t very confident and didn’t want to damage the cars so didn’t drive. Next thing they stopped in front and Col got out and they swapped places and Mary had a drive.

At one of our many stops (for photos or discussions) Brian sat in the passenger seat which was pretty cute and then we sort of peer pressured Ann into the drivers seat, all the females on the trip in the drivers seat for the last 20 kms or so journey to camp.

Unfortunately there was a group in before us. Stef and Steve mooched on over and asked if they minded if we stayed too. We did.

Steve and I topped up my fuel with 30 litres to get it off my roof rack.

Some snacks around the fire to celebrate Col’s birthday, before making green Thai beef curry.

Sat around for a bit and did dishes before filling up hot water bottles for bed.

Lying in bed and looking up to a black night sky littered with stars and the Milky Way partially obscured by my car. What a sight- I really don’t want to go to sleep!