We spent the morning provisioning and packing, the afternoon driving, early evening setting up camp. Now we're parked in the desert, a a few hundred feet away from the Finke Trail.
Another tedious logistic morning. Ling and I went BiLo and bought groceries for the trip (although I fear I may have been a bit spare. Can imagine we're looking at a lean lunch or two sometime). Matt, Mom and Dad went to Alice Springs K-Mart and bought various bits of equipment and kit we'd need. After a tedious lunch at Bar Doppio (but damn, their espresso roast is really nice) we hit the road, which by now was 1300. At the Mobil Station we went to to top off our tanks their pump (to us) seemed spoiled as it dribbled diesel in at a shockingly slow rate. The manager came out and painstakingly coaxed in the diesel, alloing time for the foam to settle, etc. It drove Matt and Ling into a tizzy waiting, so they took the second truck up the street and filled it at Woolworths, where the pump worked fine.
Finally, finally made it to the Finke route and headed off, right from the start line! The track was narrow "singletrack" generally of undulatin red clay or undulating red sand. These whoops can really pound it out of you. The cheap styrofoam cooler we had lasted perhaps twenty minutes before it exploded. It was 20-40kmh driving for the better part of the trip, until we got to the South Road and then it was flat enough where you could really wind it out (theoretically). Along the way we found an abandoned car in the middle of the road (someone had helpfully stolen the radio and left the door open of course...) The driving wasn't very hard, technically. The one dune we encountered we plowed straight up with no problem.
Shortly I will dump my map track to save some of the route documentation.
About an hour before sunset I pulled over into a wide flat area to make camp. We had the tents set up pretty quickly, a charcoal fire going in a pit (hint: use lots and lots of tinder), and a washing station.
Dinner was some steak, beans, corn&peas, coffee, sweet-potatoes-baked-in-the-earth, and some chocolate biscuits.
Now it's dark, the stars are out in amazing force despite the enormous fire that is blinding us. The other amazing thing is that it is still shirt-sleeves warm outside. Two months ago at this time, we were freezing our asses off. The day doesn't seem to get much over 80 -- it is very pleasant.
After I finish up my blog and sort out our waypoints download, I'll unleash the new digeridoo I bought this afternoon while in town. My parents don't know I have it.
Other irritating things... I forgot to packl my hardcopy topo map of the finke course.... My GPS click stick is still somewhat intermittent. I hit it fiercly with my fist and that fixed it once.