July 23rd

What an interesting morning we had. It started early with a guy driving a truck calling into see us as we were packing our camp. He was Robin, the manager of the Maralinga complex, checking to see whether we had a  permit to allow us into the Oak Valley/Maralinga area. Yes, all was in order so we had quite a long chat to him about the area. It is great to learn from local people.

The road south was excellent..gravel then bitumen. There is a Mineral Sands mine operating in the area..so hence the very good road.

We crossed the Trans Continental Railway line at Ooldea. This is where the famous Mrs Daisy Bates lived. Between the rail lines there is a memorial to her which reads 'Daisy Bates 1859-1951. Devoted her life the welfare of Australian Aborigines'. Evidently she always wore a long dress with long sleeves and a high collar. An amazing lady to be living so far away from civilization.

The Nullarbor salt bush plains provided very little interest after the Mallee country. The plains are very dry at present. The two dingoes we saw were extremely thin and appeared to be starved from lack of available food.

We continued south and reached the Eyre Highway at Colona. I felt sad to leave the inland desert country.

Internet contact was soon available so we stopped about fifteen km west of Penong to post several blogs.

Tonight we are camped at Point Sinclair with the roar of the waves in our ears. We still have internet contact.

Sunset over Cactus Beach, Point Sinclair