August 4^th

What a great day! We have made good progress with out travel distance and the roads have been very much improved. Onwards south down the Voakes Hill road. It continued to be overgrown in some places but gradually there were more open sections. This made for much better time. EC glides over this wonderful dune country. The fine red sand is easy to drive on. The bush is varied with dense sections and more open areas covered in pink and white daisies, some wattles and some cassia. We have been looking for a couple of specific eucalypt trees so our eyes and thoughts were on the details of these trees.

We found a couple of huge tank sheds, one of which gave us plenty of clear water and the other had damaged tanks and no water. Behind the first tank John was alert enough to find ‘Eucalyptus beadellii’. This is a rare tree found in a small area along the track on which we are travelling.

We found the other tree along the track.  ‘Eucalyptus vokesensis’ or commonly known as Vokes Hill Mallee is found in only this area of Australia. It is very attractive and to my delight had beautiful blooms on display. It was quite dense in several swales with its large glaucous leaves and straggly shape. John picked a wonderful Anniversary bouquet for me!

My anniversary bouquet!

The drive today was really attractive over the red dunes with a huge variety of trees and bushes. Eventually the road changed with patches of rough limestone to go over. The sandy dunes of the Great Victoria Desert are gradually changing to the limestone of the Nullarbor Plains. We are camped amongst a patch of Casuarina trees. Already the wind has been whistling through them. The dry timber has made us a very hot campfire. Both John Harrison and I have made loaves of bread this evening.

We are hoping to arrive in Ceduna on Friday to have our tyres patched ready for our trip home. We are lucky to have had  John A. helping us sort our tyre problems. It has been very unlucky to damage 3 tyres beyond an easy patch. John eventually decided to have the damaged tyres patched with tubes inserted as new tyres are not available.

Blooms & leaves of Voke's Hill mallee