French Line – Simpson Desert Track – Day 1

Tuesday 29th June 2021
Well the day started with the howling dingoes at 5.30am. Then we enjoyed a sunrise bath in the hot springs. This was a beautiful start to the morning. Then it was time too get ready for the long-awaited Simpson Desert trek. Woohoo! Off we go.

It was a great day of ever-changing scenery, track colour, ruts, dunes, sand, vegetation, rocks, washouts, hills and track difficulty. We are so lucky to be doing this drive after some rainfall. The vegetation is varied in colour and there is so much more life than had there not been the rains of late.

We had lunch by Purni Bore – the accidental lake. The creation of Purni Bore was the result of drilling by the French Petroleum Company in 1963. They came to explore the rocks strata beneath the Great Artesian Basin. The bore was drilled to a depth of 1880m, then capped and sealed. Eventually the well head corroded and water flowed at 128 litres per second and an artificial lake was soon created. The water flowing out of the bore is 85°C.

I was the only girl to have a drive today. I was pretty average but with some tuition Iimproved as time went on. Had a bit of excitement on two dunes, after the crest the down hill was a bit fast for me. It was a great day. Followed by a lovely night  under the stars, by the fire with great company.

We travelled about 100km today in about 6 hours, it was pretty slow going. Our only repair was the flag today which came off whilst I was driving down one of the ones. Lucky it didn’t damage the car nor go under it and break. It had just bumped itself loose until it just fell off.

Distance travelled on the Simpson Desert Track today – 105km