n Resort, and driving out from the Watarrka National Park, I swung the Datto to the west once again along a very faint track that was most likely the start of a seismic track further along.
Having digital mapping at my disposal on the dashboard it a great help in find a route across open country. However, the mapping does not always relate from the map to what’s actually on the ground. My government maps with a scale of 1 to 250,000 is the best that I can afford but I would really like better mapping and will endeavour to get some soon.
Digital mapping makes searching for places a whole lot easier.
The Vale of Tempe is marked on my maps and it looks relatively easy to access. I had permission to enter the land area and looking at the map decided to see if I could get up and over a relatively easy ridge. Or so it seemed. On the plains the country had shrubs, buffel grass and majestic eucalypts. I started heading towards the flood-out of a marked creek and crossed over a shallow part before starting to slowly climb the rise. At first the rise was gentle and with few obstacles other than low mulga flora and other shrubs but then the further I went the bigger the mulga became. I started picking my way through the trees and the branches made horrific scratching sounds on the door panels. Still thinking that I had a good chance to clear the obstacles ahead and went even further and then got into some rough sandstone rock country to boot and with daylight showing over the bonnet of the Datto I decided to stop to see where I was at. Just as well I did as I was now very close to a sheer drop of 50 metres or so. Ahead of me was a large fallen tree stump and forward movement was no longer an option. So I decided to turn around and head back down the hill.
The Vale of Tempe in the distance……. so close and yet so far
Easier said than done. After a 9 point turn of forward and reverse I was facing in the right direction again but could not see where I had come from as the trees had stood up again. Then I got the Datto stuck on some rocks and after much mucking around I finally got going again. It took 10 minutes to get to where I turned around and half an hour to get back to level ground. I then drove along a valley which rose slowly in the west. A road grader had been that way a long time ago but the surface was very washed out by rain over the years. I picked my way in and out of the gullies until I came to a clearing where there was some short dry grass and gidgee wood on the edges. I could see an old wheel track rising over a sand dune as I was now entering into the dune field again. I decided to camp in the clearing for the night. I set up camp and also refuelled from my supply of diesel stored in jerrycans for this purpose.
Just on dusk I heard a strange noise and looked up to see a very large horse approaching my camp. It stopped about a 150 metres from me and snorted loudly. Then it ran in a semi-circle around my camp with its tail up and shaking its innards making a loud noise. It stopped every 100 metres or so stomping its hooves and snorting loudly. Once it was back in line of its original course it came closer for a while making loud snorting noises. After about 10 minutes it obviously decided that I was harmless and trotted off into the fading light. I have since learned that this horse may be related to Waler Horses which are now running wild on stations and aboriginal land surrounding Watarrka National Park. The Waler is Australian bred and combines a variety of breeds; particularly the Thoroughbred, Arab, the Cape Horse, the Timor Pony and perhaps a little Clydesdale or Percheron. At present there is a horse eradication program being conducted on Tempe Downs Station.
The night was deadly quiet and after my crackling fire had died down all I could hear was my own breathing. Just before sunrise a Mopoke Owl stirred me as it started its haunting call in the distance.
By the time I had breakfast the bushflies were becoming friendly and I packed up and got going.
After I had crested the first sand dune I turned south along a