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 gentle slope driving over small spinifex clumps which then gave way to grasslands and a variety spring flowers. I was now attempting to come in from the western approach to the Vale of Tempe. The first couple of kilometres of the terrain was covered in fine grassland, but then once again, I ran into shrubby country which only seems to grow in and amongst the sandstone rocks. Soon the rocks became too large to drive over. Being on my own out there, I was a little worried that I may push my luck too far and decided then and there that I would come back next winter and hopefully bring a friend along driving their own vehicle so that we may try to get closer and if not right into this fabled place.
Back on the faded seismic track over the dunes I watched my digital mapping make a track where none existed. The countryside had low breakaway hills and some stony outcrops before I came out on the track we used some months previously. After that is was about 20km to the Mereenie Loop Road via some ‘Private’ mining roads.
Once back in the main stream of traffic on the Mereenie Loop Road I wondered as the tourists flocked by towing their new vans over the horrendous corrugations and if anyone had told them about the condition of the road?
At Ginty’s Lookout over Morris Pass on the edge of the small escarpment, I looked in vain to see if the Vale of Tempe was visible from that height, but it appears that the rise of the hills in the valley below hides this elusive place.