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 First Across the Desert 2012
21 February 2012
Three weeks from today and I’ll be arriving in William Creek, wonder what we will find? The weather Gods are really dishing it out to those of us on the east coast at present and from what I can see via the weather maps, outback Sth Australia is still very hot with temps around 40 degrees. I notice thunderstorms are also forecast for Central Australia. The heat is one thing but rain can really cause us problems, so we don’t want too much of it. Floods in Qld and NSW are being closely monitored, more from the point of view and how we will get back home after reaching Birdsville. Looks like Wilcannia will be isolated around 23 March which means no access from Broken Hill. Our original route through Thargomindah and Ford’s Bridge to Bourke is likely to be out of bounds also. Bourke will be flooded in about a week and it is expected to last for 2 weeks. So it will be very touch and go as to whether we will get through. We will just have to keep monitoring the situation.
A bit of a setback for our film crew, government authorities want way too much money to allow filming around Dalhousie Springs, sometimes these people make it too hard for people like us to provide valuable and free advertising for their areas, I wonder when they will recognise the value of tourism and what something like our little adventure can do for them at absolutely no cost at all?
On a personal front, apart from making sure all our gear and the Landcruiser will be ready for the trip I decided I had better visit the dentist to make sure I had no problems that could get really ugly in the Desert. Well, now I’ve got to see him again just 4 days before we leave to have a nasty couple of holes in my teeth attended, and he said if the filling doesn’t work he may have to extract, not happy at all about that! And with it being so close to departure I’m worried things might not go well. Not much I can do about that though, just keep the fingers crossed.
The waiting to get my hands on the new 200 series Landcruiser is difficult, there is so much to be done and so little time, next week is going to be crazy that is for sure.
Vic Widman
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