#1: [25-Mar-06]

07-Jun-2008 -- Seeing that we had planned a Western and Central Deserts trip, we again hoped to log as many confluences that we could possibly get to. With all the required approvals in place, this was to be our first confluence visit for our trip. Travelling from the south, we came to the track that we hoped would take us to the confluence. We had two options, a well used track and a track that had not been used for a long time, with a fence line separating the two tracks. Opting to take the well used track, things started out as planned for the first six kilometres.

From this point on, the track that we were now following soon became an overgrown track, and the other track on the other side of the fence became wide and then branched off in the right direction that we wished to take, while the track that we were now following headed further west, with no gate to get through. Looking at the detailed maps that we had, we knew that the fence that we were following would branch off, with the hope of a gate so we could get back onto the right side of the fence and take us back to the correct track. We had to travel for another 2 kilometres before we came to a very old gate in the fence. We now also had another problem to contend with, it was starting to rain, so we made our way back to the correct track and ended up 260 metres west of the confluence. Making our way to the confluence and with fading light, we had the required photos in hand and set off further north to Coober Pedy, where we hoped to log confluence S29 E135. By the time we arrived in Coober Pedy, it was dark, so we set our swags up under the camp kitchen, with the sound of ever increasing rain.

We had a few heavy showers of rain during the night and next morning with 9mm of rain falling during the night, there was no way that we would be able to get out over the very wet and muddy ground to reach S29 E135. This confluence would have to wait for another time and we set of further north for a long drive into the Northern Territory and onto the Mulga Park road and set up camp, knowing that the next day, we should be able to log more confluences.

Continued at 26S-133E