Day 50 - Wauchope (pronounced wau-cupp)

Had a lovely night last night alongside the waterhole. Another couple came in just on dusk but didn't talk to them as they camped well away. This was at sunset...

And at sunrise this morning...

To get back to the van we did a loop via a 4WD road and even Percy scrapped his bottom a few times. The first 75km took 2 1/2 hours - very large stony sections together with some reasonable bits - but through some lovely countryside...

and came upon an abandoned mine...

It mined tungsten and started during World War 1 as they needed it for steel making & bullets. The ore was taken by camel train to the railhead at Oodnadatta (a very long journey). Then it was reopened for World War 2 - then restarted for a period during the 1960's. Faye went searching for quartz & Ken had a hard time keeping it to a small amount...

This is one of the better sections of road near where we had morning tea...

From all our travels this was the first time we have seen wild donkeys - they were in several places and were hard to photo without our good camera but these 2 came up closer to have a look at us...

Arrived back at Wauchope for a late lunch. Faye has done some washing & going to the restaurant for tea tonight after 3 days in the bush. Not sure whether we will get to Alice Springs tomorrow - may stay at a roadhouse somewhere. Hopefully we will get some mobile reception tomorrow to upload the last 4 days blog.