A bit of rain overnight, just enough to prevent the road drying out.

Broke camp in the subdued light of misting rain and clouds low over the Mannamana (?) Range (which is the range Lasseter had to race along trying to get to safety at The Olgas before he was forced to wait at the famous Lasseter’s Cave at the eastern end of the range).

Riding from here was hard work all day. The road was basically a channel cut down through the red sand to the natural compacted duricrust about 30 cm down. However, enough rain had fallen to create bog holes and in other places to turn the drifting clayey red sand to mush. In some places you could ride on the duricrust, in others you rode up on the batter on the side of the road and in parts you got off and pushed.

All along there was the sound of wet red sand (which contains a lot of jasper crystals) grinding the disc brake pads and chewing at the chain. Not good.

The Northern Territory does limited maintenance on these red sand roads, especially when they are wet. Until the road becomes impassable, bog holes and other hazards are simply marked and left for cleanup later

At one point a teacher from Docker River drove past on his way to swap students files with teachers from other aboriginal communities where the students had temporarily or permanently moved. ‘See you on the way back’. Sure did. He described how the private education company he works for follows the students around the communities to keep them engaged at schools, different to the state education department which simply fines the parents if the students leave a particular school. He showed me pictures of a dingo that had jogged alongside his car for a while, just seeing what was going on.

Rode and pushed for 64 km before finding a camp on the edge of a gravel pit, the only area with some slope for drainage in an otherwise dead flat, water ponding mulga scrub.