and yet another for day 12. fuck we love you long time!

[lupine]
day 12 coober pedy to cowards springs.
left a bit later today because we're only planning on going a few hundred K's down the road. went into town and fueled up at the miners co-op foralmost 30c/litre less than the mobil in the main street wanted to charge us, then straight to the wiliams creek road for the run to wiliams creek. what a fantastic section of road, very smooth fast clay based road that was super quick to ride. we had to keep reminding ourselve to slow down as it was a dirt road and we didn'tknow when the surface would change. a few times we hit washouts or sandy sections but all in all, super quick. met very little traffic, and never saw anything heading our way. did see a swag laying by the side of the orad though. we didn't stop and a klik down the road a 4x4 coming towards us waved us down. he'd lost a swag and was coming back to try and find it. we pointed him in the right direction and headed on. when we got to william creek to refuel and have lunch we met 3 guys coming from maree on bikes, a 640 adventure, a DR and a KLR. they looked tobe having some fun but weren't enjoying the roads as much as we were i think. the KLR was on it's first longish dirt trip and h'e layed it over a few apparantly. we also saw a 4x4 truck with a trailer and a bunch of guys with a LOT of film equipment. turns out they are driving from tasmania to norway in a truck powere3d by biodeisel made from old frying oil. they stop at pubs and roadhouses and try and beg , then turn it into the fuel for the truck. they also had a couls of the zero electric trail bikes on the trailer but they looked like they had been pretty compreshensively fucked up. the guy with the missing swag showed up as we were leaving. he'd found it ok.
coward springs is a warm well that flows into an area bordered by old sleepers and rail ties. it's been plumbed to make a cool little spa thing that you can get in. it's about 1.5M a side and about the same deep. pretty much blood temperature and has a lot of sand in it. it's cool, secluded and if you keep watch you don't need anything to swim in and you can fool around. i love this place. the coward springs camp grounds are well worth the visit. cost $10 per person, but it's a great place to stop. with any luck we'll be up early and make lyndhurst around lunch time. then straight into the strezlechi track. that's the one i'm waiting for.