Day 17 big dunes and clay pans

Day 17 CSR A big day today, we drove 83 kms from well 26 where we camped last night to Georgia Bore, 10 kms north of well 22, where we are camped tonight. It was very warm last night and the thermometer read 17 degrees at 6.30 am. Most of the day we have had cloud cover and a sharp wind. Our first stop after leaving the well this morning was a really big sand dune which we walked to the top of and spent half an hour exploring, enjoying the views and taking photos. We continued on crossing three of the biggest dunes on the CSR. One reported to measure 13.9 m . We crossed them easily and continued on towards well 25.  We came across a really cool clay pan with lots of cracked dry mud with groovy patterns on it. We all had a play around there for 15 minutes before the last little bit into well 25. Well 25 was a surprise with most it still intact. The troughing was still held in place with timber supports and the windlass was more or less identifiable. The well had collapsed and filled in. So no water. On our way to well 24 we came across 3 vehicles parked at the base of a dune and one vehicle stuck on top of the dune! The ladies standing around waiting told us the guy stuck on top in the patrol had had four goes at getting over and that there was a Toyota prado with a T-van camper trailer on tow. Once the Patrol was over he was used by the Prado as an anchor point and the Prado driver winched  himself  and camper trailer over. The camper trailer people were not traveling with the the other 4 vehicles. By the time we got to have a go at the track it was chopped to pieces. We drove over easily with a little more revs than usual. Jon had a go next but as the dune was so powdery and damaged he had two goes before backing down and deflating his tyres a little more. Once over we parked at the very end of the run up for the dune and had lunch!  Lunch was cut short by rain! We quickly packed everything up, jumped in the cars and headed on down to well 24. The rain didn't last long, but the skies were threatening and ominous for most of the afternoon.  Well 24, Curara soak is a hole in the ground filled with water. The water was not potable but obviously keeps the local wildlife population from going thirsty. It was a little hard to find this well, so we dragged out the GPS and found via the coordinates on the map. There is a rocky, slatey outcrop above the well which we climbed and had a bit of an explore around. There was evidence of aboriginal tool making at this site which was a lot more convincing than the last  one. We found some cutting type tool and some scratch and run marks on flat rocks. Another vehicle came through the car park while we up exploring. Back on the track toward well 23. We drove through little spits of rain and more big black clouds. Well 23 barely exists, just a few bits and pieces of metal and a big square hole in the ground filled with dirt. We drove the 1km into the fuel dump for a look around. There were about 10 drums there. Nothing like last time when the place was littered with them. Onto Georgia Bore to camp the night. The road was straight and very corrugated. It didn't take long to get there with speeds of around 60 kms/hr. shortly after we arrived 5 more vehicles pulled in to camp the night. We were having a chat to one of their drivers when a second ground of 3 vehicles pulled in and proceeded to camp on top of us! I politely showed them that there was another bigger and better camp site to the south of us. One of the drivers was not happy about me pointing that fact out to him....he got offended that I didn't want three cars parked next to our tent. He got the hint though and they are now camped about 250m away. Kerrin and Jon have collected firewood and prepared the BBQ for an after dinner fire. Soup with noodles for dinner for us. It is a warm evening so far.......