We are up early to attend the dawn service, it was one of the best we have attended with many members of the community participating in the ceremony. We are invited to a free breakfast at thè Humpty Cafe adjoining the Birdsville road house.

Rain has settled to occasional mist and the tracks are officially open and forecast is for rain tomorrow, floods for central Queensland possible showers for Birdsville and Mt Dare has had little rain. The authorities advise the desert track is open. We make the decision to head west across the desert aiming to cross the Lake Poeppel before any more rain hits Birdsville . We pass occasional travellers and chat to one camped at Eyre creek, most are heading east having travelled from Mt Dare.

The desert is so green and there is plenty of water to be found in the swales (those flat areas between the dunes). The weather looks like it is going to deteriorate so we travel on crossing many of the larger lakes that cover the track before stopping for the night. The track crosses the lakes that are generally dry but in places slippery mud can be found. We pull up before the rain and make camp, rain started as mist then steadily progressed to steady rain. While we were camped on sand where rain has little impact the concern was we still had a few salt lake crossings to make. Large centipedes are about, normally foraging below the surface they are now scurrying about our feet looking for safe dry ground, some are about 10cm long. We have a warm dinner our beds are dry and we listen to the rain. No stars tonight just dark skies and rain. Come to the desert they say, it doesn’t rain.