How smart are we? The main race is today, we went yesterday, now we're broke, and we will head to Windorah before the crowd....right? Wrong! There were plenty of other smart people who left town before rush-day! That said, there was a NW wind blowing which meant that 95% of the way we had clean air, but the bull-dust was thick and we travelled at about 65klm most of the 230klm of dirt road.
 
The countryside changes often on this track from red sand-hills, to white sand-hills, to red rocks on Sturts Stoney Desert (not named for it's oasis we assure you). On the way we detoured to the old road (is there a difference in quality....noooo!) to Beetoota where there be once a pub, run by an old German and neither are alive today. We stopped to meet old Wilhelm 21 years ago and the pub was a ruin then, but at least it had beer. Gone!
 
During the day we detected some strange smells, like hot plastic and when we checked the whole right hand rear chassis was really hot, also the rear wheel! We continued about 30 minutes till we hit the black top and checked again, still hot! Also we had lost our indicators, and the car brakes were like sponge and the van brakes did not work!


 
 
With 130klm to go to Windorah we checked every 20 minutes and allowed things to cool. On one stop Roscoe noted that a Earth wire and mount seemed particularly hot and so felt it was electrical, so we began disconnecting various appliances, including the caravan but to no avail. 

Windorah finally approached, however, it was sad to learn that the town has no mechanic or electrician! By the process of elimination it didn't seem to be electrical, so we took off the rear wheel and checked that the brakes were & bearings ok. No problem there.....??? Time for a rum'n'coke and dinner. Tomorrow's another day!