All the useable deserts Down Under are salt lakes, of which the 2 most promising are Lake Gairdner (400 km north of Adelaide) and Lake Eyre (700 km north of Adelaide). Both lakes are long enough, although access (down 2-300 km of gravel track for each lake) is somewhat challenging, as are the summer temperatures – Andy struggled through 41 deg C at Lake Eyre, with the heat still up at 38 deg at 7 o’clock in the evening! Apart from that, the clouds of flies, and the lack of food, drink, shade and other human beings for at least 100 km in every direction, it was the perfect winter sunshine break…

Unfortunately, rain in December meant that Lake Gairdner was still wet in places, so the survey was inconclusive. Lake Eyre also remains uncertain, with soft mud shorelines preventing vehicle access to the lake itself. When dry, the salt appears excellent and would be ideal for BLOODHOUND, but how often and for how long is it dry? Without an answer to that question, we still don’t know where we can run BLOODHOUND and when.

A full report of the trip and the 2 lakes will be published in the ‘Desert Search’ section.