We made it to Billiluna this morning during their operating hours and bought 30.77 liters of fuel. Why such a strange amount? Well the rules for buying fuel at Billiluna are, you tell them how many liters you want, they will work out the price of that and round it to the nearest A$10, then give you a fuel card for that amount for which you must lodge a $5 deposit, you take the card out to the pump and dispense the fuel, then return the card and get your $5 deposit back. It turned out that 30.77 liters was almost too much I had to dribble the last 0.77 liters into both tanks to get it all in. But, non the less, we now definitely had enough fuel.

Why the photo of the tires?. Well abandoned tires on the side of the road are a feature of all the gravel roads we have driven on so far. They are a mute testiment to how tough gravel roads are on tires. But it is not only the tires we see it is also wheels or rims (the metal part that the rubber tire is mounted to). The roads are so rough that it is almost impossible to tell that you have developed a flat tire. Hence often a driver keeps driving on a flat tire. Eventually the metal rim cuts through the rubber tire and the tread part of the tire separates from the sidewalls, as in the last photo. By then the driver has probably noticed that something is wrong, but it's too late; not only has the tire been destroyed but the metal wheel is probably damaged beyond repair as well. This makes flat tires very expensive and tire pressure monitors a valuable accessory.

The town of Balgo is the home to a well established aboriginal art community and gallery. It is sometimes claimed to be the most remote art gallery in the world. You might have also noted that car hoods or bonnets (the part that covers the engine) make a desirable art canvas.

Our camp for the night was simply a patch of flat ground a few hundred yards off the road where we could see some evidence of previous campers.

Late in the afternoon a curious dingo came past to look us over and while we thought he went away we heard that or some other dingo howling during the night.

I stayed up later than usual tonight watching the after glow of the sun slowly disappear and the Southern Cross appear and then the blazing band of the milky way. The Australian desert is a wonderful place to watch the stars; no moisture and no light pollution.