Author: W. H. Tietkens

Publisher:

Published: 2016-06-23

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 9781332621378

Excerpt from Journal of the Central Australian Exploring Expedition, 1889 The journey of about 1,054 miles from Adelaide to Bond Springs was of an uneventful character. The camels to be used upon the expedition, belonging to Messrs. Chewings, were in readiness at the Peake, which is the present terminus of the railway line from Adelaide, and as the greater portion of the stores were lying at Bond Springs, having been left there by the first expedition when recalled to Adelaide, the camels were not burdened with stores From the Finke to Bond Springs the weather was extremely hot, the thermometer for several days recording 172 in the sun, and upon one occasion 178 .The sand was so intensely hot that the camels were unable to stand still during our short halt for midday meals. The heat, dust, and flies by day, and the ants by night, during the last 100 miles of the journey, made life anything but agreeable, and we were thankful when we sighted our temporary home at Bond Springs We could now fairly anticipate that the hot season would be succeeded by cool weather, and that our Journey to the westward would be in the cool season. The stores left at Bond Springs were found to be thrown together in a disgraceful state, and I was much grieved on examining the flour to find our principal article of food for the next four months to be both wevilled and maggotty. During our stay here several men came in from the alluvial goldfields, about seventy miles to the eastward. The largest nugget I saw weighed about 5dwts. These diggers were not particularly sanguine of the success of the new field. The water was fast drying up, and rations were at a ruinous, price. At the new township of Stuart there were four stores, and a public house was in the course of erection. At Alice Springs I had the pleasure of meeting with a veteran explorer in the person of John Ross, aged 72 years, who is still hale, active, and strong. Took a number of photographs of the station and neighborhood during my stay here. Having completed the re-packing of the stores, and all the preliminaries having been arranged for a four months journey, on March 13th, I went down to the Alice Springs telegraph station to forward dispatches and to receive any letters or parcels that might have arrived by the mail which reached there last night. Returned to Bond Springs, which is twelve miles north of Alice Springs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."