Today we made it to our highlight of the 2009 Great Escape, The Burke & Wills Dig Tree, which was also our lunch stop today. The Burke and Wills ‘Dig Tree’ is one of Australia's national icons and an enduring reminder of the pioneering spirit and extreme harshness of the Aussie outback – which also sums up the spirit of our 2009 Great Escapers.

As a bit of background …  the ‘Dig Tree’ is a Coolabah tree and is the site of a Burke and Wills depot camp where they left supplies on their way up to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

On their late return everyone had left and carvings were made in the tree where supplies had been buried. It is thought that the word ‘Dig’ was one of the messages on the tree, indicating where to dig.

In 1898 John Dick carved Burke’s face into another tree (The Face Tree) about 30 metres downstream of the ’Dig Tree’. Amazingly the site is just as Burke and Wills and companions would have seen it nearly 140 years ago.

The landscape out here has been flat and open and reminds us that we are moving into a very remote area of Queensland. For those avid followers of the rally on the webpage it is the remoteness of this year’s rally that is causing havoc with sending through photos for loading on the webpage. This just highlights – it’s a long way from anywhere out here!

This update is being written as everyone is relaxing at tonight’s camp site.  Although fairly basic everyone is just happy just to chill out, catch yabbies and swim in Coopers Creek. Our campsite tonight is on Durham Downs castle station, which is owned by the Kidman Company. 

These camping nights are some of the best nights on the rally where as a group we get to enjoy the great Aussie outback.