We Travelled All Day Without A
Break So That They Should Have The Longer To Look For Feed At Night,
Then
we always hunted for tracks and water on foot, and when we found water,
gave it to the camels
Before looking after our own wants, and he thought
we might do longer stages straight ahead so long as we had a native. I
held, and I think the outcome of the journey proved me correct, that our
own well-being was a secondary consideration to that of our animals, for
without them we should be lost. "Slow but sure" was my motto.
Though anxious to make as much northing as possible I did not feel
justified in passing by almost certain water for the sake of a few hours.
I felt always that we might come into an even more waterless region
ahead, and perhaps be unable to find any natives. Some twelve miles
brought us to the well - the smoke had been beyond it - and a more wretched
spot I never saw. Absolutely barren, even of spinifex, were the high
ridges of sand between which was the well - merely a small, round hole,
with no signs of moisture or plant life about it, not a tree "within
cooee." We had to go far to collect enough wood for a fire, and cut two
sticks with which to rig up a fly to shade us from the sun - a purely
imaginary shade, for light duck is of little use against the power of
such a burning sun; but even the shadow cast by the fly gave an
appearance of comfort.
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