Day 3: Noccundra (QLD) to Montecollina Bore (SA)

(Mina): Today we did a huge amount of driving! But all the fuss was worth it. We started from Noccundra and went all the way into South Australia. On the way, we stopped at the Dig Tree. We learnt in our "car school" the story about Burke and Wills before we got there, so we knew that the Dig Tree was the place where some people had buried food under the ground when they gave up waiting for Burke and Wills to get back from their expedition.

When we got there there was a huge creek next to it (Cooper Creek). You couldn't see the word "Dig" anymore but you could still see some other carvings.

Not long after the Dig Tree we got to South Australia! We started driving on the Strzelecki Track, which was a bumpy, jaggedy road that had rocks covering it. It was so bumpy that Tam and Holger’s kitchen came unlocked and their table fell out! We didn't even find it! So we had to say “bye bye” to the table.

So finally we arrived at the Montecollina Bore, and it was a huge desert, and we were the only people camping there in the whole place!   

When it started to get dark, thousands of mice came out. There were two kinds of mice this time - the field mice again and a native hopping mouse. The native mice were nice and fat and looked well fed and they loved Twisties. They were light brown on top and white tummies, with a long tail that was bushy on the end. They were bigger than the field mice and they seemed to like running close to our fire. If we sat quietly they came up to us and we could pat them!

When I went to our little camp toilet there were about 7 little mice scampering around inside the toilet tent. I grabbed a handful of Twisties and tried to lead them out. Most of the mice made it out on their own, but one of the mice could not find his way out! I got one of my Twisties and put it up close to his face. The little mouse grabbed it with his two front paws and started nibbling on it. Every few seconds, I moved the Twistie a little bit closer to the door and each time the mouse scamperd up to grab the Twistie again and keep eating! In the end, I lead him out through the door and he was lucky because he got a treat on the go!