The red dirt roads of Australia's Outback.

Journal and photo by Justin Mounts

One of the great things about visiting so many places is the ability to soak in local stories, legends, and facts. Last night, we stayed at Lasseter’s Cave along the Gun Barrel Highway. Lasseter’s Cave, we had been told, was an incredible monument to exploration and a testament to the strength and will of one man. Here’s my take…

Legend:

Legend has it that Lasseter was one of Australia’s great explorers, and while he was exploring the Outback, he discovered a reef of gold. As he was returning, he took shelter in a cave. You see, his camels had bolted and left him stranded without food. He remained in the cave for approximately 25 days before setting out to meet his relief party. He was weak from starvation, and although an aboriginal family assisted him in his efforts, he died approximately three days later after walking about 55 kilometers.

Story:

The story from a few Australians we met was that Lasseter was a bit of a crazy fellow. After his alleged discovery of the reef of gold, he wound up stranded at the cave. Some say it was due to poor planning; others said the camels actually bolted on him as indicated in the legend. From here, the stories start to vary. Some actually say that before he was assisted by the aboriginal family, he was actually met another explorer who offered to help Lasseter get to safety. Fearing for his “reef of gold”, Lasseter refused to leave his cave until driven out by starvation. Others even wonder about the truth of any of it. Many think that the entire story was made up by Lasseter’s descendents. Hard to say.

Fact:

Nobody knows what happened. The man is dead. Nobody has ever found a reef of gold in the Outback, and the cave was much smaller and less impressive than I expected. Can we get back on the road now?

Until next time, I wish you well from the far side of the world.

Logbook for May 8th, Day 190, Nancy’s brother Eric’s birthday!
Start: Lasseter’s Cave, Australia
Time: 9:45 p.m.
S: 25* 01.163
W: 129* 23.839
Finish: Warburton, Australia
Time: 5:00 p.m.
S: 256 07.937
W: 126* 34.099
Mileage: 225
Notes: [First things first: Today is Eric Olson’s 33rd birthday. He is in Hawaii flying CH-53 helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps. I love you, brother. Have a great birthday!] Now, back to business: We were rudely awakened at about midnight by a wild storm that blew and shook our tents and pelted us with a driving rain. Lightning and thunder cracked and lit the sky around us, and we were worried we might get washed away. We survived the night, and woke up with a couple of tourist buses in our vicinity. We departed after a quick visit to the cave, where an Australian explorer spent 25 days stranded without food before leaving to walk 140 km to Kata Tjuta on 1.4 liters of water and perishing 50 km down the road. That was in 1831, I believe. Ever since, they have been looking for a legendary “reef of gold” he claimed to have discovered before his death. We continued crossing the Outback through the Great Reserve past the Warakurna Road House and Giles Weather Station. There, we combined AVGAS and unleaded petrol to max our fuel capacity and picked up a weather forecast before continuing west. The weather was perfect. The team saw several groups of camels along the highway, but we saw even more car corpses, or “hulks” that had been stranded and abandoned over the years. We saw more than 12 of them in the first 100 miles. (N.O.)

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