Sturt divided the group into two, with one group going back to Adelaide. Following some rain, Sturt moved the other group west to a waterhole on Frome Creek, which they named Fort Grey. His path west was blocked by a dry salt lake, Lake Blanche, so he took a small group north west between Cooper Creek and the Diamantina River. Here he found a desert of stones, called gibbers, which was difficult to cross. The stones hurt the feet of the horses and bullocks. This desert has been named Sturt's Stony Desert. By September 1845 he had reached the Simpson Desert and could go no farther. He went back kilometres to Fort Grey.