Monday 21st March; Day 1 – Off we go! This morning we departed Dubbo for our big adventure! After saying goodbye to Anne and Rob we hit the fuel station to fill up. That one hurt a bit! $220 for 3/4 or so of the long range tank (unsure at this stage if it’s 130l or 145l). We left Dubbo and ventured out through Narromine, Nyngan (with a quick stop at the Big Bogan), then onto Cobar. We went up to the lookout at Cobar which was cool, you can see into the open cut mine and pulled up in the rest stop for a bite to eat. We were both very impressed with our quick and easy set up for a bite to eat! After Cobar we kept driving to Wilcannia, we didn’t need to go into the town but thought we’d take a look. It was like a ghost town! A few people at the servo and pool but otherwise, empty. There are some beautiful old buildings but other than that nothing to see. 2 of the 3 roads from Wilcannia to Menindee were closed due to all the recent rains so we decided to take the third option. The road was awful!! A much quicker start to the off road driving than we had anticipated. This was also the first go at putting down the tyres on the dirt road which made quite a difference. We ended up driving around 150kms on this road and it was not a fun time. There were heaps of wildlife too, kangaroos, sheep, hundreds of goats and a big goanna! We were somewhat concerned when we pulled into Menindee as it’s not a very inviting place after that hard, long drive, but luckily for us we arrived right on sunset to a spectacular view over Lake Pamamaroo! It ended up being a much bigger day than planned due to the road closures and dodgy roads, so probably drove for 9hrs or so instead of 7!
We found a spot to set up camp right on Lake Pamamaroo and enjoyed the last moments of the hot pink and purple sky. We set ourselves up quickly and easily (despite noticing a bit of dust that crept in) and pulled up for dinner. Veggie pasta was on the menu for night one…unfortunately pretty average hah. We were getting sick of the bugs so switched off the lights and sat with a glass of wine under the amazing stars. They were insane, so beautiful. We called it a night just after 10.30, two very tired friends!
Day 2 – After a great nights sleep we awoke to the beautiful sunrise and views of the lake. Over night the wind came up a little and the water was lapping up against the bank, which we both were a bit concerned that the water was rising at various points in the night. We decided to make a coffee and have some breaky before packing up to explore the area. Once we were all packed up, back in the car we jumped, venturing further around the lake and the water systems around it. There is a big weir just near where we camped which was very interesting to think about how the water is captured and the flow regulated. It’s a beautiful spot and with all the rain it must look extremely different now to what it usually does. Once we had driven as far as we could around the lake we doubled back into town, popped some extra fuel in just in case and headed to the Kinchega National Park. This was really amazing, the landscape is so vast and very ‘desert-y’! Heaps of wildlife, kangaroos, emus, lizards, birds around too. A few of the main roads in the park are closed due to the recent rains but there was still plenty to see. We visited the Kinchega Woolshed which was very interesting and explored the pastoral history of the area and then saw the old Kinchega homestead and did a walk near the billabong there. After exploring as much of the National Park as we could, we headed back to Lake Pamamaroo to find a camping spot for tonight. We ended up parking up right next to where we were last night, in a bigger, more open spot. After much deliberation we settled on the perfect positioning and I’m now sitting under a nice big tree enjoying the cool breeze and shade while Alex is tinkering with the car! We pottered around this afternoon doing different bits of organising then had a dip in the lake. It was very refreshing but we both kept thinking little fishies were nibbling us so we got out pretty quickly! We enjoyed A yummy dinner of garlic mushies, eggs and salad while we watched another beautiful sunset over the lake. We washed up and packed up just in time for the weather to turn a bit wild with big gusts of wind and what looked like lots of dust being picked up with it! I’m a bit nervous about tonight’s sleep given our height off the ground but I guess we’ll wait and see! Might be an early night tonight!
Day 3 – Despite the wind, we had a great nights sleep and we’re nice and cool thanks to the breeze! We were up early this morning and ran down to the weir. There were guys measuring the water levels and Alex asked them a few questions about the river systems before we ran back to camp. We cooked up a delish breaky of hazelnut pancakes before packing ourselves up and heading to Broken Hill. I took the wheel for the hour drive and Alex sat uncomfortably in the passenger seat! The drive across was easy and very beautiful, the scenery is just amazing. We pulled into Broken Hill and collectively thought ‘what a weird place!’ A real mix and a few characters down the main street when we first arrived. Our first stop was the information Centre and the guy there was very helpful pointing out all the main attractions, although he recommended to spend 5-6days here which I’m not 100% sure of! From the info Centre we decided to treat ourselves to lunch using one of our NSW Dine vouchers so found a little cafe which was good. After doing a drive by of the two main caravan parks in town, we decided on the Broken Hill Tourist Park. The campsite itself was nice but nothing too special, but the other facilities were very impressive! We sat by the pool for the afternoon and planned our next steps before having a shower and heading off again. We hit up two lookouts with significance to the mining history of the town and then went to sunset at the Miner’s Memorial where the big red chair is. It was a beautiful sunset but a bit disappointing re the history/memorial as there was a lot of works being done so we couldn’t see much and the big red chair was fenced off so we couldn’t sit on there ha. From there we treated ourselves again(!) using the NSW Dine vouchers and went to Mario’s The Palace Hotel for dinner, which was used for some of the filming of Priscilla, and has huge painted murals covering the walls. It was a classic, overpriced pub but the food was very yummy! I had ‘mexi fries’ and Alex has a beef schnitzel which got very good reviews! We then returned to caravan park and pretty much went straight to bed as all the oldies were already tucked up by about 8.30!
Day 4 – Up relatively early this morning and ran to the fitness park for a short workout. We decided to walk the 2kms home which was nice. We showered, changed and packed up, headed to The Silly Goat for breaky, as Jess had gifted me a breaky there for my birthday. It did not disappoint! Beautiful coffee and amazing breaky, a great start! From there, we went to the Minerals Museum which was surprisingly great! It was very informative and super interesting. We stayed there a while before visiting a few of the historic buildings in town, first of which was the Trades Hall, a beautiful old building that told the mining history from the workers perspective which wasn’t fantastic! We had been wondering why BHP didn’t have a museum/info Centre here but we figured that was probably why! After that we pulled up to a park and made a quick lunch before continuing on to the Sulphide St Railway Station and Museum. This was quite interesting too, showing a lot of different aspects of the city’s history. Once we were done here we went out to the Royal Flying Doctors for a tour. Even though we’ve done a couple of these before it’s always so amazing and worthwhile, very interesting and impressive! From there we treated ourselves yet again to an amazing milkshake at Bell’s Milkbar, apparently the longest running milk bar in Aus and set in the 1950s. I had caramel and Alex had Banana, both very happy with our choices! We had a quick stop at Coles to replenish supplies then hit the road out of town to our next campsite at the Starview Primitive Campsite in the Living Desert State Park. It’s a great spot and quiet with only 2 other people here. We set ourselves up, Alex put on a beef casserole for dinner and watched an amazing sunset. I’m going to have so many photos of sunsets by the end of this!! We sat and enjoyed a glass of wine beneath the stars followed by a yummy dinner. Great campsite and great night!
Day 5 – Up bright and early this morning for sunrise. We walked up to the Sculptures to watch from up there. At first we thought it was too overcast for a nice sunrise but we were wrong! As we wandered through the sculptures, the sun came out and showed off for a beautiful sunrise! Very glad we made the walk up to watch it. The sculptures were cool but we’ve both agreed that anything arty really isn’t appreciated to it’s potential by us! From the sculptures there was a walking trail so we decided to follow that, then there was a walk through the flora and fauna sanctuary so we also followed that. We saw a few kangaroos and some bright blue parrots which were pretty but I think everyone else was still sleeping! What started as a nice sunset viewing wander turned into an 8.5km walk before breaky!! We arrived back at the campsite and had a coffee and some breaky and decided our plan for the day. We considered a day sitting, reading and relaxing but after breaky the flies were in full force so we decided to jump in the car and head out to Silverton. Silverton was actually established before Broken Hill and as the name suggests, silver was mined out there. After the mining at Broken Hill began, Silverton got left in the dust…quite literally. It’s only about 25km out of Broken Hill so an easy little drive. We did a quick lap of the town, not much going on. A few art galleries but we both agreed there was probably not much point us going there and the Mad Max museum was closed. We rice to the Mundi Mundi lookout which was impressive, looking out over the plains as far as you can see! Back in Silverton town we hit the pub for a drink and lunch. It was great and had lots of old memorabilia there, including the original paperwork signed by the men who started BHP as they started the company at the Silverton Pub! After a yummy lunch, we looked at all the bits and pieces in the pub before getting a few photos out the front, then hitting the road back to Broken Hill. We pulled up in a park and had a cuppa in the afternoon and decided to go into town to sort out our sat communication device. We decided on the zoleo device after some deliberation so fingers crossed it does that job! We then headed back to the campsite at the Sculptures, settled in for the arvo, had a shower, Alex played his guitar, watched another beautiful sunset then a yummy dinner of mushrooms and eggs, a drink, then bed!
Day 6 – we got up about 7.30 this morning and did a quick little workout over breaky. We wanted to get up and get going relatively early as we have a driving day today. We packed up our site and headed out of Broken Hill to SA! The drive was nice and easy, all sealed roads the whole way across. We missed the ‘welcome to SA’ sign hah so had to double back to get a couple of photos. There were a few towns dotted along the way but all very small. We pulled up in Yunta to eat as much of our fruit and veg as we could as we would need to chuck them out at the quarantine station a bit further up. We got through the quarantine station and the guy told us we could keep our carrots, Alex had probably eaten 7 carrots in the last 12 hours to get rid of them!! Next stop was Peterborough, an old railway town that was once thriving but now is very small with not much happening. We stopped by the old carriage museum to read up on some of the towns history which was quite interesting. After a bit of consideration we decided to stock up supplies in Peterborough as we are heading further away from civilization! We grabbed a few days worth of food and set back on the road bound for Rawnsley Park Station just north of Hawker. We drove through a few little towns on our way and took a quick detour via the ‘Giant Red Gum’ in Orooroo, not that exciting hah. We arrived at Rawnsley Park Station at about 5, checked in, got some info on the National Park and had a quick dip in the very chilly pool before heading up to find out campsite for the night. We are ‘bush camping’ and there is a 5km road where the lady just said we could camp anywhere along it. Alex found a perfect spot, with an amazing view of the ranges. We decided to fully set up here, pulling out the awning and shower tent for the first time, was all very easy and quick to set up! We sat and had a snack while doing some research on the National Park and camp sites for the next few nights. Such a beautiful evening!! We had a simple leftovers dinner tonight which was very yummy, and sat stargazing under an incredible blanket of stars, I will never get sick of that view!!
Day 7 – We woke up to a beautiful sunrise from bed this morning, so nice! Amazing to have that view without any effort!! After watching the sun come up we had breaky and packed up camp before heading into Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. On the way to the main entrance to the park we saw a turn off to Arkaroo Rock Art, so we took the turn off to check it out. We walked up the track, 3ish kms to a cool rock art area. We couldn’t quite understand the drawings but the signage told the Aboriginal dreaming story of Ikara (Wilpena Pound). We took another quick stop on the way at Rawnsley lookout which was another beautiful spot and had some interesting information about the geology of the area. After a brief stop we were off to Wilpena information centre to get our bearings for the next couple of days. We spoke to the guy at the info centre who recommended Aroona campground to stay tonight so we took his suggestion and booked! We sat out in the shade looking at maps of walking tours and info on the park and I treated myself to a ‘proper’ coffee while we did so. It was yummy, did not disappoint! We sat there a while and had a snack and sorted ourselves out before deciding to do a big walk this afternoon. We made some sandwiches, filled our water and headed off on the Mount Ohlsen Bagge hike. The hike was very hard and in parts very steep, taking us about 2.5hrs in total with a decent stop and lunch at the top! But absolutely well worth it, the views at the top were incredible. We were on one side of Ikara (Wilpena Pound) looking into the middle and the ridge on the other side. It looked like something from Jurassic park, a beautiful, sweeping view. After we had recovered from the big hike we contemplated trying to sneak into the pool at the resort but thought better of it and headed to our campsite at Aroona. On the way in we saw 2 families of emus out and about, very cool. When we arrived there were people set up in the spot that we booked which was very annoying so we moved to another site, hoping that we hadn’t then taken someone else’s! After some time in our new spot it was obvious no one else was coming so we unpacked and set ourselves up. We even treated ourselves to a refreshing shower, it was so good, already paid for itself on the first use!! We sat and had a couple of snacks and Alex cooked up a yummy pasta for dinner and now are not too far out of bed and it’s 8.30pm!
Day 8 – A leisurely morning this morning with a slow breaky and quick workout before we packed ourselves up. We took a look at the Aroona ruins just a couple of hundred meters from where we camped and there was a natural spring, not too appetizing at the moment but interesting none the less. An incredible view from up there so glad we stopped to look! We then headed into Brachina Gorge which was absolutely beautiful. We spotted 10+ yellow footed rock wallabies scrambling up and down the rocks which was awesome. The whole gorge was incredible, Alex particularly loved it! We hit the road to Blinman where we had been told to stop for a homemade pie and chips at the pub. We had planned to go for lunch at the Prairie hotel, Parachilna (see John Williamson’s song!) but after a quick Google, found that it doesn’t open until Wednesday for lunch. So, instead we hit up the North Blinman pub, Alex had a homemade pie and chips with a pint of ‘peg n leg’ beer (named after the founder of the town, Blinman who discovered copper in the area, who also happened to have a wooden leg) and I had a bowl of chips which I wasn’t mad about and a cider. We had to drive through Parachilna anyway and thought we’d try our luck for a drink at the pub but no luck, it was all very quiet out there so a very brief stop then back on the road. We were going to stay at Parachilna Gorge tonight where we had driven through earlier but because we couldn’t stay at the pub in the afternoon, decided to head onto our next stop early at Iga Warta. We drove up the Outback Highway through Leigh Creek and Copley, where we stopped to get Alex a quandong tart at the bakery but it was closed! Onto Iga Warta! We had read really great things about this place, it’s an aboriginal owned and operated campsite and cultural centre that offers a range of different activities and experiences. We were very keen! When we arrived it was not exactly what we had in mind! We arrived to a very quiet reception area and then a guy arrived and pointed us to the camping area. We pulled up and there was not a soul around and the place looked run down and like no one had been there in a long time. Very strange! But the guy was very helpful and pointed us to a spot and had a quick chat before leaving us to suss out the place. There’s a little museum here that we went and looked at for a little while. The toilets were an experience and there are chickens, ducks and peacocks roaming, as well as a cute little doggy. The guy then returned with firewood for us which was very nice and encouraged us to have a fire to keep the mozzies away. We poked around this afternoon then prepared the fire so we could cook some snags over it. Yummy dinner of sausages and salad, and our little dog friend hung around all night keeping us company so he got a little taste too!
Day 9 – Slow morning, woke up to rooster very early and saw peacocks/hens roaming around. We sat up by the campfire chatting to the guy who works/lives here, Vincent, over a coffee. Very nice guy, mentioned that he has been staying here and helping out for free board for 9 months or so. Vincent told us a bit about his family history and the land around where we are staying, he was super nice and interesting to hear about his family and culture. He told us that the main owner/manager of this place, Terrence, had to go to hospital in Hawker yesterday afternoon for his knee that’s why they went around yesterday/last night which makes more sense. He also mentioned that they’ve been struggling for workers since Covid and it’s been very quiet which explains the state of the place a bit more! But Vincent also said he’s in charge of cleaning every morning, not too sure about this! He said he’d been down on his luck before his uncle asked him to come up and stay, saying that he wants to save up a bit, get his license then move on after that. Sounded like he had been travelling around a bit before coming here and was happy to be home again. We packed up after our chat and had another quick look around the museum and Vincent gave us a bit more info about the dreaming and this land. He spoke of different spirits and whispered at certain parts when talking about the ‘evil’ spirits, very cool to hear these stories told so off the cuff and casually. As we were leaving he wished us all the best and again congratulated us on our marriage. He gave us advise to ‘slow down and take it in’ saying that not just for now but ‘whatever you do in life, take it slow’ which were some very wise words that we will take on board! After we left Iga Warta we headed up to Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. On the way we passed all the ‘shitbox rally’ cars which were fun! There were so many, and I can’t believe most of them made it down that dirt road, lucky there were lots of support vehicles! One we saw towing a huge trailer full of tyres! We arrived at Arkarool around midday, checked in and had a quick lunch. We decided to do the Acacia Ridge Walk at 1pm, a guy from the park dropped us to the trail and we walked back from there about 5.5kms. It was a hard walk and very hot but the flies and ants were the worst!! I was concerned about snakes too so had my eye out the whole time. The view from the top was definitely worth it though, such an incredible outlook of the ranges and we think we would even see a salt lake, likely Lake Frome far in the distance which looked very cool agains the otherwise green landscape. After staying a while at the summit we walked back to the village, enjoyed an ice cold coke from the fridge and jumped in the pool which was so nice and cool. We hung around at the pool for a while relaxing, as Alex said it’s nice to be out of the dirt for a while! I sat there and set up our Zoleo so we’re good to go while Alex started his ‘fun facts’ blog lol. We then headed up for a quick shower before driving on to find our spot. Lots to choose from but also lots of ants! So we went for one with minimal ants and maximal flatness! We had a very yummy dinner of halloumi burgers and a gin and soda and at under the stars admiring them. I think we counted up to 8 or 9 shooting stars!! Absolutely incredible I couldn’t believe it.
Day 10 – Nice easy morning this morning, I woke up around 8.20 and Alex was researching Arkaroola. We had a leisurely breaky, coffee then sat around relaxing and figuring out our next move! After much deliberation we decided to stay here another night and enjoy the afternoon to just relax. We went up to reception, sorted out another nights camping and chatted to them about other walking/driving trails. We decided to drive up a little way on one of the 4WD tracks to a look out as I opted out of the 8km walk there! Lookout was nice and we walked a little way down the track to see what we could find but there wasn’t much different views so we wandered back to the car. After our little drive we headed back to camp for lunch. While preparing lunch we had a fly away awning which wasn’t ideal hah so Alex pegged it down, fingers crossed that doesn’t happen again! First attempt washing undies in a bucket by hand with very limited water, I forgot that we needed water to rinse the soap off so this was a partial success, partial failure lol. We spent most of the afternoon sitting around reading and relaxing which was nice, then wandered up to watch the yellow footed wallaby feeding. It was nice to see 3 little ones so close but both agreed that we weren’t too sure how we felt about the whole thing! On our way back we swung by the pool to listen briefly to some live music but decided to head back to our spot and have dinner and a wine there instead! Eggs and mushies for dinner again, delish! Sat around planning our next move for a little while then off to bed!
Day 11 – Workout this morning before breaky and a pre-departure check! We packed up camp and decided to drive a few of the tracks around the property on our way out. They said they were suitable for 2WD but I would have hated to be in the focus going up there!! It took a while but showed us more beautiful scenery around Arkaroola. We then hit the road back towards Copley, via Iga Warta. As we drove along we passed so many flood ways and it’s crazy to think about the water rushing though all these creeks when it rains, must be incredible to see! There’s been rain recently and you can see some of the evidence in the flood ways as you drive along. On our way we stopped by Iga Warta and saw Vincent again, to suss out of any experiences would be up and running soon. It was still all very unclear so we bought ourselves a lemon myrtle ice cream to try and got back on the road to Copley. We made it to Copely just in time for Alex to visit the bakery. He had a feast! A kangaroo pie, sausage roll and quandong tart for dessert. All of this was a great excuse for me to get a real coffee too! Once the feast was over we drove on to Leigh Creek to stock up groceries for the next few days. As we were driving back out of town again we saw an emu, slowed down to look and take a video and then his mate ran right in front of the car from the other side of the road! Alex drove expertly and missed him but we both saw him up close and personal as he craned his neck out of the way as he ran by!! Crazy and such a lucky but close call!
We arrived in Farina, our next stop to a beautifully green and really well maintained campground. We spent most of the arvo fixing the side toolbox on the ute as a couple of the screws had snapped off! Not ideal but glad that we could fix it. We just caught the sunset up at the top of the campsite which was another great view before enjoying some yummy roast veg burgers for dinner. We have been saying how lucky we’ve been with the weather so far! Beautiful warm, sunny days, hot without being too hot (for the most part anyway!) and lovely cool nights, perfect sleeping weather! We’ve even needed the doona every night except night 1! Perfect!!
Day 12 – Woke up and went for a run this morning along the Sandy road into Farina. On our way back we stopped and looked around the ruins which were all very interesting. Would have been such a tough life for people living out here when the town was established in the 1870s? and the last resident left in the 1960’s. Returned to our camp for breaky, a shower and pack up.
Back on the road to Marree, we filled up water and fuel, water was much cheaper than the diesel at 2.70/l!! From Maree we officially started the Oodnadatta track! After stopping to put the tyres down and for a few photos, we were on our way! We passed a bunch of ruins from the old Ghan, ‘sidings’ where rail workers lived in the middle of nowhere! We stopped at the Mutonia Sculpture Park, which is very random but cool. What were our chances to pull up there at exactly the same time as a tour bus! We had seen 1 other car on the track and then the bus hah. Next stop was the Lake Eyre South lookout. We couldn’t quite tell where the water started so decided to trek out to suss it out. After a massive effort and getting stuck in the mud several times we made it to the water!! Alex had to remove his boots and socks after getting too stuck and ran to the water bare feet getting so much mud up his legs! BUT we made it so we’re very happy with that! Everything we’ve read around here talks so much about how variable and unpredictable weather patterns are around here so we are very lucky to see the lake with water and even luckier to be able to go out and touch it ourselves!After a decent stop we jumped back in the car and I drove from the lookout to Coward Springs, our next campsite. I got a few pointers as I went, but overall I think a good job, except for maybe (probably) running over a lizard (I felt so bad!!) And taking us down a side road that was incredibly corrugated and bumpy! We turned around after not too long!! But we arrived to Coward Springs safe and sound! Set up camp and bought ourselves a home made date ice cream, absolutely delish! Alex reckons the best ice cream he’s ever had! After our yummy ice cream we headed to the hot spring! We only had a brief dip before someone else came and we decided to jump out and have a shower to wash the days mud off! The shower was cool, there was a little fire outside where you light for hot water. We wandered over and looked at yet another beautiful sunset and made some delish beef burgers before we fully lost the dark. As soon as the sun went down the mozzies came out to play in HUGE numbers so it’s currently 8.44pm and we are in the tent ready for bed!!
Day 13 – I awoke this morning to Alex showing me the amazing sunrise from our tent, the colours were amazing! We wandered over to get a better view which was beautiful again before having some breaky. We then wandered over to the museum which was an old structure that had been restored which was really interesting showing photos and info about the history of the area and water, plants and animals. We took a short walk through the wetlands before packing ourselves up. We treated ourselves to a coffee at the coffee cart and Alex had dates scones which he said were delish! I treated myself to a breakfast ice cream (coffee and date this time) which was so yummy!! We sat and chatted to a couple of oldies there who gave us a few tips about the upcoming destinations. One couple said they had seen us in their binoculars walking out on Lake Eyre yesterday, would have been an interesting sight!! He said he thought to himself that we must be ‘an adventurous young couple’. On the road again after our treats, aiming for William Creek. We detoured back a bit to visit Mound Springs, the Bubbler and Blanche cup. This was the rough track we attempted yesterday before we turned around. It was 4kms in and very corrugated so we took it extremely slow and it was okay. Well worth the drive in, beautiful natural mound springs coming from the Artesian basin in the middle of a vast desert! They reckon that the water coming up in the springs was rain that fell in QLD 2 million years ago! Crazy.
Once we got back on the Oodnadatta track the road was very corrugated and bumpy for the first few kms but luckily after that it became much smoother. We later came across a grader so the track was very nice and smooth from there to William Creek! Along the way we stopped at the Beresford Ruins, Strangway ruins/springs and drove through the red Irrepetana Sandhills. The Beresford ruins related to the old Ghan track and the Strangeat ruins were from the overland Telegraph route. Interesting to imagine living in these places in the early 1900s!!
When we arrived in William Creek we pulled up for lunch and tried to fix water bouncing, Alex realized that a screw had come loose on the roof rack which was the most likely culprit, so we spent a good hour or so trying to get it back in! It was very fiddly and frustrating as the hole was not lining up properly, but we finally got it! Once we had that sorted we put our first load of washing on, we were getting low on socks and undies! We set ourselves up, had a shower and then hit the pub for dinner. We decided to treat ourselves so had a couple of drinks, I had a steak and he had a beef schnitzel which were both very nice and played a game of pool. We were chatting to the staff about the road out to Halligan Bay, the north side of Lake Eyre, with mixed reviews from people recently going down there.
Day 14 – We woke up this morning and did a little workout over breaky whilst deciding our plans for the day. We were questioning if we’d try our luck going down a 70km 4WD track to Halligan Bay at the Northern end of Lake Eyre. We were also tossing up whether we should do a flight over the lake and after speaking to the staff at Wrightsair, we’re pretty convinced to do the Lake and the Painted Hills flyover and walk around. Alex spoke to John Tuck who had done it previously and highly recommended so after some deliberation we bit the bullet and locked it in! We did a 3 hour flight with our pilot, Ben, who was fantastic. It was just the two of us on the flight so it was like our own little private charter! We were in the tiniest plane ever, just a 4 seater so it was all very close! We headed to the Painted Hills first up which is on a privately owned cattle station, Anna Creek, which is the largest cattle station in the world. Massive! Even seeing it from the air it is hard to comprehend just how massive it is and how they manage to muster their stock! Poor Alex was not feeling great on the flight into the Painted Hills, as we were flying low (1,500ft) with quite a few bumps, so the touch down there was very welcome! I also learned that the bumps on a flight are usually created from hot air ‘thermals’ rising from the ground rather than wind – I always just assumed wind! We walked around the hills with Ben for about 45 mins and he told us what they know about them. He said there is still so much unknown and recently a team of geologists spent 3 months staying out there and researching the landscape so it must be interesting!! Wrightsair are the only company who are allowed to land at the hills so it was very special to be there. They have kept it inaccessible to the public due to the fragility of the landscape, researchers estimate that the landscape would be completely changed (ie ruined!) in 3 months if they opened it right up, so it was a very cool experience to have the access to it. It really was incredible, the colours, the variation in the stone and the landforms all so different and interesting. After a warm walk around the hills we were back in the plane, at a higher altitude this time (2,500ft) and therefore less bumpy for Alex! From the Painted Hills we flew over Lake Eyre and dropped back down to a lower altitude once over the Lake itself which was beautifully smooth. What an incredible sight!! We were both amazed at the colour of the water and the expanse of the Lake. Ben was explaining how the lake fills from the different rivers and by the sounds of it we were extremely lucky to see that much water in the lake and even luckier that we were able to touch the water in Lake Eyre South as it is usually the last bit to fill. The flight over the lake was truly amazing and we both couldn’t get enough! I took SO many photos and can’t wait to look at them all again! After our beaut flight over the lake we returned to William Creek which was another smooth ride which Alex was very pleased about! We touched back down, thanked Ben and headed off. We had a quick sandwich for lunch before hitting the road Oodnadatta bound! The road was horrible in parts then it would smooth out and become horrible and so corrugated again! Alex drove expertly but it shows how spoilt we were yesterday with the beautiful smooth, freshly graded road! We stopped at the Algebuckina bridge on the way past for a look, pretty incredible engineering feat having been built in the 1880’s! I can’t fathom how they would source the materials, get it out there and build it!! After a brief stop there we continued on to Oodnadatta. When we arrived we were not instantly impressed hah, not the most visually appealing town. We knew there was free camping but after a drive by of the caravan park behind the Pink Roadhouse, we decided it was better to pay the money to feel a bit safer as there were a number of cars in there. We paid our fees, found ourselves a spot and set up. Alex was ok dinner duties and made a delicious beef green curry, super yum! Everyone in the campground was in bed extremely early so we followed suit after a big day!!
Day 15 – I enjoyed a little bit of a sleep in this morning while Alex was up and at ‘em since 6! We had breaky, packed up and had a shower before enjoying a coffee at the Pink Roadhouse. Alex also tried a quandong jam slice which he liked. While we were there we got chatting to the owner, Peter who was very helpful. He suggested that we skip going to Marla and instead head straight for Coober Pedy, via the Painted Desert. Turned out to be a fab suggestion, as the Painted Desert was great! Not as impressive as the Painted Hills we saw yesterday but a beautiful view. The road across from Oodnadatta was okay, quite rocky in patches but an interesting drive and lots to look at along the way.
We arrived in Coober Pedy mid-afternoon and went straight to the information Centre to get our bearings. Once we had collected a hundred different pamphlets we did a quick lap around the town, very interesting place. Not a lot going on, lots of people sitting/hanging around on the streets and overall not the prettiest place we’ve been! We went to IGA and the bottle shop for a few important supplies before driving out to watch the sunset at the Breakaways. Was a beautiful drive out there and had some interesting information along the way. We drove along a section of the dog fence and learned that the whole fence is over 5,300km in length! Built to keep the dingos north, in cattle country and away from the sheep country to the south. The sunset at the Breakaways was really beautiful and we enjoyed a drink and some nibbles out there. Unfortunately our nice time was spoilt by an incredibly racist lady which was disappointing. Sad to think how small minded and clueless some people are!! When we were driving back into town we got the fright of our lives as there was a man standing in the middle of the Highway hitch hiking. We pulled back into town and headed to the free camp there at the Old Timers Mine. The camp was very full so we just parked on the edge and both felt a bit concerned as it felt a bit dodgy! We both had a pretty disrupted sleep as we were concerned for safety but all okay!!
Day 16 – Up early this morning after a broken nights sleep we were up for breaky and coffee. We hung around at the camp until the Old Timers Mine opened and did a sec guided tour there. It was interesting to see and go down into the opal mine. After we looked around there for a while we saw the other sights in Coober Pedy, the giant winch, very impressive under ground churches and did another lap through town. We found a cute bakery for a coffee which turned out to be a fab find! I had a coffee then we decided to get lunch, Alex had a butter chicken pie which he said was delicious, and I had a yummy pad Thai! Then Alex went back for more, treating himself to a pizza scroll and a takeaway cinnamon scroll for later! We went into the Desert Cave Hotel to look at the information about the towns history which was interesting. Of course Alex read every word of the display so took quite a while ha. We sussed out the underground bar there too but it wasn’t very appealing so we decided to swing by IGA, for some supplies for tonight, then hit the hotel we had booked for tonight at 2pm sharp for check in! Very keen for a chill out afternoon!! Arrived at the Underground Cave hotel and were very happy with our room! The man working here is very friendly and the room is nice and clean.
The Adventures of Alex and Alicia 