Day 12 - Arkaroola to Coward Springs

We stocked up at Leigh Creek, posted a birthday present to Elspeth. Leigh Creek has only flourished due to a coal mine further up the road.

 

We stopped off to view the coal mine, which they expect to be 200 metres deep by 2025. Justin took the youngsters for a drive of the walking crane, thankfully the walking function was disabled.

 

We took a left turn at Marree onto the Oodnadatta Track. Marree is reasonably basic, the old Ghan railway station is still intact, and a cliched, but no less charming, two storey pub with a verandah.

 

As we were hurtling along a good dirt section of the Oodnadatta Track, in the middle of nowhere, we came across Plane-henge.

 

There were people and tents in evidence. As I was taking photos of the sculptures a bloke wandered over and threw some light on what the people were all doing in such a windswept, treeless place. We had heard there was a protest against Uranium mining at nearby Roxby Downs, and according to our source, "They'd all come up to celebrate their recent success".

 

As we were pushing to set up camp before dark we didn't stay for a longer chat, just took one more photo of the dog below, which uses an old water tank from the steam engined Ghan and a car as the muzzle.

 

A couple we sat next to on the Ridgetop Tour told us Coward Springs had a spa that was worth visiting, so that was our goal for the night. We arrived just before dusk, found a lovely spot nestled amongst the Casurinas

 

For once we could see what we were doing whilst setting up, but the mozzies had a field day on my ankles. Sweet chilli tuna salad was gobbled up by all. I also boiled up a ham hock ready for soup tomorrow night. There were were plenty of campers around which made for a nice atmosphere as we were in the middle of an arid large plane. It felt like there was a curfew at Coward Springs as suddenly at 9.30, we were the only people still with lights on. We found the showers, but you had to light a fire to heat the water, we hadn't bought any wood with us and the tank was too cool to risk it. We will have to wait until Coober Pedy to shower.There are a lot of places I will go, but under semi temperate water, into a zero to five degree night with wet hair isn't one of them. Another day of gritty hair just means we look like everyone else we meet!

 

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Day 11 -Arkaroola

Today we relaxed, apart from Justin cutting a stubborn piece of wood from the roots of a fallen River Gum. We gathered kindling and set the fire ready for our return from the ridge top tour. We grabbed the washing just before the tour commenced as the day was clouding over. Luckily the clothes were dry as we needed to change into pants as the tour vehicle was open on all sides. After five minutes I was cold enough to put on one of their blankets. The Vulkathunha Gammon Range that the tour explores is very steep and rocky with many peaks in a small area. It was an unwanted area given to some sheep farmers by the Government on the condition they cleared out the feral animals. Eventually they sold it to Reg Sprig, A geologist who was friends with Douglas Mawson, he had the ridgetop road built as he was sick of losing his roads due to flooding.

 

There was some very impressive driving by our tour guide Phil, getting the tough as nails Toyota Land Cruiser up some slippery rocky inclines, loaded with nine adults and three children. He made it look easy and without anxiety, something I suppose we could all do if we had been taking the tour for five years. We stopped at two lookouts, the first being Coultard, its views are below. Plenty of kangaroos were spotted, and Phil showed us a lot of native foods we could gather, if we got stuck out on the range....

 

At Siller's Lookout we had a welcome hot drink and lamingtons in between keeping the girls away from the gravelly edges and admiring the views. The wind is quite impressive up here, an impression you won't get from the photographs below.

 

On the return journey we stopped to look at a collection of minerals from all over the park.

 

We saw three yellow footed rock wallabies, a highlight with their striped tails. My camera's battery died just before the first sighting, grrrr. I hope to see some out from Alice Springs to compensate missing the photo opportunity. On our return I lit the fire, made Chickpea Korma with brown rice. We ate fire cooked raisin toast and the girls toasted marshmallows for dessert to the sounds of Justin's various comments regarding the waste of perfectly good marshmallows. Please place your vote here, to toast or not to toast?

 

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Day Ten -Arkaroola

We decided to have an extra night here as we were worn out from the previous long and difficult day of driving.

Seven emus visited near our campsite for breakfast during our breakfast! They do look like chickens on long legs.

 

It was a beautiful day, so I was happy lazing about in the sun while the girls made a miniature fairyland in the creek bed.

 

Justin pottered and did the laundry. In the afternoon I had a burst of energy and booked us in for a four and a half hour ridge top 4WD tour, then started chopping down a dead tree with a tomahawk. It did the job but give me an axe any day. We had a very cosy night due to the fire, tender corned beef on rice and vegetables and fire cooked damper with blam jam and butter.

 

 

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Day Nine

This was a big day of driving. We left in reasonable time, got more fuel at Innamincka, loaded the blogs, thank you Moomba Gas Station, and had an uneventful trip along the Strzelecki Track. We had to turn off onto the road to Arkaroola where things got interesting. It was marked 4WD only, therefore our pace slowed significantly.

 

As we had to pass through a gate, it felt like we were driving through someone's farm. We passed a grader, and plenty of cattle and only saw two other vehicles along the 152 km stretch.

 

We arrived later than we wanted, in the dark again and made what we hoped was a good choice of campsite. I was pretty worn out and grumpy so we had bacon, eggs and baked beans on toast for dinner.

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Day Eight - Innamincka

Camped on a sandy river bank, we woke to squawking cockatoos, not too early thank goodness. We headed into town to see where Burke died. Things get a little busy here in town. Justin counted 25 vehicles.

 

They paint a different picture of Burke here, he offended the aborigines the first time his party came through, so they were unwilling to feed him a second time, when he most needed the help. King ultimately got help from a local tribe but it was too late for Burke and Wills.

 

Next we decided to go down the wrong road and get BOGGED good and proper. After some progress further into the bog Justin tried reversing. This was going well for a short distance, but we kept sliding to the right where there was more water, and therefore sludge. By this stage the mud was up to the side steps of our poor car. At the time I couldn't believe the road was still open, who could get through this mess? Ultimately Justin did the manly thing and got muddy, I drove the car back and forward trying to get some purchase on the branches and bark he was laying down for grip. Eventually we were stuck forward or back, so Justin got the "Mike Prior Angel Wings Manual Winch" out and with my help driving got us out after 20 minutes of hard yakka. What a hero.

 

Once we were back on the correct road, we realised we still had time to go to the Dig Tree, also know as Depot 65. In QLD, this is where Burke's party spli up so four of the party could race ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria, leaving half the group to wait for their return for four months if the supplies lasted. This base group left supplies dug under the tree, with a message carved into the tree where to find them.

 

Only seven hours after they broke camp, Burke and Wills returned to Depot 65. They found the supplies, but thought they had no chance of catching them, so headed to the west along Cooper's Creek towards a station they knew of. Over the next three weeks or so a disastrous lack of communication ensued between the two parties, resulting in the death of Burke then Wills.

We had fantastic showers at $2 for three minutes, then back to camp for angel hair pasta with Matriciana sauce. Yummo!

Cooper's Creek.

 

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Day Seven - Tibooburra to Innamincka

In the daylight the landscape is semi arid and windswept. Camping here in Summer is not recommended.

 

After breaking camp, we got food and fuel in Tibooburra. I got brave and tried a coffee. As my expectations were so low, it wasn't too bad. The vegetables were a disgrace so I gave them a wide berth. Here we come Cameron's Corner!

 

As you can see we had to pass through a wild dog proof fence to get from NSW to South Australia and QLD. The same sort of fence is in place between NSW and QLD, but apparently they don't like you to go directly between those States, SA has to get involved. We bought some mediocre hot chips as a treat at The Corner Store, which is in QLD, a state we didn't expect to visit. So we only miss Tasmania and the A.C.T.

Here we all are in three different states at once.

 

We passed the yellow bus on the way to Innamincka, via Moomba. In the middle of nowhere, it reminded me of the bus Christopher McCandless lived in when he went wild in Alaska.

 

Another long drive, nearly went the wrong way as the generous two lane road deteriorated immediately after an intersection. Only one lane wide and extremely corrugated, we doubted ourselves. After 10 minutes of trailer backing practice by yours truly, we tried the other road option only to reject that for going in the wrong direction. Maps can be a little misleading at times. We went past the Santos Moomba natural gas plant whose Internet we will use to upload this blog entry when we return past there in a few days. We are off to Burke and Wills tragedy territory.

 

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