Week 8 - Monday 22 – 28 March 2010

Back again – only about 2 weeks behind now...!

Monday, we did a circular route through the Flinders Ranges from Trezona at the north end, along the Brachina Gorge (searching again for the old Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby to no avail), then back down through the Bunyeroo Gorge, with a few great lookout points on route (the muppets particularly enjoyed Razorback).



In the evening we decided we'd watch the sunset at Stokes Lookout, which is a fantastic vantage point to see both Wilpena Pound (behind which the sun sets) and Willow Springs (in the other direction) where we'd done the Skytrek track the day before. Sunset was lovely – there is an organised tour from Wilpena which gave us the idea. We arrived early, set our chairs, a little tipple to watch the sun come down and the camera then waited. Sure enough, the Wilpena tour arrived, but we'd already bagsied the best spot and there were only 8 of them, so it didn't destroy the moment. On route there we saw a dingo cross the road – apparently the recent floods had caused a hole in the dog-fence (no kidding, there is a huge dog-fence which is intended to keep dingos out of south-eastern Australia). Sunset was lovely – the best moment was seeing the perfect silhouette of a roo on the crest of the hill framed by the red back-drop of the sinking sun. Too far away for a photograph, but a lovely memory for us, and some exercise for your imaginations. That night we camped at Dingley Dell, which is a National Park camp by the roadside not far from Stokes Lookout. Not the best spot, but convenient. An Axe Murderer arrived late on in the night, but left early morning without any attempted homicides, so all was fine.



On Tuesday we did a long drive up to Gammon Ranges, otherwise known as the Northern Flinders. The scenery on route continued to be spectacular, growing more rugged as we got further north. We stopped on route at Blinman (cute, if a bit odd), then headed to Angorichina for fuel (even more more bizarre – its called Angorichina Tourist Village, but who on earth would go there as a tourist I don't know – the fuel is the main attraction, the food in the shop is mostly out date (the milk was a week overdue) and the manner of the lady serving convinced me we would have been Axe Murdered had we stayed there). From there, we took a track through the Glass Gorge back to Blinman (disappointing track as it happened – not sure we'd recommend much of the Blinman/Angorichina area to anyone!)

From Blinman, we set off up the dirt track to Balcanoona where I thought we would camp for the night, taking a short detour to Chambers Gorge, which was very pretty, and had some Aboriginal art to admire, but the flies were beginning to get us down. We saw quite a few birds of prey on route hunting, which is always pretty special to see, even if we can never identify exactly what bird it is! At Balcanoona I realised there was no camping, only National Park accommodation in huts, so we had to reconsider our plans. We were pretty tired this point, and started on a drive to one of the 4wd accessible park camp-sites, only to decide it was all getting a bit too hard. We headed on up to the Arkaroola Resort instead. Arkaroola, quite apart from anything else, nicely fits to the tune of “My Sharona”, and it proved to be a good choice.

Arkaroola, like Willow Springs, is a privately owned station where they have taken to tourism as a good source of income. The homestead here has a bar, restaurant, various accommodation options, pool, observatory and tours, as well as various 4wd tracks you can explore free. The camp ground (we headed to join the older folks in the caravan park) is quite special – a sheer red rock face descends in front of you, with the sun perfectly catching the colours as it drops in the evening. Here we also found some of the friendliest neighbours yet, two couples who'd only met each other on route themselves, but were more than welcoming to us. We had a coffee with Kath and Lindsay on the second night there in their trailer tent, chatting away until nearly midnight – a shockingly late night for us, but great company!

During the second day at Arkaroola, we drove out to some of the waterholes and a site called the Pinnacles (STILL no yellow-footed rock wallabies!) then had a roast pork dinner in the restaurant as a treat that evening. All in all, very nice.

On Thursday, we set off from Arkaroola (My Sharona) to Leigh Creek, our jump off point for the Oodnadatta Track (which also fits pretty well to the My Sharona (Ood na datta...) you may notice a theme developing). Nice drive again on dirt track most of the way, with our final views of the Flinders. At Leigh Creek we stocked up at the local supermarket for much needed supplies, then mooched about in the car park catching up on internet time. Finally, we decided to stop the night, and camped at the inauspicious Leigh Creek Camp Ground (looked a lot like the car park we'd been sat in earlier in the day). It turned out to be a very nice little camp spot for us, with a camp kitchen to boot, so we could sit indoors, avoid the flies and mozzies, and Jen could cook her famous Fajitas! Also, fine tasting water at this camp ground, which had become something of a rarity for us at this point, so a good place to refill all the tanks! Finally, we used the vacuum sealer to properly store some meat we'd bought – a very successful day.

The next day we set off for our first proper outback drive up the Oodnadatta Track. We lowered the tire pressure to about 30psi, called the Pink Roadhouse for any last minute advice on the track condition, and set off into the dust and heat with some trepidation. The truth is the track was in pretty good condition, and we sat at 70-80km for most of it, creating our own minor dust storm off the back wheels as we travelled. We stopped at Maree first - outback towns from a passer-by's perspective are a dusty road bordered by a General Store and a Roadhouse selling fuel. Maree has an unusual addition – the Lake Eyre Yacht Club. Optimistic to say the least. The landscape is pretty flat and barren for the early part of the Oodnadatta Track. Someone has had the good grace to break up the landscape with the truly bizarre Mutonia, where quite some effort has gone into building some very odd steely art exhibits in the desert surrounds. Mr de Belin would appreciate these I think.





We also passed Lake Eyre (south) on route. Lake Eyre is roughly the size of Holland and has only been filled to capacity 3 times in the last 150 years – this is a country of extremes. All that can be seen is an amazing expanse of shimmering white haze caused by the salt dried on the crust of the lake. There was actually some water in the lake, which is unusual, following the water that has flowed down from the floods in Queensland.

We covered 320km on the day, and arrived in William Creek to spend the night. The flies here were feral. One of our neighbouring campers (Pauline, more of whom shortly) came over to say hello and was sent into a brief (if gracefully handled) coughing fit as one of the little buggers made it into the back of her throat as she spoke – honestly, this would be a truly wonderful country were it not for the flies (and the mozzies). We'd traded places a number of times on the way up from Leigh Creek with a white Prado towing a swanky looking off-road caravan/camper trailer. It turned out to be Pauline and her lovely husband Keith, from Darwin, who were a lot of fun. William Creek has a very cool pub, the interior of which is decorated with countless mementos left by people passing through (mostly business cards, but hats, scarfs, flags, naked photos... don't ask me!) and we had arrived on the cusp of the key date in the diary – the William Creek Gymkhana. The pub was therefore heaving that night, and we saw a bit of local colour! Pauline was particularly good value – she reminded me of Dorian in Birds of Feather, a dark haired (Black Irish according to her), confident, provocative lady of indeterminable age. A number of station hands were in for the Gymkhana from the neighbouring stations – young guys with shirts and hats too big for their skinny frames and an 18 year girl from Tasmania who had just finished her first week on the station! She looked too young and wide eyed to be dealing with station life, but seemed to be handling it all very well. We decided (after a few too many beers) that William Creek was great and we must stay for the Gymkhana the next day (this includes men riding horses in races against other men riding motor bikes, boot throwing competitions and who knows what else).

But on Saturday, this seemed like less of a good idea. The sun was beating down pretty hard by 8am, and the flies had reformed overnight to start wave after wave of attack, like a regenerative alien force. We probably should have stayed and seen it, I'm sure it would have been an experience, but we gave in to the flies and set off for Oodnadatta instead.



The trip from William Creek to Oodnadatta is a bit more varied – gradually the hills start to build around you, with sand dunes in some sections and salt pans. The road gets redder as well, and it feels like you're in the Outback. We passed the Algebuckina Bridge (which used to carry the Ghan Railway) on route.





Oodnadatta is the outback town I expected, and the Pink Roadhouse is true to its name and looks pretty special against the desert back drop. But for my honesty we would have got some very cheap fuel there too – instead it was the most expensive yet (some $1.79 a litre!). The girl read her machine wrong and was going to charge me $24 for the 60 litres and the can of coke until I told her (twice!) that she really ought to check that...!



We had been contemplating continuing on up to Alice Springs along the Old Ghan Track, passing Dalhousie Springs, from Oodnadatta, but having received unpromising advice about the state of the track with the recent rains, and in view of Easter approaching, we decided we'd head back to the highway and go to Uluru and Kings Canyon before Easter, to try to avoid the school holiday crowds. So from Oodnadatta we set out across country on a track through the Painted Desert. This is pretty spectacular, the best bit of our little outback excursion. The landscape here is littered with oddly coloured and shaped hills and ranges, which change colour wonderfully in the setting sun.



We finished up at a roadhouse called Cadney Homestead that night, basically a road train fuel stop on the highway.

On Sunday we set off on the long drive to Yulara, the tourist village developed to service visitors to Uluru. We crossed the border (very exciting!) and found ourselves in the ever deepening red sand of the Centre. We had our first sighting of Uluru on the way to Yulara, but I'm going to save that for the next blog.

Love to all,
Claire, of Claire and Jen Fame