Day 61 – Oodnadatta Track
Today we head out from Coober Pedy to the Oodnadatta track and then onto the Flinders ranges. There are basically no major towns or cities we expect to pass through until home. Most of the stops are outback towns the size of a pub, cattle stations, or free camps. We are entering probably the most remote area we have so far for about a week and half. That meant a big shop was needed this morning so the ladies set out to do that while the men packed up the cave and got the kids ready.
We packed, hitched up the caravans that were just parked out front, and went into town, back to Big Winch 360. Weird name right? The Big Winch is a reference to the big winch monument at the lookout next to the restaurant and the 360 is due to the film they show every hour in a 360° degree theatre. We watched the 10:30 showing and it was a film all about the area including the Oodnadatta track, perfect timing.
One amusing thing we learnt was that “Coober Pedy” comes from the Aboriginal word kupa piti which means “white man in a hole”, no doubt from all the mining going on.
We had lunch again at CKs and headed out for a week and a half on dirt roads. Finally, we actually felt like we were doing some ridgey didge desert driving. No trees. Flat landscape and red dirt as far as the eye can see. At times the road looked hardly indistinguishable from the surrounding countryside. Half way there we stopped to help (Matt helped) a lady change a shredded tyre. I went inside the caravan to use the toilet and noticed I couldn’t get any water out. Thought it weird and upon arriving in to William creek learnt that not one but both water tanks had copped a rock and sustained damage, emptying both. Our Anderson plug that charges the caravan from the car as we drive had also come loose and shredded the whole connector.
The Anderson didn’t phase Matt at all, he had a spare and the tools to attach a new one. The tanks were a bigger challenge. One had the entire outlet pipe knocked off. The other just received the mother of all cracks in it. Both were empty.
I started listing the things I had that could help including gaff tape, plumb pipe primer and glue (from the last patch job in Kathrine), liquid nails, and a 40mm pipe plug that I bought incorrectly in Katherine. This was the answer. We (Matt) got our (Matt’s) grinder and evened out the pipe that had broken off the first one, applied some glue, shoved in the plug, and that did the trick! We still had no water, but we found a tap of non drinking water and filled it up. Thankfully, we have been buying boxed spring water from the supermarket so we are fine on that front but we need it also for the toilet, washing hands, washing dishes, and even the odd shower. So we have one tank, which is far better than nil tanks.
We had dinner at the William Creek Hotel, which is pretty much all the town has (plus the campground) and it was pumping. They have 2 dinner sittings and both seemed full, and the bar was 3 deep at one point. According to a sign the town has a population of 12, well I can tell you, the population of the pub tonight was well over 50.
Day 62 – Lake Eyre
William Creek is the closest “town” to Lake Eyre, the second largest salt water lake in the world. And today it is filling up, extraordinary because it only ever fills completely a few times per century. This is expected to be the most substantial fill in 15 years due to the significant rains in southeast Queensland earlier in the year. As such, we felt it non-negotiable that we should see it. So being only 60kms away in William creek, we made the journey.
The road out is obviously rarely used. There aren’t many reasons to visit, even when there isn’t water in it, so the drive was various sizes of corrugations most of the way. It was pretty rough going to the point where you eventually get used to the constant vibrations. But the drive was worth it. The landscape is truly something else. Is went from desolate desert as far as the eye can see to rolling hills of black stone, creating something like a moonscape. As the only two cars that we had seen at that point it was weirdly eery. We stopped at the creatively named ABC Bay and walked out onto the lake because this section was not flooded. This was fascinating in itself because we got to see the lake in both filled and dry states. The top layer was crisp and salty but it cracked when you stepped and underneath, it was damp and soft.
Another 15 minutes drive was Halligan Bay, which was full of water. The water attracts a lot of birds, a lot of which are seagulls that had come for the salty water. Pelicans also visit but we didn’t see any. Although it looked like any old lake, seeing it in this desert landscape, and knowing that is normally a salt flat was truly special and something not many people will ever see. And we completely lucked in to being in the right place at the right time.
We retraced our steps back to the Oodnadatta track for some lunch and maintenance. I added some pool noodles as a defence against rocks on my piping, and Matt needed to tighten his spare wheel under his chassis.
We got on the road and surprisingly, the one hour drive to Coward Springs was quite smooth. Very little corrugations, comparably few rocks, and able to do up to 90km/h in parts. Coward Springs is this remote campground the was once a stop along the old Ghan Railway. There is still the engine master cottage that has been restored into a little museum, a wetland that was created by a bore that was left to run millions of gallons of water unchecked for decades at the turn off the 20th century, and there are hundreds of date palms. It is a literal oasis in the desert.
We enjoyed a campfire during the sunset and are dinner by it.
Day 63 Oodnadatta Track
With all the dates these guys grow, they make them into stuff and sell in their little farm shop, the’Date Shak’. Along with a truly terrible coffee, we got some date scones for breakfast, some date cookies and some date and tomato chutney, all of which has been absolutely divine.
We powered through the rest of the Oodnadatta, which was very much like the drive from William creek: well graded and not too bumpy, very surprising for such a notorious road.
The first stop was at Lake Eyre South so we could have another view of the iconic lake. This part of the lake rarely fills with water so it was interesting to see it again as a salt flat but very difficult to capture a good photo of it because you can’t go on it or even get too close from this vantage point.
Near the end of the Track is a Muntinia Sculpture Park, which looks a bit like the creative outlet of an artist stuck on a farm with only junk to work with. There are 2 planes standing upright, a windmill turned flower,a racecar lizard, and various other smaller installations. A bit weird but interesting to wander.
Not long later we got to a tiny outback town of Marree, which marked the end of the Oodnadatta Track. We got yet another pub meal for lunch at the Marree Hotel, which was a classic type of hotel with several carpeted dining rooms with various historical information about the area.
Next stop was the Farina ghost town. This was once a thriving little outback town that at one point had up to 300 resodents. The last resident left the town in 1975 and only a handful of the buildings have survived such as the post office, the Exchange Hotel, and a homestead which has been restored. There is also an underground bakery which has also been restored and is manned by grey nomad volunteers for a few weeks every year. Some volunteers have been slowly restoring some of the buildings over the last 20 to preserve the towns history.
Half an hour later we finally made it to our last stop: Leigh Creek. Leigh Creek has been trending towards ghost town status as a large coal mine that was started in the 1940s shut down 10 years ago and the town has been in decline ever since. The caravan park was quite unconventional and we think we parked on old slabs of mining cottages as we could see the drains in the concrete where the bathroom probably have been.
The amenities block was across a town road (there was no boundary or official entrance to the caravan park) and was just housed in several other self contained units, as opposed to one purpose built block of showers and toilets. Oh and you book your site at the town service station, as the thing has no staff. Anyway, it was fine. It has power and water and we put in a good happy hour under the gums. The purpose of saying here was just a stopping point in the way to our next destination.
Day 64 – Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
From Leigh Creek we headed west and the flat desert we had become accustomed too quickly gave way to mountainous terrain of the Flinders and Gammon Ranges. This was a stunning drive from start to finish as we headed deeper and deeper into the Flinders sand Gammon Ranges. Arkaroola is a wilderness sanctuary and also one of only 26 Dark Sky Sanctuaries in the world. It is an incredibly beautiful location in amongst the mountains and we were very happy to be spending some time here.
The sites here are really strange, as they are small and weirdly spaced apart. We spent way too long deciding where to pull up and in the end just decided to run the gauntlet and take up two sites each because 1 site simply wasn’t big enough for my big van plus my 4WD. We had dinner at the restaurant which turned out to be BBQ night: sausages, rissoles, chicken, and bbq prawns plus a bunch of delicious cold salads. And the kids were stoked for mousse for dessert.
Day 65 – Arkaroola
We woke up at 5am to howling wind and rain. I went outside in a panic because caravan awnings do not like wind and I madly started trying to pull ours in. The guy ropes were being held down by some large stones, and they were holding but they weren’t perfect. I was trying to put my weight in the arms of the things to give it some extra support when kynie comes out to help. Matt gets his own awning in and comes over to help me and we manage to get it in successfully despite the gusts’ best attempts to rip it out from our grasp and off the fastenings. After that adrenaline rush there was zero chance of going back to sleep so we both switched on a show of some sort to bring our heart rates down. Annoyingly, sort of, I reckon the wind died down 5 minutes after having the awning down. Unfortunately, one our neighbours did not fare so well. His awning was not tied down at all and didn’t stand a chance.
Incredibly, the weather did not affect our planned activity, which was to drive out into the mountains in some of the 4WD tracks at the Sanctuary. We chose the Echo Camp Backtrack, which is their flagship track. This, I think, means it is the most scenic, and/or the most challenging, and/or the most fun. It felt like it was probably all three. We all had so much fun navigating the turns, the step ascents and step descents; the rocky hill climbs, the dry creek bed crossings and everything in between. All the while, the scenery is magnificent because you are traversing in and around a section of the Gammon Ranges. It was incredible and so much fun and none of the photos do any of it justice so you’ll just have to take my word for it or go for yourself.
As this area is recognised as being especially dark, in the evening we attended an Explore the Cosmos session where we are guided through some cool stuff in space via one of the 5 telescopes they have on site. The telescope is about a metre in length and 30 cm in diameter. We viewed and learnt about some nebulas, red giants, some stars and some galaxies. The kids weren’t so into it because it was a late night and by about half way through they were begging to go to bed!
Given how dark it is and how many stars we can see I took the opportunity to try my hand at astro photography, which I haven’t done for a while. I had to wait until a lot of lights were out at the campsite but i managed to get a few decent shots off. See for yourself!
Day 66 – Flinders Ranges
It felt like we didn’t achieve much today, but it was actually a brilliant day. After leaving Arkaroola in the morning we set our compasses towards Blinman, in the north of the Flinders Ranges region. Blinman has a population of about 40 but is a cute little historic town that used to do copper mining. We had a pie at the bakery in lieu of doing the heritage tour but it was a delicious pie with a quandong pie (like Apple crumble, and the quandong is similar to rhubarb in taste and appearance) for dessert.
The drive to Blinman was awesome. It was gravel the whole way and it wound is way through some incredible mountains. Then the scenery changed again as we approached Blinman into green rolling hills and we continued to wind South for 40 minutes to our campsite at Willow Springs Station. The campsite is unbelievable. We have our own corner of their sheep station all to ourselves, nestled in amongst their hills. We setup a campfire, had a couple of afternoon beverages, and cooked a delicious barbecue.
We’ve been discussing in the last few days that we are probably ready to be home. It’s been the best part of 3 months away from home and that a long time. However, days and campsites like these definitely make me feel less reasy to be home.
Day 67 – Skytrek
Willow Springs Station is home to one of the best 4WD tracks in the region, called Skytrek. It is an 80km, one way, all day affair that takes you through their 70,000 acre property. It starts by taking you through their small gorge past some rock carvings and an old hut used by sheep shearers until the 60s. The road then winds down alongside one of the ranges the make up the Flinders Ranges and then we crossed it via some short steep and rocky sections before traversing back along the other of the ridges.
Finally we get to a gate that is locked where they say “if any of that was too challenging for you, skip this bit, there is a shortcut back to the campsite”. That is because this is where the real 4wding starts. We commenced a very steep climb to the point where we could only just see the road in front of us because of the angle the Ranger was on. Hence the name “Skytrek”, because going up the hill, that’s all we could see. It took us up to a magnificent lookout surrounded by mountains. This was low range driving and in comparison to the drive at Arkaroola, was much more challenging. I stayed in first gear low range for a lot of these sections because it was so rocky and so steep.
We all had so much fun and because it was such interesting driving we barely even noticed that the 80km drive took 7 hours to complete, which is how long they expect it to take you. You are not allowed to leave after 10:30 because you risk getting back too late and I would not want to do any of that in the dark.
We saw so many yellow footed rock wallabies, kangaroos, a wedge tailed eagle, but interestingly, no emus this time.
We got back at 5pm and I drove out to the nearby Stokes Lookout for the sunset. It had a lovely outlook towards Wilpena Pound, which is the main range in the Flinders and the largest. We had a campfire with more stargazing because pretty soon it will be back to the big smoke.
Day 68 – Mount Little
Unfortunately we only had 2 nights booked at Willow Springs but we all could have happily stayed more. Thankfully every drive here is a scenic drive. After packing up we drove south, stopped at only one of the many lookouts along the way and then called into Hawker, which is the main centre in the region, to fill up our water tanks and empty the toilet. We found lunch at the General store and our next start was only 15 minutes away from there.
Mount Little is another sheep and cattle station bordering the National Park and is another stunning property with mountains along the fringe as far as the eye can see. They have designed a lot of activities that can help you explore the property and one of them is a pirate cave if the foot if the mountains. The kids were so excited to find this, even before we suggested anything. Matt had booked in an afternoon massage and Kynie was happy to read, clean, nap and chill at the van, so Bel, me and the 4 kids bundled into the Ranger and drove 30 minutes to the start of a walking trail, walked the 30 minutes along a creek bed to the cave.
It was a beautiful walk and I enjoyed seeing what the hills we’d been looking at from afar look like up close. Inside the cave was a pirate skeleton and a chest with some pirate toys and dress ups.
We headed back the way we came and in the end we were gone about 2 hours. I carried Lily because she struggled a bit on the creek stones and it was less painful to piggy back her than to drag her by hand slowly.
We had dinner and a campfire but unfortunately the wind came up so it was early into the vans to escape it.
Day 69 – Flinders Scenic drive
In the morning the kids had a great time feeding some of the animals they have at the station, including some sheep, goats, and a kangaroo that is being nursed back to health. They also had some baby chicks the kids could hold.
The great thing about the Flinders is that you can see a lot of it by car. This morning we drove back into Hawker for a coffee and a snack before driving up to another classic outback pub, the Prairie Hotel. However we literally took the scenic route via the Moralana Scenic Drive.
Calling something a scenic drive is a bit of a misnomer because all drives here are scenic. The Moralana scenic drive cuts across the Flinders to the north of the Elders range and south of Wilpena Pound. It was a beautiful drive with mountains on both sides, lush green grass all around, and even a few emus. After we followed the outback highway north, flanked by the mountains, to the pub.
The Prairie Hotel is known for its “feral feast”, which enables you to eat what’s on our coat of arms. Matt and I got the feral mixed grill which included emu rissoles, camel boerworst sausage, and kangaroo fillet. It was surprisingly good and not weird at all. Prairie is also South Australia’s most remote brewery, so we sampled a couple and with a few SA pints in us, we hit the merch stand pretty hard.
We headed back to Mt Little for a rest and the last campfire board game of the trip.
Day 70, 71, and 72 – THE END
We packed up our campsite and said goodbye to our friends who had traveled with us for 8 weeks and still weren’t sick of us. It was such as blessing doing this trip with them and we were lucky to go around with such easy going travellers who are at a similar stage of life and with similar interests. It was also VERY handy that Matt knew a thing or two about caravan maintenance and repairs. Thanks Matt! Still probably owe you a few beers for that.
We left Mount Little Station and headed south to Hawker before the long drive east. We stopped in at Orroroo for morning tea and spent the night in Broken Hill, then Cobar, then Narromine.
This has been such an incredible journey and we feel very fortunate to be able to do it the way we have. It took some effort to plan and undertake, and towing a caravan 15,000 kms is not for the faint hearted. But we did it and have created a bunch of memories hopefully we will all treasure for a lifetime.
If you made it this far, thanks for coming with us, and hope you enjoyed following along.
