Oodnadatta Track

Campground 1: Haligan Bay Bush Camp
Facilities: Pit toilet, Sheltered picnic bench.
Good stuff: Beautiful scenery and good ground to get your pegs in.
Not so good stuff: Very exposed when windy.
Price: $10 per vehicle or Free with SA Desert Pass

Hotel: Desert Cave Hotel, Coober Pedy

Campground 2: Oolarinna Creek
Facilities: None.
Good stuff: Tucked away from the Oodnadatta track so it is very quiet.
Not so good stuff: Very exposed when windy.
Price: Free

Campground 3: Henbury Meteorite Conservation Reserve
Facilities: Pit toilet, Sheltered picnic benches.
Good Stuff: Nice walk near to campground.
Not so good stuff: Very rocky ground which is not so great for tents, toilets are quite far away from the camping area.
Price: $3.30 per adult per night

The Oodnadatta track is considered to be one of the most scenic drives in the outback. The dirt road follows the Old Ghan Railway from Maree to Marla with plenty of old railway track viewpoints and railway sidings popping out along the way. The track was in good condition so it was near enough like driving on tarmac from Maree to William Creek.

Placed to keep you entertained from Maree to William Creek is the sculpture park, which was a bit unexpected. The Bubbler and Blanche Cup hot springs were one of those pull in, click and never to be done again.  You can pull into Coward Springs and have a hot tub experience but we decided to hunt for food and went to the William Creek Hotel for lunch instead.

One of the few flowers in the Outback and it was blooming big!

We think Margaret had found her match.

The Bubbler had more of a blip when we saw it.

...but William Creek delivered with a rocket!

Before we set off on our trip we were thinking of heading to the mainland extremes of Australia but with us cutting our trip short the most northerly and southerly points are off the cards. We did make it to Haligan bay on Lake Eyre, the lowest point in Australia at 15.2m below sea level. The track must have been upgraded in recent years so it was a smooth drive through the Mars like scenery to the salt lake.

Around the centre of Australia we have seen lots troll hair-like vegetation.

Lake Eyre although we managed to take a photo that didn't look too salty.

Our drive along the Oodnadatta track was the zigzag edition for a visit to the opal capital of the world: Coober Pedy. Driving into the outskirts of the town was like driving into a post apocalyptic town with hobbit hole doors appearing out of the brown dirt. The only mistake that we had made was that turning up on a Friday, wanting to stay in the famous underground motel rooms for two nights on the weekend. After much calling around we finally found a place that had a room and happened to be one of the more expensive ones but it had to be done.

These mullock piles are remnants from auger drilling looking for opal seams.

The Breakaways - Just north of Coober Pedy.

Going all Flintstone's in an underground hotel room!

After our snapshot of relaxation in a real bed, and at the moment that feeling never gets old, we moved on towards Oodnadatta via the Painted Desert. If you are heading off from Coober Pedy and have already visited the Breakaways then the scenery is much the same just bigger and more spread out. Other than mile upon mile of gibber rock plains there is not much else to see.

One thing we did not regret on our journey was a detour south from Oodnadatta to the Algebuckina Railway Bridge. Normally you would pass the bridge along the Oodnadatta track between Oodnadatta and William Creek but we missed out on seeing it due to our detour to Coober Pedy.

Pink Roadhouse notice board. 

Algebuckina Bridge, part of the old Ghan Railway...

...and her is Margret for scale.

After the Oodnadatta track it was time for us to plough our way up the highway to the Henbury Meteorite Conservation Reserve. The craters were formed from a meteorite rather than the comet impact at Gosse Bluff but the scale of the craters were not quite as dramatic. The walk allowed you to see the 4 biggest out of the 12 impact craters caused by the breaking up of a meteorite, however it was impressive seeing the overlapping of two impact craters. 

Hard to see but this is a view into a meteor crater.

Birdsville and the Birdsville Track

Campground 1: Birdsville Caravan Park
Facilities: Toilets, Showers, Potable Water, Picnic benches, Camp Kitchen, Bins and Laundry.
Good stuff: Great amenities and friendly people. Lovely unpowered area overlooking the billabong. It had a nice vibe for a caravan park.
Not so good stuff: $30 may be a bit on the steep side however it is a bit out of the way.  

Price: $30 for two adults per night

Campground 2: Cooper Creek
Facilities: Toilets, Fires Allowed.
Good stuff: Flat areas and you can find some shelter underneath the trees if you need it. Flushing toilets and running water is great for a free camp.
Not so good stuff: None.
Price: Free

After the desert we decided to take a few days out from setting up tent everyday and spend sometime in Birdsville. The Birdsville Hotel and Birdsville Bakery are two iconic places on the outback trail. The pub food at the hotel was really good, dukkah crusted kangaroo was not the first thing that we expected to see on the menu but it definitely hit the spot. Unfortunately they were out of the Birdsville lager so no beer tick there but hey you can’t have everything! In regards to the bakery… Pies! Curried camel pie is the one everyone talks about and it is ok but the kangaroo and claret one is even better. They also are going for the true Aussie owned beers serving some Victorian brewed Australia Draft and Broo lager that are two beers we haven’t tried yet and a great change from the standard beers on tap in the middle of nowhere.

This is when you know you have arrived on the northern side of Birdsville and handily has a washdown bay to the right.

The home of the curried camel pie and the more understated the white loaf!

Unfortunately sometimes the run down places can look the best...

...but here is the newer Birdsville Pub!

At a glance from a distance Liz thought this was the local taxi...

Birdsville was a cool little town and it managed to latch onto our upbeat mood after Simpson Desert! We went into the Birdsville Roadhouse and came out with a stubby cooler and a Simpson Desert vehicle plate followed by stickers from the bakery. It feels like we are getting a mix of memorabilia from beer mats to stubby coolers to rocks we have collected on the way that will have to go in an Aussie room wherever we live. You never know we may come up with our own style of outback pub room!

Clean and ready to hit the road our plans had changed slightly. We had originally wanted to head down to Innamincka for a bit of Australian history via the Walkers Crossing track to visit the Dig Tree as well as Burke and Wills Grave. Then we had some good news and some bad news. The area had got some much-needed rain in the supply of 2.5 inches, however that meant the Walker Crossing track was a slushy boggy mess and hence closed. So we headed down the recently reopened Birdsville track instead.

The Birdsville track was a bit of a surprise. We are not sure if it is because we are from the UK but when we think of a dirt road the picture in our minds are of small farmer’s tracks. The more we travel around there is a distinct difference from 4WD tracks that are similar to farmer’s tracks and then there are the unsealed roads. The Birdsville track was the latter being essentially a highway allowing for any vehicle to use it depending on the weather and condition.

Although camping at Cooper Creek was lovely the wind had a certain bite to it.

Although usually most cars will be fine driving the unsealed road between Birdsville and Maree it is crucial to check the road reports. We were met by many boggy patches and would definitely not want be taking the old Polo down there when it was like that.  The slightest bit of rain makes it a 4WD only for many days.

There are two places that deserve a special mention along the journey. The first was Cooper Creek campsite. This place was one of the nicest roadside camps that we have been to. Then secondly Maree… Maree was one of the stops on the Old Ghan Railway to Alice Springs so there is a lot of railway stuff around the place. The railway line was closed in the 80’s but what was our favourite thing here…? The buns from the roadhouse with jam and cream! Like in Larrimah with the pies we went back for seconds!

These were the Maree old days...

...and now they have no trains but they are not to be forgotten. Cream and Jam Buns!

The Simpson Desert

We decided on a west to east route from Mt Dare, across the French line, down the Rig Road then following the WAA line east until we had to cut up the Knoll’s track back to the French which turns into the QAA once you cross the Queensland boarder. We picked the WAA over the more direct French line due to stories of its terrible conditions and high volumes of traffic. Who wants to see other people when you’re in the middle of the largest parallel dune desert on the planet?

Its now compulsory to have a 3.5m high sand flag on the front of your vehicle to help mitigate collisions at the crest of sand dunes.  We had a one-piece flag that we had to cut down to fit into the car. The fun came when we had to attach it back together. The three stages of flag building went as so:

Stage 1 – Hosepipe and duct tape.

Fail: it was already bending before we had driven anyway...

Stage 2 – Hosepipe duct tape and 3 pegs.

Attempt number 2 covered a greater distance but in the end...

Fail: so on to the next stage!

Stage 3 – Hosepipe duct tape and 4 pegs plus loads more tape.

The Winner! It held out all the way to the Eastern side of the Simpson Desert. Job well done.

In the desert it was all bush camping! Campfire and bush toilet pits dug...

...and to match Kyle's memorable birthday, Liz was given one too with a campfire stew in the desert.

The crossing went mostly without incident however there were a few hairy moments along the way…

Towards the East side of the Simpson Desert you start to encounter some saltpans. Our first sticky situation Simpson salty experience was a saltpan towards the end of the WAA line that was a tad boggy due to the recent rain. Lots of accelerator and praying kept the momentum up through the worst section. The main point is WE DIDN'T STALL!

From a distance the salt pan didn't look too daunting...

...but we gave Margaret a salty mud bath by the end of the crossing.

Heading towards the centre of the desert the tracks became rather bumpy. Think of speed bumps as you are trying to drive up some relatively soft sand on a steep incline when you really need acceleration and momentum on the go. Margaret generally did well until on a particularly chopped up dune she went from her normal buckaroo experience to buckaroo to the extreme and had a stalling tantrum.  Not normally an issue however Margaret had decided to stall 2 meters away from the top at which point the gearbox ceased and we couldn’t select low range or reverse from under the crest. She had also worked herself into a stable rut so we couldn’t roll back down the hill. Much panicking and brute force knocked it into neutral so we could try again in low range and roll back down the hill- PHEW!

The dunes on the Western side were a smoother ride...

... and we soon realised that Kyle had some good camouflage going on.

Margaret again had to point out that she didn’t like the bumps. We developed a knocking noise that seemed to be coming from the rear shock when going over really rough ground. With no spare shocks there wasn’t a lot we could do about it however thankfully on closer inspection it looked to be the exhaust banging against the rear bar when the car was getting thrown around. It may have taken us a hundred km to work it out but there was a massive sigh of relief when we did.

Towards the East the dunes got a lot bigger...

...and the dune colours varied depending on their age but just check out those aeolian ripples in action.

The sky may have been bright blue but on a fair few mornings it was rather cold.

The more we travelled, the more we realised this place was HUGE!

The drive in general was spectacular and other then being on a life sized Buckaroo game for some sections the whole experience was amazing. As we past the final dune out of the 1100 we had crossed we both had a lump in our throats and wanted to turn back for a bit more time in the desert. It’s a very special place that we will definitely come back to.

We made it to the corner of 3 states...

...but heading back into Queensland felt like going back home.

Big Red is the biggest sand dune but we didn't attempt it this time around. Instead we headed up Little Red and Kyle managed to "tactfully" stall at the crest.

Right after Big Red it is all flat unsealed road which was a bit of a shock to the system.

All in all it was our favourite part of the trip so far and Margaret got us through it! :-)