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.