I think our last blog finished about Kangaroo
Island. Bill wrote it and I think he
missed a few of the choice things that happened, so I will fill in a bit.
We had some trouble with out airbag suspension
system on the truck before Kangaroo Island, which took about 2 days to sort out
in Adelaide. It was complicated by the
discovery that some dodgy repair work had been done on the system in Sydney
that we were not aware of. Being on the
road makes it very difficult to follow up on these things; you just have to get it fixed and pay the
price.
Then we had a service done on the truck after
we got back from Kangaroo Island, and the Toyota dealer thought there was a
problem with one of the fuel injectors.
They were supposed to send some computer information about it to Toyota,
but they didn’t do it correctly. We had
to have the same thing done in Whyalla, and it turned out they couldn’t send
the file to Toyota for some unknown reason.
We finally got this sorted out in Alice Springs, three weeks later. Toyota Service in SA has been somewhat less
than optimal. The service in Alice
Springs seems better.
Anyway, none of this stopped us, and after
Kangaroo Island we travelled to Mt. Remarkable National Park in the southern
Flinders Ranges. This is a lovely park
with good-sized campsites and hot showers!!
The weather was comfortable but the nights were cool. We stayed a few days, got to know the
friendly emus, and did some hiking to Hidden Gorge and climbed Mt.
Remarkable. The climb is not difficult
or technical, but very tiring as it is one continuous upward climb. The view at the top is obscured by trees, but
the views on the way up are excellent.
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| View From Mt. Remarkable |
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| Friendly Emus Mt Remarkable |
From there we spent a few days in Whyalla,
relaxing in a caravan park, recharging batteries, buying food, waiting for
forwarded mail and doing laundry. The
Caravan Park was on a nice looking beach on the Spencer Gulf, but it was extremely
shallow when the tide went out. The sand was only on the edge and the rest was
mud and weeds. I didn’t swim. We did, however, get to meet the Whyalla
dolphins in the harbour. They follow
all the sport fishing boats into the dock, and laze around so close you could
reach out and touch them from the pontoon.
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| Camping on Spencer Gulf at Whyalla |
Short diversionary note about the trials of
life on the road -- it is surprising when you travel how your standards of
cleanliness change. Clothes that would
hit the laundry bag at home are examined carefully, and if they pass the smell
test and don’t stand up by themselves, are declared clean. Unfortunately, “clean” clothes do eventually
run out and laundry must be done. Clean
is relative, of course, as most laundry done in caravan parks gets about 30
minutes in a lukewarm wash (if you are lucky) in a washer of dubious quality
and vintage. I never thought that my
washing machine would be one of the things I missed the most about home.
From Whyalla we headed north the Flinders
Ranges National Park, where we camped for 2 very cold nights and did some more
hiking up the Bunyeroo Gorge. Not
difficult hiking and not the best gorge or hike in the park, but still very
pleasant scenery. The last time we were in
Flinders Ranges was October 2010. There
had been a lot of rain and everything was green. This time it was very dry and the red dust was
everywhere.
We headed north from Flinders Ranges and
stopped at Leigh Creek. If anyone is
planning to travel the Oodnadatta Track, this is the place to stock up as they
have the best selection of food and you can fill up with good drinking water. Diesel
prices are fairly good -- $1.78/litre. (If you think that is bad, wait ‘til you get
to Oodnadatta where diesel is $2.27/litre).
We found the flies becoming a nuisance here, and fly nets are the order
of the day if you don’t want flies crawling up your nose and in your ears and
mouth. They are horrible.
Following the advice of some a couple we met,
we spent a night north of Leigh Creek at Farina, a private campsite on a
station. In the early to mid-1900s it
was a bustling town of 350; now it is an
abandoned ruin. Some of the old stone
buildings are being restored by volunteers and much of the history is presented
in information bays. Camping is in a
grassy, treed area, with showers heated by a wood burning donkey heater. All this for $5/person/night. Excellent value and interesting history.
From there we made our way north to Maree up
the Oodnadatta Track past Lake Eyre, following the route of the old Ghan
Railway. The railway went from Port
Augusta to Alice Springs. Along the
“Track” (which is really a good gravel road) are numerous abandoned railway
stops, bridges, bores, old settlements, and mound springs. The mound springs are artesian water that
forces its way up through the earth and builds up a hill or mound around
itself. The rail line followed a line of
these springs, as they were the only reliable water sources through the
desert. It is a sad story, however, as
this great engineering feat lasted for a relatively short time, and is now
disappearing into the desert again.
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| Mound Spring along Oodnadatta Track |
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| Beresford Bore Siding, old Ghan Railway Oodnadatta Track |
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| Roadside Art at "Planehenge" along Oodnadatta Track |
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| Desert Sunset |
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| Campsite at Algebuckina Bridge, Oodnadatta Track |
We did a 2 day side trip from Oodnadatta to
The Painted Desert and the Copper HillsillasHH,
two beautiful areas west of Oodnadatta that have sand hills of cream, red, grey
and ochre colours. They seem to change
as the light changes, and are very picturesque.
We did a short walk along the tops of some of the hills and the views
were spectacular.
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| Painted Desert, West of Oodnadatta |
We also learned about the “scent of the
desert”, the Gidgee Tree which is a stunted, black-barked tree that grows in
the streambeds. It has a distinctive
scent, which people associate with the desert.
Unfortunately, that scent smelled like bat guano to me, or as one of the
locals put it, “dog piss”. The tree is
also known as “The Stinking Wattle”. It
is very strong, as the scent permeates the air far from the trees themselves.
We spent 3 days at Dalhousie Springs, which
is the jumping off point for people crossing the Simpson Desert. It must be desert crossing season, as in the
few days we were there the travellers increased every day. The other drawing card of Dalhousie is the spring,
which is fresh water and varies in temperature from 34-46°C. The spring is a giant natural hot tub, lovely
for a quiet soak, but a bit warm for swimming.
Still, I hope the Green Prawns and Dawnbusters think of me in the 38°
water as they swim at Mona Vale through July and August.
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| Dalhousie Springs |
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| Dalhousie Springs natural hot tub 38 degrees C |
We did not go across the Simpson Desert as
the track heads back east to Birdsville, and our next move was north and west
via Mt. Dare and Finke to Alice Springs and Uluru. After Mt. Dare and Finke we had planned to
continue through the desert along the old Ghan line to Alice Springs. Two days of very rough roads and corrugations
changed our minds, however, and from Finke we headed out to Kulgera and the
(paved) Stuart Highway north Alice. On
the way we camped one night at Lambert Centre, the exact geographic centre of
Australia. This is a marker in a
clearing in the middle of nowhere, with a dunny of questionable vintage as the
only amenity offered at the camping spot.
Still, it was an interesting and offbeat stop.
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| Lambert Centre, Geographic Centre of Australia |
We are now in Alice Springs, in one of the
6!! Caravan Parks within a kilometre of each other near Heavytree Gap.
This is also near the Todd River where all of the aboriginal “long
grassers” sleep in the open. I guess
they like to keep all of us undesirable transients in one place.
Until next time.
