We all had a good night sleep last night thank god, no interruptions by little girls needing the loo which was great. So with that came found energy and we were packed up ready to go by 8:30am. An early start for us these days. We drove over to the Marree Roadhouse to fuel up but they were out of power and it wouldn't be cranked up for another half hour (apparently they just switched to solar and it ran out or something??). Anyhow, Marty wasn't keen to wait and l spose we were both eager to hit the track, and with half a tank plus a full sub tank we reckon we had enough to last us 200km to William Creek. So off we went, to start our Oodnadatta track adventure. The dirt started straight away, took a pic of the Birdsville Track as we passed it on the right and off we went. About 40kms up the road or so we stopped to check out the "Mutonia Sculpture Park". So cool, was created by a bloke called Robin Cooke, once a mechanic now turned artist, who has used recycled rubbish and turned them into amusing and amazing sculptures. At the entrance we made our $2 donation and headed in thru the gates to check out these two old planes, called the 'Plane Henge', which were standing upright with their tail in the ground. Then we walked up to this area that was made into a musical theatre out of junk hanging on by wire. Straight away the girls started bashing them to make different sounds, they pretty much amused themselves here whilst Marty and l checked out the rest of the cool stuff. Their was a huge mosquito made out of old metal junk and it stood infront of an old windmill that they'd made look like a giant flower. There was also a person made out of old car parts that was made to look like it was sitting down with its knees bent. Then, my favorite, was this tall statue of a man (know this as the put something in its place to replicate the sex it was supposed to be) also made out of old metal junk that had a little kid statue on its shoulders. The girls loved this one also, and the tiny finch that was continuously flapping around the hollow eye sockets.....lol. The girls also loved the enormous dog which was made out of a huge old water tank and a rusty car.
Anyway we pushed on up the dirt road another 40ish km and pulled off to the right to have a view of Lake Eyre South. Looking out you wouldn't have noticed the water in it if the sun wasn't gleaming off it making it sparkle in the sunlight. Now for those that don't know, Lake Eyre is the sixth largest lake in the world and covers about 1,170,000 sq kms of Australia, and in fact is the worlds largest inland drainage system!!! Pretty impressive hey, pity the scenic flights are do expensive, would have cost around $1000 for us all to go up and take a look, bloody extortion!!! So instead, we took some pics and had a squat then headed off.
The Oodnadatta track was treating us to spectacular views as we drove along seeing the old Ghan track with misplaced sleepers on our right mostly, then having the red dirt which changed to salt pans from time to time, as a said, brilliant!! So driving along passing the Irrapatana Sandhills, which are this vibrant red in color, when we came across a dingo standing in the side of the road. Couldn't believe l was seeing my first real wild dingo. Didn't look too viscous, quite cute really, but l wasn't gonna get out and try pat it all the same.
Eventually we arrived in William Creek, which has a population of 6, by midday and stopped off opposite the pub for our usual peanut butter sanga's. Again, as soon as we got out of the car we were swarmed with bloody flies, waving our arms about like idiots. William Creek is a tiny outback town on the worlds largest cattle station, the 32,500 sq kms Anna Creek Station, part of the Sidney Kidman & Co empire! We walked thru the open museum which houses old rockets used at Woomera and farm machinery, even some old grave sites of people that had used the track often such as outback grader driver 'Butch' and Ray an outback explorer. One memorial plaque that was a bit sad was of this young twenty eight year old girl, Gabrielle Grossmueller, who had died on the track out to Lake Eyre north when her and her travelling partners car got bogged in the dirt so they decided to walk into town but had an argument so the bloke headed back to the car but she kept walking. He was rescued but she was found dead 40kms from the Oodnadatta track. So sad, and so recent... Reminds you how tough this country is of ours and how safe you have to be.....
Anyway, after checking out things we headed over to the pub to fill up with diesel. Nearly fell over, $2.20/L and $189.00 later and we were all juiced up ready to go again. Not before checking out the pub first though. Was a bit early in the day for a beer but headed on in anyway. It was so cool, typical outback pub plastered with people's business and contact cards, also photo id's, bras, undies and other memorabilia up on all the walls. We gave our gold coin donation to the RFDS and took some happy snaps. We also asked if we could put our stamp on the place and they said sure and gave us a texta. Didn't even have to stay the night or anything like we did in Cape York, but l spose we had just spent $189 on fuel!! So in red texta on a roof beam in the pool table room before the diner it is written: "Marty, Belinda, Charlotte and Meg Beeson- Three girls, a man and a caravan- 23-03-2012- trip around oz". So if ever your there you'll have to check it out, have told the girls they had to revisit the pub in years to come with their friends and see if they can find it!! The man publican was so nice to the girls and took us out to the diner and showed us their stuffed buffalo head on the wall, the girls were so funny, didn't know if it would bite them when they touched it...lol. We enquired about getting our parks pass so we could head out to North Lake Eyre to camp the night but they said they wouldn't advise it as still too wet and boggy. Apparently it took a blond on a motorbike nearly 3hrs return to do the 120km return track. So unfortunately we had to abandon our plans and decided to keep pushing on to Oodnadatta, which was still 200 or so kms away.
We thought we'd be able to get there by 3ish but we now know that we'd done the better part of the track already. The track from William Creek to Oodnadatta is more rockier and because of the rain the dips are more rougher, so we were speeding up and slowing down alot. This got a bit tiring for Marty but oh well it had to be done. One thing that did keep Marty and l amused was the 'dip' signs. Somebody had altered them from time to time with things like 'dip and cheese', 'sheep dip' and 'skinny dip'. Quite funny seeing what people get up to in the bush... The scenery was a little less exciting than previous with occasional old Ghan rail lines and old ruins, however someone had gotten creative with the old sleepers and laid them out to spell things like ACDC, etc. As l said, some people handle boredom differently than others!!
We were travelling along when we passed an abandoned push bike standing upright on the side of the road. Well Marty decided it looked alright so proceeded to turn around, nearly getting us bogged in the sand on the side of the road. So he thought it wasn't worth it so kept going but then saw a better opportunity to do a u-bolt, so did and before l knew it he'd stopped and checked it out and strapped it to the roof of the Nissan. Bloody Steve does it again!!! (in case your wondering we used to call Marty this from the movie the castle, as Marty always finds use for junk). Feeling chuffed with his findings Marty drove onwards, after a while us three girls were getting sick of the car and there was still 40kms to go. Finally we reached Oodnadatta, pulling up in front if the Pink Roadhouse at 4pm. We noticed a few caravan fatalities with loosing a caravan light protector and also half the annex pole lid had cracked off, we think all the poles are still there?! Bound to happen though... The roadhouse itself looks pretty cool with everything painted pink, they even have a pink volvo and a pink recovery truck!! We had a much needed icecream and sussed out the price of the caravan park, that being $30 per night! We decided to take the cheaper version and made our way out the road a couple of kms to the clay pan. The roadhouse gave us a mud map which was good. We pulled up at the camp spot and noticed this medium sized goanna lying on top of a cornerstay fence post sunbaking. At first we thought it must be dead but as we got close we saw it blink!!! Was so funny, it looked like it was drunk and passed out lying in the sun. So l straddled up on the opposite cornerstay fence post and mimicked what it looked like for photographic purpose only. Think this might have looked funnier. Anyway, we set up camp and had tea. After this l felt a bit bloated and needed a walk so l took the girls down the road around 700m or so to have a look at the cemetery. Obviously the wrong time to take them as they were a tad sooky and all l could think was 'what was l thinking!!'. Anyway we got there and had a look around then headed back to camp as the sun was setting. Magical! Love outback sunsets. Awesome orange skies as its setting with the opposing horizon turning different shades of blues, yellows and pinks. By the time we got back Marty had done the dishes so at least the walk worked out, me missing doing the dishes!!! Lol. The night sky appeared and as l had anticipated, it was beautiful! Because we were out in the middle of nowhere there was no light and all you could see was black sky in all directions out to the horizon with the sky filled with bright stars. Hard to explain, but so crystal clear, you have to come see it to understand how spectacular it is!! It's been an awesome, long and spectacular day....b*****ed by the end of it but can't wait to see what we get up to tomorrow!!!
Bell Xxx