CSR via Sandy Blight Junction and back to Canberra via the Simpson - maybe.

We left just a few hours late. LC100 is packed to the gunwales but so far, we have been able to find things easily. Whilst I’m sure I’ll miss our trailer, it is good to have things within reasonably easy reach rather than within the bowels of a trailer.

We’ve taken the trip easily so far, letting ourselves unwind before the rigours of desert travel. We’ve struck a couple of interesting places that we hadn’t known about – the joys of travelling without a tight schedule.

Driving through Maude which is on the northern side of the wonderful Murrumbidgee (did you know it flows through the ACT?) between Hay and Balranald was worth the detour. There was rain around and they had had some good falls so the reserves along the river were muddy but well worth considering as a place to put a small boat in the river for some fishing. Hope our friends who were there a few days back found a dry spot.

Yanga Homestead, within Yanga National Park is just east of Balranald. It’s well worth a visit if you’re interested in colonial architecture, colonial building methods or outback stations. I gather it was bought by the government only a very few years ago and looks much as if the owners or managers just walked out. While we couldn’t go inside, a few glimpses through the windows showed furniture and household goods even the manager’s chair still at the desk. But it’s the construction, the magnitude and the long, low and wide verandas that I found so enticing. The NSW NPWS brochure quotes from Town and Country Journal 1872: .The residence is a fine spacious building constructed chiefly of Murray pine.

Our vehicle has an interesting angle at the moment with one Firestone airbag refusing to hold air. The bags were great for a couple of years but on a Hay River trip in 2007 one began to leak. We had the valve fixed in Alice and fixed only a couple of weeks ago in Canberra. Now the bag won’t hold air so we’ve phone ahead to Alice for a new set of Poly-Air bags.

Typing while Kevin drives is fun now I just have to find a method to upload this and share with you all.

Saturday June 27
Well, all the above seems like ancient history now. I’ve discovered that the battery is probably not charging on the notebook and when I plug in to the inverter via the cigarette lighter the inverter overheats dramatically! So I’ve fallen behind in my storytelling.

We spent a night in a Renmark motel and then in a Pt Augusta cabin. The cabin was excellent as it was newish with everything we needed on hand. In the past, we had seen a eucalypt with enormous lemon flowers in that caravan park but couldn’t identify the tree at this time of year. There was one tree with very long, narrow buds but surely that couldn’t be ready to flower by September.

We travelled north making a detour via Roxby Downs – a nice big Woolworths there and another detour to Andamooka. I had been there a few years ago and got a different impression of the place this time because of the addition of new homes. We can both now “tick off” Lightning Ridge, White Cliffs, Coober Pedy and Andamooka are there other opal mining towns?.I know there are. I must check that out.

Our first bush camp was about 30km short of the Oodnadatta Track on the Borefield Road. There are sand dunes on the stretch between Roxby Downs and the Oodnadatta Track and we chose a site one dune back from the road. We had watched clouds all day and were well aware that if it rained we could be stuck between the dunes. What every camper dreads happened: we woke about 3.30am to the sound of thunder. We lay there and listened to it but it hung around and rained intermittently and we finally got up and packed. We didn’t want to pack a drenched tent. It was really a bit of a non-event but we were relaxed knowing that we were prepared for incessant rain if it came.

We spent the next day travelling on the Oodnadatta Track to William Creek. We had been there just two years ago and didn’t feel the urge to re-look at the sights along the way. We did see Lake Eyre from the road – which was a treat but not a bird to be seen. William Creek had four planes on the ground and there were plenty of people around to go for a flight over the Lake. We took a flight a couple of years ago when the lake was full. It’s a spectacular sight.

We then travelled out to Coober Pedy and back in towards Oodnadatta. The road passes Lake Carrabarrawirracanna and I was very keen to see it. There is a lullaby by that name which I have sung (croaked) to my children and grand-children. Of course I forgot about loking for the turn off at the crucial time! We were far too far past it to go back.

The roads have been fairly wide with some corrugations but as we travel at about 80kph on the dirt (and about 85 on bitumen) we weren’t too troubled. We did see today though, the headlight protector fly past the car. On examination, we saw that the indicator light assembly is loose due a broken bracket. The other indicator light fell out on the Gibb River Road a couple of years back so I suspect that it is a weakness in design and production.
Friday
Last night we camped in the bed of the Algebullcullia Creek about 40 km from Cooper Pedy towards Oodnadatta. That was lovely spot. We spent a couple of hours in the morning, walking up a rise and drawing and photographing the magnificent distant hills. The colours are similar in a way to the Pilbara, The ground out of the creekbed was entirely small rocks – there was complete mix of types so that a geology teacher could conduct the most fabulous excursion to the area.

We’ve been recording birds so that we saw about 20 species before Port Augusta and only a couple since. We were sorry last night, when a whole flock of galahs came swooping in at dusk, touched down on what must have been their usual tree next to our tent, took one look at us and flew off. Ah well!

Tuesday night 30 June
This is uploaded from Alice. We’ve had three nights, lots of shopping and looking at art. We leave in the morning. We hope we have enough food and water – we certainly have enough fuel. We’ve met up with our travelling companions and hope to visit the artists at Haasts Bluff tomorrow and Pupunya on Thursday. Ah, it promises to be wonderful!

We have new PolyAir bags and a few other new things! Oh yes – we discovered our air conditioner wasn’t working and so $400+ later it now is! It’s been very hot up here the last couple of days!

More news when we get the chance!

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