Central Australian Adventure June 2012, days 21, 22, and 23

Central Australian Adventure June 2012, days 21, 22, and 237/07/12
Day 21........... Departed for Oodnandatta this morning, after a few little jobs we needed to take care of, fill the water tank on the trailer, adjust tyre pressures, and of course get a nice coffee.
The road out of Coober Pedy to Oodnandatta is really not very well marked, it seems like you are heading off into nothing, and we nearly got ourselves lost getting on track.
We had decided to go to Oodnandatta via the Painted desert, which we had heard was very interesting, the road to the first turn off was very good, but when we turned Into the road to the Pained Desert it soon became very very rough, lots of big corrogations and bull dust holes, after what felt like a very long time we arrived at the desert and it was really quite spectacular, after looking around we continued on the road towards Oodnandatta which turned out to be much better maintained, and the trip out was way quicker and far more comfortable.
The trip from Coober Pedy to Oodnandatta took about six hours, that's including about 45 minutes for lunch and photo stops, it's a bit of a detour to see the Painted Desert, and pretty rough in parts.
On our arrival at Oodnandatta I was quite shocked, I expected it to be, well, nicer and more interesting. The roadhouse itself if great, but the camp ground is in my opinion bloody awful.
We had booked for two nights but will stay overnight and head off in the morning.
We managed to scrounge enough wood for a little fire tonight and maybe sitting around the fire with a few under the belt everything will seem better.
Day 22....... A Friday night in Oodnandatta CP, only 3 other campers in the park which was very unusual compared to what we have been used to, it seems that Oodnandatta is not a particularly popular place to stop these days, some of the campers we spoke to said the only reason to stop there was for fuel and supplies.
It was not a particularly inviting CP, during the night there s a fair bit of noise from the hotel, and the barking from what sounded like hundreds of mongrel strays was annoying.
We departed for Coward Springs about 1000hrs, and stopped at a few of the old sidings and ruins along the way, there are some nice spots along the way to free camp, one of the nicest being an old railway bridge over a creek, there a was great camping spots there right of the waters edge if you like.
The Oodnandatta track was great most of the way, with on minor corrogations in some sections, it might have been why we had our first tyre blow out on the trailer only 100ks from Coward Springs, I think I may have been traveling a little to fast, the tyre was shredded before I realized it was even flat.
Oh well, pretty lucky really, didn't damage the trailer or the rim, and we do have two more spares, it makes me wonder if here is any use carrying a puncture repair kit if that's what happens when you get a flat.
Once back on he road we soon got to Coward Spings, what a great place to stop over, nice camp sites, fire places, showers and toilets, and a mineral spa.
The showers are a bit rustic, you have to fire up the donkey to heat the water but it works ok, you just need to give it a while to warm up.















Cheers
Dave T