Lake Eyre South

From the SA National Parks latest Desert Parks Bulletin (Late April, 2013)

Apart from a small amount of remnant water at the Warburton Creek entrance of Lake Eyre North, the rest of the lake is now dry. The best way to see water in Lake Eyre is still from the air. Local charters are available at William Creek and Marree.

Halligan Bay Track – Open to 4WD with caution. This track is a declared Public Access Route. It is a bush track, not a road. Drive with caution along the entire track as the landscape is fragile and the track will deteriorate with the number of vehicles using it. Please drive to track conditions. Driving on the Lake surface is an offence and dangerous. Trailers and caravans are not recommended.

Level Post Bay Track – Open to 4WD with cautions due to corrugations. This track is a declared Public Access Route. It is a bush track, not a road. Caution at corrugations, however drive with caution along the entire track as the landscape is fragile and the track will deteriorate with the number of vehicles using it. Please drive to track conditions. Driving on the Lake surface is an offence and dangerous. Trailers and caravans are not recommended. No camping at Level Post Bay – camping at Muloorina campground.

Marree’s Outback Roadhouse Ph (61 8) 8675 8360 – Agents for the Desert Parks Pass & Lake Eyre Permits. Post Office & Commonwealth Bank Agency, diesel & unleaded fuel, gas bottle refills, licensed restaurant and take away service available.

Lake Eyre National Park

There's no need for vehicles to drive on the salt crust and visually pollute what is a magnificent remote wonder (not to mention is a National Park). If you walk, like I did several times, you'll be able to reach within few kilometres, some interesting spots and take amazing shots of the salt. From google maps you cannot get an up to date surface information as you don't know how old the pictures are, and the lake changes continuously due floods and evaporation. Some part of the lake are just too difficult to even walk on it, due to deep slimy mud underneath the thin salt crust. I particularly prefer Level Post on the eastern shore as a place for photography, as the lake is usually dry and the salt looks white and brighter than Lake Eyre South or Halligan Bay. The best place to ask for fresh infos is the Yatch Club at Marree if is open.

I would keep a watch on the road conditions as there has been an alert within the last 24hrs restricting vehicles under 3 tons only allowed on a few of the roads up that way.

Thanks Mick!

Thanks Barbera!

All valuable info.

I should have mentioned that I'll be travelling in a 2wd trayback ute, towing a trailer with the quadbike, so where I can go off-road is fairly limited, hence the bike. Trouble is, the bike isn't registered so I'm still limited.

So it's non regular tracks on the bike or walk. Most of my stuff is done on station tracks. I don't take well to the regular tourist venues, even the remote ones.

Pretty hard to please, huh!

So these are the reasons why I'm looking at that area beside Oodnadatta Track.

In the past I've gone a couple of hundred kms over a week or so on the bike, but with advancing years and the danger and isolation of the country, I'm cutting back to a more safe or at least less dangerous adventure model.

I travel all alone and it can get pretty scary out there, ya know.

Great image, Barbera! Thanks for that!

Yep re Google... check the photo date at the foot of Google views - often disgracefully out of date. Yep also to not defacing the lake's surface with vehicles..... not funny for other tourists. Consideration for the Arabana native title over the whole region is probably smart too (its not an exclusive title though - the rest of us are still welcome, but it's not our backyard).

Hi Bega,

We were out there two weeks ago. There are plenty of motorbike tracks on the lake near the lookout off the Oodnadatta track, which was disappointing.Level Post Bay was much better. Had one bike track but if you walked out a kilometre or so it became pristine.

If you fancy a 14km walk out from Halligan Bay then you will likely see one of Wright Air's planes that had to make an emergency landing on the lake. Would make a great photo!! How they are going to get it out will be interesting!!

Roads were good, probably a bit to good, given the Pagero on its side after coming to grief on a bend near William Creek.

Safe travels

Peter

G'day Laurie,

small world, eh? I hardly ever visit EO nowadays so a conversation by chance, indeed.

The images on the L Eyre website page are regularly updated from Landsat or similar. I would imagine that will be the most recent data you can get. I suggest asking Lyall Oldfield of the Marree servo/store for local updates.
I reckon the Muloorina experience might also be quite rewarding, especially visiting Goyder's Channel.

Cheers

Rick M

Yes, please don't drive on the lakebed!

There wasn't much salt to be seen at Level Post Bay on 7 June 2008. Just a mud plain that wasn't easy to walk on, but probably would have been easy to bog a vehicle on!

Ah, thanks to everyone! There's some great info there plus photos and video. Much appreciated!

To set all your caring minds at ease, I have no intention of riding the bike on the lake. It's not only illegal and immoral but downright stupid. I'm well beyond the hooning stage of life.

From the viewpoint of a pristine environmental photographer, degrading the aesthetics is just not on.

I certainly don't want to get the bike stuck in the mud and I don't want to get salty mud on it and have it go rusty.

One of the things I'm up against is that you can't get a quadbike registered. While I've ridden on some roads within stations, just as the pastoralists do, it would be pushing the boundaries a bit far to ride on roads which are on the regular 4x4 tourist route.

I'm having a bit of trouble inserting photos from my website because they're hotlink protected by CloudFlare. Here's another try:





These photos come from near the junction of Teatree Creek with Lake Torrens, east of Andamooka.

I'm hoping the access the mouth of Margaret Creek near Lake Eyre South.

My old bike was not sufficiently reliable for another trip so I bought a new (second hand) one. Here she is fitted out with boxes for the trip:



Later in the year my wife will accompany me on another trip along the Strzelecki track and up to Lake Eyre South. Another couple will be with us with a Landrover. I'll have no trailer and no bike so we may be able to include some of these great suggestions.

Thanks!