Dalhousie to Alice Springs - 8 - 10 August

We drove from Dalhousie via Oodnadatta to Hookeys Hole where we camped with another Bushtracker family. We saw our first wild budgies and lots of pink Galahs.






The next day we drove through the Painted Desert to Arckaringa Station, where we camped for the night. We had time to drive back into the Painted Desert and enjoy the sunset sitting on a rock. This was very special.












The next day we drove through the Copper Hills and overnighted at Erldunda Roadhouse a good transit Camp. They have all pull through sites and serve a good dinner.


We then finally made the Northern Territory border after almost three months in South Australia.


From there we drove to the MacDonnell Range Holiday Park in Alice Springs.

Dalhousie Springs – 6 and 7 August 2009

We drove from Oodnadatta to Dalhousie Springs passing the Perdika Siding and ruins, once a stop on the old Ghan and the ruins of the old Dalhousie Homestead. These places were truly remote although they had their own racetrack. Picnic races were very much a part of the social scene on these Stations.

Dalhousie was made a National Park when it was found that grazing was degrading the Springs. The old homestead is like an oasis with its date palms and springs.

The road in can only be described as "ordinary". As we drove into Dalhousie a man came up to Tricia and said I knew it had to be a Bushtracker when it came around the corner. Dalhousie is the beginning and end of the Simpson Desert track and our neighbour who had just crossed the Simpson in both directions seemed more impressed that we had brought the van in.

There are many mound springs in this area which can be visualized as an upside down shower head, formed by water being forced at pressure from the Great Artesian Basin.

Dissolved chemicals precipitate to form the mounds. The Basin is recharged from rain water in Queensland which moves south percolating through limestone rocks.

Dalhousie Spring comes from deep down and is very warm [37 to 43 degrees Centigrade] and beautiful to swim in. The water is thought to be about 3 million years old.

 

John thinks we would pay a lot for this anywhere else, a massage on the road in followed by a hot spa.

The main spring is about 100 metres by 50 metres and although the water is deep in many places you can also stand with just your head out.

Oodnadatta - 5 August 2009

We left William Creek and drove to Oodnadatta where we stayed at the Pink Roadhouse. Oodnadatta means Mulga flower. Oodnadatta was for many years the rail head of the Ghan. It had a Hospital and an Aerodrome and was a very busy place. Camel Trains started from here and went to Stations up to 1400 kilometers further out. In 1928 the rail was finally built through to Alice Springs and Oodnadatta lost its importance.The Station is now a museum.

Now we are truly off road the Darwinian law of caravans is starting to apply. Throughout our trip we have seen thousands of caravans but only three Bushtracker vans. On the Oodnadatta track we have seen only four full size vans, plenty of camper trailers and two Kimberly Kamper vans. Of the four full size vans three have been Bushtrackers!

Following advice from the owner of the roadhouse we adjusted the tyre pressures in the Land Cruiser and the Van - 20 psi front and 26 psi rear on the Land Cruiser and 24 psi on the Van. Somehow tyre pressures did not go metric. It does make a difference, reducing the risk of stone damage and the modern tyres seem to take the flexing and not overheat. Mind you speeds for us are low, never more than 70 kph [42 mph] and sometimes as low as 10 kph [6 mph]

 

 

William Creek and Lake Eyre redux - 3 and 4 August 2009

From Coober Pedy we drove to William Creek. William Creek was once the dinner stop on the Ghan. While the train loaded coal and water the passengers ate dinner. The decline of William Creek began when dining cars were installed on the Ghan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, William Creek is just one hotel and a stop for those crossing the Simpson Desert, heading further North or going to see Lake Eyre, with an occasional road train.

It is also within Anna Creek Station part of Sydney Kidman's Cattle Empire. Anna Creek is the world’s largest working cattle Station. At 6,000,000 acres it is larger than Israel. It is largely destocked at the moment as it is in drought.

We had dinner at the William Creek Hotel. The meal is ordered when you book. We were served dinner by a nice young Canadian Woman. Since we have been in the outback we have been served by a United Nations of young women. If they spend 88 days working in Remote and Rural Locations they can possibly extend their visa by a year.

  This is a standpipe. The pink Galah's are a favourite, colourful and playful in flocks.

 
 

The next day we drove to Heligan Bay and ABC Bay at Lake Eyre. This was a rough road but the scenery was worth it. We had a picnic at Heligan Bay.

We were lucky to see a Lake Eyre Lizard a native of the salt pans.

 

 

 

 

The sign on the road to William Creek is explicit. As Trish took the photo a young Frenchman in a beat up combi van stopped - shrugged his shoulders and said he had nozzing on the list - and then drove on.

 

 

Perhaps only Austrian tourists die, this grave of Caroline Grossmeuller is on the road to Lake Eyre from William Creek.

 

Coober Pedy – 31 July, 1 and 2 August 2009

 From Wirraminna we drove to Coober Pedy – the Opal capital of the world - staying at the Stuart Ranges Camping Park.

Mining on a large scale started after World War I – and the ex-Diggers faced with lack of timber and used to living in trench occupied the failed mines. The local aborigines thought these men were the ghosts of their ancestors who had lost their colour, and called them Kupta Piti loosely translated as white men jumping out of holes. This became Coober Pedy.

 

Next day we took the Stuart Tour. This was a fabulous tour with a wealth of information.

 

 

 

We saw the Breakaways and gazed out on what was once the bottom of the ocean bed many millions of years ago. We saw moon rocks and the moon plain. We also saw rocks made of fossilized salt water. Moon rocks are very popular for decorating the above ground buildings.

 

We stopped at the dog fence which is designed to keep the dingoes north.

We visited the Serbian Church, an underground church that is world heritage listed [only twelve years after it was built], and the only one we know of with a bar.

When you look at this hill every vent has a room underneath it. Air goes out through the small vents. The larger vents pull air in very slowly and it is either warmed or cooled by the rocks depending on the season.

Correctly done the temperature will remain between 23C [73F] and 25C [77F] degrees all year round. This is why underground living is so popular here as the ambient temperatures on the surface vary from -2C [28F] to 65C[149F].

We saw an old time dugout, very dusty, and a modern dugout which is finished with silcrete to eliminate the dust. A new dugout it is left for a year or more so the rock dries out. Otherwise there are constant problems with damp. Houses can be as grand as you want; all you have to do is dig another room and as miners these guys are pretty good at that. One has an indoor lap pool and shooting range for his high powered rifle. And noise from parties stays indoors.

 

The vacuum cleaner truck [a local invention] sucks excavated rock from the mine. When the drum fills the vacuum is blocked, the drum base opens and empties the drum thus restarting the vacuum and sucking the drum base closed again. All the mine dumps are about 10% opal and a popular pastime is noodling for opal, that is sifting through the piles of rubble and seeing what you can find. Noodling can be dangerous because of all the mine holes and because the dumps are inherently unstable.

 

When a seam of opal is found, it still has to be mined by hand.

Opal is formed from a solution of silicon dioxide and water. As water runs down through the earth, it picks up silica from sandstone, and carries this silica-rich solution into cracks and voids , caused by natural faults or decomposing fossils. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind a silica deposit. This cycle repeats over very long periods of time, and eventually opal is formed.

Golf, mostly played at night with glowing balls, is on a course which replicates Royal St Andrews minus the grass. This is the only golf course which has reciprocal rights with St. Andrew Golf course

Before leaving we filled our tanks, water is scarce here. It comes from a bore into the Great Artesian Basin and reverse osmosis is used to make it drinkable. This means they have great water but they charge for it.

Main street Coober Pedy. The Desert Cave Hotel has some dugout rooms and excellent coffee

Wirraminna Station – 30 July 2009

    

From Roxby Dam we drove to Wirraminna Station where we camped near the shearer’s quarters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the road to Wirraminna we passed Island Lagoon a salt lake where the Americans built their tracking facility.

Shortly after this we stopped at Lake Hart.

 

 

 

 

 

The line for the modern Ghan passes next to Lake Hart and it was interesting to see the modern concrete sleepers with sprung steel attaching plates, in place of the old Jarrah sleepers and steel ties.

Tricia enjoyed one of her favorite pastimes, salt lake walking.

 

Quite often we pass Wedge Tailed Eagles feeding off road kill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sections of the Stuart Highway have been developed as airstrips to allow the Royal Flying Doctor Service to use them in event of emergencies. They come about every 80 kms.

Roxby Downs, Andamooka, Woomera - 28 to 30 July 2009

We left Marree in the afternoon for the mining town of Roxby Downs, following the Oodnadata Track.

By chance we met Paul Clancy, who had left Beltana Station the day we arrived, and was trekking with his four camels from Port Augusta to Alice Springs. He stopped for lunch and a chat and we passed on Graham and Laura's best wishes and replenished his supply of dark chocolate.

 

 

 

 

Along the track a local homestead has commissioned an artist to do an annual art work. Some of the results are below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recent rains have brought out many of the desert wildflowers - beautiful and delicate in the harsh landscape.

Having visited most of the abandoned copper mines in South Australia, Roxby Downs with the nearby Olympic Dam Mine the world's sixth largest copper and largest uranium deposits, is still in its growth phase. 

In addition to being a good pit stop as the water [bore water put through reverse osmosis] is perfectly pure and being a mining town the shopping is good, it is also a most interesting area.

The first day we toured the Arid Recovery Reserve. This 86 sq km fenced area of Arid lands excludes feral animals especially cats and foxes allowing the reestablishment of populations of Greater Bilbies, Burrowing Bettongs, Western Barred Bandicoots and Sticknest rats which had survived on off-shore islands.

They have designed a special fence dug in with a floppy over hang which prevents cats from climbing over. They hope by eradicating foxes and cats they will be able to use these ark populations to repopulate mainland Australia.

Both the Bilbies and Bettongs dig small holes when they forage which leaves behind a perfect little seed bed for indigenous plants.

The highlight of the tour was seeing the Bettong's after sunset, although they did not perform perfectly for the camera. As the guide said the Bettong "is not the sharpest knife in the drawer" when it comes to species, but it is extremely cute, looking like a miniature kangaroo.

The next day we drove to Woomera 80 km. south of Roxby Downs. It still is a prohibited area, although the village is now open to tourists. A woomera is an aboriginal word for a spear thrower which enables the spear to be thrown faster than by the arm alone. Woomera is the worlds largest defense systems test and evaluation range.

The UK Government, having suffered the German V2 Rocket attacks, put a high priority on developing their own capacity. As there were no suitable places for testing in England in 1947 Woomera was established as an Anglo Australian joint venture. The Woomera Prohibited Area now 127,000 sq kilometers, about the size of England or Florida, was established. It was initially twice that size.

In the 1960's the USA also built facilities there. The national Missile park has examples of missiles and Rockets tested over the last 60 years.
The Woomera Heritage Centre has an extremely good historical overview of Woomera. It must have been a great place to live, working with very smart people at the forefront of research. The town has very happy vibes.

Although Woomera is less relevant it is still used for testing.

The following day we toured the Olympic Dam Mine. which contains Copper, Silver, Gold and Uranium, and is owned by BHP Billiton.

This was a very good and instructive tour. We were not allowed to take photographs. Olympic Dam is named after a tiny water bore and tank established by the Roxby Downs sheep station the year Melbourne hosted the Olympics.

At present it is an underground mine but they want to move to open cut. Like all things Uranium this will be a controversial political decision.