The Oodnadatta Track and SA Outback

The 130km from Arkaroola to Leigh Creek was uneventful.  As we moved out of the ranges the land became dryer and the trees became more sparse.  We drove through the Nepabunna Aboriginal Community and stopped off briefly for a look at the community centre and to chat to the ranger.  We also left the flowering cassia bushes and their resultant hay-fever behind.  Leigh Creek is a mining town, home to the country's largest coal mine.  It also has the last supermarket we'll see for 1,000km so we stocked up the cupboards and fridge.  The next 33km is the last bit of sealed road we'll drive on for a while.

Farina Ruins is about 50km from Leigh Creek and had been recommended to us as a good camping spot so we stayed there for the night.  Farina means "flour" in Italian and the property and town were set up as a grain producing area.  The town was inhabited until the late 1960s but is now in ruin.







We stopped off at Marree, a further 60km down the road, to top up with fuel.  We'll be filling up every time we see a diesel pump from now on and the $1.99 per litre we paid at Leigh Creek will seem like a bargain.  Across the road from the Maree Roadhouse is a memorial to the Afghan cameleers and a mosque.






At Maree we turned left onto the Oodnadatta Track - the right turn is the Birdsville Track.  The road is good quality, wide and unsealed for its 600km length to Marla.  The towns of William Creek and Oodnadatta are about 200km apart on the road which skirts the western side of Lake Eyre.  Not far past Maree we cam across some sculptures.  There were planes, cars, even a bus transformed into artworks. We stopped at the Lake Eyre South Lookout to take some photos of Australia's largest lake and then proceeded on to the little oasis of Coward Springs.

This is a real gem of a campground in the middle of the desert.  There is a bore fed spa where we could cool off and wash off the dust.  The spa overflows into a small wetland with plenty of birds.  The owners are actively reforesting the area and there are plenty of trees and shade around.  Coward  Springs was a railway siding and there's a small museum with lots of information about the area and it's wildlife.

The next morning was a short drive, only about 70km, to William Creek.  It was good to arrive before lunch and have a powered site so we could use our air conditioning in the heat. We had decided to do a 2 hour scenic flight over Lake Eyre and Painted Hills so that kept us occupied for the afternoon (see separate post).  William Creek is not far from Woomera and Roxby Downs and there are some relics of rocket testing in days gone by.

From William Creek we drove north to Oodnadatta where we stopped for lunch at the Pink Roadhouse - easily identifiable because it's pink!

After lunch we headed down the Coober Pedy Road for 45km where we turned towards the Stuart Highway.  We checked into the Arckaringa Homestead Campground with views of the Painted Desert and it's photogenic hills.

The next morning we drove through the Copper Hills and soon after we were back on sealed road and heading towards the Northern Territory border.