Drove South into South Australia as far as Cadney Park then headed onto the Painted Desert road. Was getting late in the day so the colours of the desert were beautiful. Totally different to the deserts we've seen across the GCH, with very little vegetation and a lot of little red rocks plus hills of varying hues from light cream, yellow, rust and dark brown which is where the desert gets its name. Arckaringa station has basic camping but good showers and toilets and HUGE night skies. Has a chat around the camp fire with the other group staying there who we had met at Ayers Rock resort so that was fun. Also met the station owner who was a really friendly bloke. They run a massive half a million acres with about one animal per 250 acres. It's all certified organic as well cos the cattle eat the native grasses (few and far between), and don't need treatments for ticks or worms etc as I presume it's just so spread out. The vastness and scale are truly mind boggling. Huge 660km covered in one day so we slept soundly that night.
Next day headed for a quick walk to see the painted hills up close. It's really spectacular but so stark and harsh at the same time. Drove onto Oodnadatta and stopped at the pink Roadhouse which is well and truly the best road house we have seen. We even got good bread. If I harp on about bread it's cos it's really difficult to get anything that has any fibre as most of the bread is mighty whitey shitey super soft ugh in the farther out places. The road was freshly graded all the way from Cadney Park so really easy driving too.
The Oodnadatta track follows the Old Ghan railway line which was decommissioned in 1986 and replaced by the rail line that follows along the Stuart Highway. As you drive along, you can see the old line plus many of the old bridges and supporting buildings remain. Oodnadatta and William creek are the only surviving 'towns'. There are also the old telegraph line remnants as well. We stopped at Algebuckina bridge which is still one of SA's longest single span bridges. Continued as far as Edward creek where we camped next to another bridge. Still has many of the old sleepers and the railway embankments all the way which are still very intact. They only get 150mm of rain a year on average so no water erosion. Was a beautiful quiet place to camp with plenty gum trees under the bridge and along the sandy dry creek.
Next morning a gale started up pretty suddenly around 5am. Made breakfast and camp pull down pretty hard work. Even with 4 of us pulling the tent down, it nearly flew off. It was also cold!! Kids called the campsite In The Spikes as it was covered in bull heads (evil wooden spikes about half a cm in size, capable of penetrating flip flops, feet, tent floor and mattresses!).
Made it to William creek which has a population of 6 except when lake Eyre floods and then it's inundated with tourists. Stopped to look at the rocket remains and old historical artifacts in the park. The pub looks great as well, would be a cool place to spend the night.
We drove past some amazing sand dunes and dry lakes then stopped at Strangeways which has the historical ruins of a station and old telegraph line. It's situated on a heap of mound Springs which have now mostly dried up but there's a couple that still trickle and have some very unique plant and animal life. Aptly named it's an eerie, barren place that looks like it's been destroyed by stock and humans over the last century. Huge views out over the red gibber desert were amazing. Had an Irish picnic style lunch hunkered in behind the car sheltering from the howling winds.
We then went onto to see the Mound Springs at a little national Park south of Coward Springs which looked like a good place to camp. There are two mound springs which are situated in such a stark, surreal location surrounded by salt pans and off in the distance, shimmering mountains in the mirages. A mound spring is a spring fed from the Great Artesian Basin (which sits under a vast area of QLD, SA, NSW and NT. Worth a Google). Around the spring, materials build up over time (think 1000s of years) to form a mound out of which the spring flows and provides water for plant, animal and human alike. It's quite saline so very unique plants grow here. Both the Bubbler and Blanche Cup have only a trickle of water now compared to pre European settlement which opened up thousands of bores on the Great Artesian Basin reducing the water pressure.
Next stop was a view point over looking Lake Eyre South which joins up to its bigger part Lake Eyre North - Australia's largest salt lake. It's an immense view over the stark white landscape contrasting with the red, bare desert scape. Then stopped briefly at a sculpture Park made by some local at Albertine creek out of old scrap metal. An interesting break from the bleak desert.
Reached Maree about 4.30 passing Anna creek station which is the world's largest pastoral station! The roads were more corrugated from Williams creek but still in very good condition. Very beautiful, stark and striking drive, conditions way better then we expected and probably achievable in a high clearance 2wd.
Had a couple of birthdays to celebrate so decided to have dinner at the hotel which is a Victorian style building built in 1883 and just full of character. They have free camping out the back so set about setting up the tent. It was still blowing a gale so parked the car as a wind shield. After 15 minutes we managed to get the base pegged down but when it came to standing the poles up, realised we possibly could but risked snapping them so we decided it wasn't an option. Having camped 80 out of the last 87 nights this wasn't a decision made out of laziness but from the fact this was the windiest conditions we had ever (well maybe apart from a few nights in a hiking tent in South America's Andes many moons ago) attempted to set up in. Back into the hotel they had a cabin available so we had to sleep in proper beds after a great feed at the pub plus fresh Coopers pale ale on tap. The silver lining to a failed tent setup!!
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