Day 38 - Dalhousie Springs, Oodnadatta, Arckaringa Station

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It is the third day of my compulsory rural component of my 457 visa requirement. We are required to work hard and help Chris Whittle esq with his overland adventure.



After rising early and enjoying a morning swim in the steaming warm springs we make breakfast and packed up camp including the tent and Mr Whittle’s bedding, he has organised the expedition to the finest detail and is meticulous in the packing of the transport. Before departing tent pegs are licked clean, tent poles polished, wheel nuts are tightened with in an inch of their lives due to a previous unfortunate event which was of course no fault of the meticulous Mr Whittle. We make sure Mr Whittle is comfortable in the passenger seat and I drive the onerous and precarious drive to the town of Oodnadatta, while Mr Whittle dozes and relaxes, my other 457 visa companion (Paul, nice but slightly indecisive) attempts to navigate and calculate the proposed mileage to be covered. We arrive at the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta where I organise a healthy meal of two burgers with the works for Mr Whittle and Paul, once fed and watered we resume our journey towards our days end destination Arckaringa Station. Arckeringa Station is a remote cattle station about 120kms south of Oodnadatta, the landscape is dusty, barren and unforgiving, however we are greeted by the delightful Chrissy and Tiny Tim who are a blue cattle dog and a maltese, jack Russell, shitzu cross (respectively) who help us choose the least dusty campsite. Probably best not to take the advice from two dogs however Mr Whittle is besotted with the two dogs especially when tiny tim presented him with a recently captured wood pigeon -so once again Paul and I spend the next two hours setting up the tent and begin organising the evening meal, lay out Mr Whittle PJ’s.



As a wonderful break from all our chores, Mr Whittle entertains us with by playing his guitar and sings along to songs he has self composed. – amazing. To add to the excitement there is a fellow traveller who also give us a wonderful repertoire on his didgeridoo.



Lamb chops for dinner Mr Whittle gave all the lamb tails to tiny tim and Chrissy which somewhat disappointed Paul.

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