Marree / William Creek / Oodnadatta / Marla - (Oodnadatta Track), Sth Oz

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14 - 18 May 2011

OODNADATTA TRACK!!!

We came, we saw, we conquered! Well, it wasn't really that hardcore...

The start (or end for those travelling south) of the Oodnadatta Track is a little town called Marree. It is of great significance in the history of the camel men and it was a bit of a shake up to us in terms of distances between towns and lack of available water.. We stayed only a night and accidently met a lovely woman working at the health centre who let us bring car & camper around into the backyard of the hospital and fill up our tanks with drinking water. She saved us a lot of time and money so it was a very lucky (and unusual) trail of circumstances that brought us to her.

We met another young family here from Ballarat who (unbeknown to us at the time) we were to meet up with time and again along our travels.

The Oodnadatta Track wasn't as bad as we had expected although it did give the camper a bit of a rattle around and we really should have sealed up all the vents beforehand. Oh well, you live and you learn!

We stopped at William Creek and watched the price of diesel skyrocket in front of our eyes. $2.20 and rising! From here we took the 64km drive out to Lake Eyre - this was a hardcore track and we found out later that some people had trashed their cars on this track. It was an interesting drive in terms of scenery and great to see water in the lake. It was a strange landscape and at times we felt like we were driving on the moon.

On arrival at William Creek, our most remote stop by far, we discovered a leak in our water tank (our precious water!!) and the hose of the gas bottle that powers the camper fridge and stove had cracked. Alex tinkered with the hoses around the water tank and fixed the problem - thank goodness, that could have been a huge pain for us. We got by without the main gas supply so we were back on the road again..

The town of Oodnadatta was a bit of a shock. Junk and rubbish strewn everywhere, you could tell straight away it was once a thriving town that had been deserted by most of its inhabitants. Apart from the beautiful sunset, the other memorable part of this stop was meeting three men from Mona Vale who were travelling around on trail bikes for a while. Such a big country, yet you bump into all these people from home - unbelieveable!

The end of the Oodnadatta Track heading north is Marla. It was good to see bichumen again, who ever thought we'd be hanging to see the black road again! It's the little things these days....

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