Arkaroola to Adelaide Hills

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Day 7 - Arkaroola to home!

I woke when the first drops of rain hit the swag at about 2am. I was hoping it was just a light drop of rain and it would soon pass over, however that wasn’t to be the case. Dad got up in the night and it was so wet that he couldn’t get back into the swag, so he stayed in the 4wd for a bit of the night. I got up at 6am and the campsite was like a river, with everything that was left outside waterlogged. Esther had been sleeping in a pool of water and was satched. Meanwhile Dad and I packed up camp while Luke stayed nice and dry in the warmth of his swag!!

We packed before long and locked the hubs so we could use the 4wd to get back into town. The road was pretty muddy and at some stages all four wheels were spinning in the mud. We arrived in Arkaroola and got the spare tyre fixed. We were all cold, wet and tired. I just wanted to get home, because once the rain starts the roads turn to mud and there is no way out. Between us and home was 130km of dirt roads, which some of the locals were saying would be closed for a few days!! However it looked like we had missed the boat (or might have been better if we had had a boat!) as apparently the roads were already closed.

We hired a cabin with two bunk beds and a shower, however the heater didn’t work and there was no hot water! So we soon hired another couple of rooms that had a heater & hot water… Dad was into the shower before we managed to close the front door! I had resigned myself to the fact that we would be stuck in this town (population 12 when they are all there) for a few days. This would have been a disaster because I would have missed a 100th Birthday party, a flight to London plus a wedding, so imagine my delight when just after lunch I heard one of the locals say that to his surprise the road is still open but it will probably close soon. With that I rounded up Dad and we were soon packing for our journey back to Adelaide.

However we were not out of trouble yet, the road was very slippery and had creeks starting to form across it. We had heard that there was a 10km section that was quite bad, and once past that we would be ok for the rest of the track. We came across one creek crossing where many cars and caravans had stopped, no one could get past it as the water was flowing too fast. We met an Aboriginal in a 4wd and he took us through a cattle station to an alternate crossing that wasn’t as wide, only deeper! We took a gamble and went through, with water lapping up over the doors we soon were on the other side. Next was the traitorous 10 km stretch where some of the time all four wheels were spinning and flicking up mud constantly. On more than one occastion the windscreen was covered in a layer of mud from creeks and puddles.

After three and a half hours we were at Leigh Creek and had (only!) 600km of bitumen roads to our home town. The weather was horrible with rain pelting down for most of the way. The drive was long, it was late, and so when finally back in Adelaide we stopped in at McDonalds. Esther didn’t have anything, Dad and Matt had a cheeseburger each and Luke had:

2 Double Cheeseburgers
1 Bacon Double Cheeseburger
1 Big Mac
1 Mc Chicken
2 Large Fries
2 Large Cokes

Talk about greedy!!

We arrived back at home in the Adelaide Hills at 12:04am, very tired from the long journey home, but glad that we were there!

Distance today: 723 km
Total distance: 3299 km

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Comments

[Ray Thomas]

Sorry
Hi, Sorry your experience of Arkaroola wasn't more positive. We are, as you know. in the middle of nowhere and sometimes things are not always manageble. I hope you you remember us with a little affection! Cheers, Ray