D5: Blowin' In the Wind

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Day 5 Port Augusta to Marree (via Borefield-Oodnadatta track)

A bit of an easier day km-wise (450), so we had time in the morning to grab a few items at the shops, fill our supposedly “full” gas bottles. Temperature this morning was 6.2 degs - feels like 1.2 degs. Even the locals were commenting on how cold the wind was.

We set off into a howling head-wind and seemed to be forever going uphill - absolutely killed the full economy. We then veered off at Pimba after a P stop and headed towards Woomera - the town base servicing a prohibited military testing and evaluation facility (did someone say Area 51?). Driving around the town was really quite interesting as they have put on display in public areas a lot of old military and rocket artifacts. It was worth the quick detour in.

After leaving Woomera we then passed through the mining town of Roxby Downs, which really was just your typical mining town. Just past Roxby Downs (Olympic Dam) we ran out of bitumen and on to the unsealed Borefield Rd. This road, which would ultimately lead us on to the bottom end of the Oodnadata track, was in pretty reasonable condition and only got better as we hit a section that was being graded that day - which made it great for 100 km/h travel. At the end of Borefield we turned onto the section of the Oodnadata track we didn't see during our Alice Springs trip last year. In contrast to the Borefield Rd, this section of road was full of holes, dips and washouts - but it was still an interesting drive.

As we passed Alberrie Creek (about 30-40km before Marree) we were amazed to see a collection of large sculptures made from items such as old planes, cars and other miscellaneous items - some sculptures had an obvious environmental message. We had just passed the Mutonia Sculpture Park. It is amazing the things you see in what seems to be the middle of nowhere.

We arrived at Marree and did the caravan park dance - trying to work out how to best position the van and trailer - not without a little dummy spitting I might add. As we had become quite adept now at building wind tunnels between our two vehicles, a tarp was hung to provide a some shelter from the cool night breeze - better than nothing. After dinner, a quick trip 50m down the road to check out the Marree pub was in order. A great little outback pub, full of character and history - and a DART board - let the games begin!

LOTD

- the outback continues to amaze

GCRtWDC - Girls-1 Boys-1

Pool - G0 B1

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