Oodnadatta Track

The Symphony Under the Stars wasn’t really my cup of tea, Jayne enjoyed James Morrison, but even he didn’t do it for me. There was a bar at the Golf Club where the event was held, the symphony was out of the greens, so I was able to sit and enjoy a beer or two with this event in the background. Certainly there were a lot of Alice Sprung's there, and not so many tourists.

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We headed off to Glen Helen Resort the next day as this was reported to us as a magical place with striking views over the river to the escarpment. The drive from Alice to Glen Helen was only 135kms and extremely scenic, but when we arrived there is was 42⁰and the camping area was a dust bowl. We were very disappointed, so we headed into another Gorge as they also had camping, but it was worse as there was no breeze there and still 42⁰!

We headed back to Alice for more fuel and then turned south, aiming for an overnight stay then onto Cooper Pedy, an opal mining town that lives underground due to the heat. We pulled up at 5.00pm at a roadside stop and it was still over 40⁰, so out came the generator and we fired up the air conditioner in the van for some relief. This is the first time ever that we’ve been forced to use the generator for cooling and after a few changes I worked out how to run the air-con from the genny.

It rained the next morning and the temperature plummeted that much we had to dig out the jumpers for warmth.

We were heading for Cooper Pedy as per our plan, but in typical fashion for Jayne and I we changed our minds and decided to go down the Oodnadatta Track, another famous Australian dirt road, which is something we’ve considered doing a few times, but we have only done half of it previously due to rain, where we had to turn back.

We decided to do this track after travelling 2kms from our last fuel stop, so we had to turn back and get more water before tackling such a desert trek. Our kids will be able to relate to these snap decisions, Justin and Alexis reckon we had E.S.P. when we used to cart them around the country side and we would change our plans without even saying a word between the two of us!

The Oodnadatta track took us through “The Painted Desert”, and the scenery is truly spectacular. Even the road was changing colour as we were driving along it, from bright red to yellow and then brilliant white.

Our first night on the Oodnadatta Track was at Arckaringa Station, the Painted Desert is on this property. We pulled into the homestead and duly knocked on the door as per the instructions on the sign, but no answer. We waited for ages without any sign of life except for the stations generator that was pumping along and all the lights were on.

So I gave them a call on our UHF radio and a guy from Mt Barry Station replied. Mt Barry is 45kms away, these repeater stations work really well in these parts. I was amazed that he was so clear, being 45kms away. He said he was a part owner in Arckaringa and that the manager was away that night. So we could stay there for free and be the “Manager” for the night. This sounded like a good deal to us.

Just after that another younger couple in a 4WD pulled in, they were listening to the conversation and thus knew we were the “appointed” managers. They paid their camping fees leaving them at the office. All good so far.

We enjoyed the sunset over the Painted Desert. What a view all from where we were camped.

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We were in bed sound asleep when this almighty banging occurred at our door, sounded like there was on fire or something. Both Jayne and I had visions of the movie Wolfe Creek so we were obviously reluctant to answer the door, Jayne yelled out what do you want? It turns out it was this other couple camped there had put a tent peg through a water line and they were nearly flooded.

We got up and gave him some advice but there wasn’t much else we could do at 11.00pm. I think we earned our free camping Managers Fee that night!

We enjoyed an early morning walk over the Painted Desert and then headed off to Oodnadatta. The Painted Desert was just fantastic, miles of these multi-coloured hills and as we were driving in the road was constantly changing colour with every turn and dip. Really quite something.

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Everywhere around Oodnadatta you read and see signs to the Pink Roadhouse. It’s a very famous pub in these parts. They give road advice as well as let you know what tyre pressures to run on these roads, just about anything you want to know around here you can find out by a phone call to the Pink Roadhouse.

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You can imagine our disappointment when we arrived at Oodnadatta and saw the Pink Roadhouse. It was an absolute dump and looked like it was about to blow over at any minute. They did sell good food and the place was abuzz with people eating there. The rest of Oodnadatta was closed, it must have been a religious holiday or something that we didn’t know about as there wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere.

We left and headed south towards William Creek and we camped alongside the Oodnadatta Track. It was so cold in the morning we had to fire up the diesel heater in the van. Crazy country this is. From extremely hot and humid in Broome to very cold and dry just south of the centre of Australia. Only 4 days driving really.

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We pulled up at Coward Springs for a swim the next day. While we were having lunch in the van I noticed it was making some strange noises as we were moving around in it. I thought we had broken something in the suspension, so I got out to look under the van and instantly saw the cause of the noise. A flat tyre. Talk about a convenient place to get a flat, it was cool, only around 20⁰, virtually no humidity and a nice thermal pool to swim in afterwards to wash off the dust.

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We were underway without any trouble, cool and calm! If we got that flat tyre a few days ago and I had to change it in 40⁰+ with over 90% humidity this would have been a totally different story!

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On the way into Roxby Downs where we mine uranium, we heard a call for assistance over the radio. A mining 4WD had rolled over and the girl driving it needed assistance. While she was talking to the main communication centre of the mine, we worked out she was about 95kms away from us up a very small track, they had a car on the way to her, she wasn’t hurt just shaken. It was amazing listening to all the emergency services kicking into action and arranging assistance for her. Again over amazing distances via the UHF repeaters. You certainly need a UHF radio when you’re travelling in these remote areas.

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