Strange hissing noise ...

We took the back road from the Gawler Ranges to Iron Knob, about 200kms of dirt that took us through some beautiful country and some very large grazing properties (that took us most of the day to traverse).

On the way through the Gawler Ranges we happened upon a local property owner who was clearing some trees across the track from a recent storm that had gone through the area ... who was in for a chat ... his property was only 250,000 acres ... but he also owned another one which was 1,000,000 acres in White Cliffs (which we had previously visited at the start of our adventure) as well as a couple of holiday cottages in Burra and had frequented Toowoomba regulalry (even naming the coffee shops that he went to for breakfast! All just across the park from us.)

You see odd things in remote places ... this was at the entrance to Mt Ive Station in the Gawler Ranges. Apparently, it was made by a local service club out of an old boiler and a few other bits.

After re-fueling in Port Augusta, we headed back north to the Flinders Ranges to camp at Parachilna Gorge for the night. The temperature was 39 degrees - and still 36 at 7.00pm.

A storm had been through the Ranges since our last visit and there were lots of large branches on the ground and washouts on the tracks. 

With no one else was around and the temperatures having dropped it was a great spot for the night. It is that time of the year when a lot of the local businesses start to close down as it simply gets too hot - the Parachilna Hotel had a '"closed" sign on the door.

From Parachilna Gorge we headed north to Lyndhurst, then on to Maree and the start of the Oodnadatta Track.  The Oodnadatta Track is 614km dirt road that connects Maree in the south-east with Marla in the north-west going via Oodnadatta. It's unsealed, remote and desolate - we saw 8 vehicles for the 600 odd kms. It generall follows the old Ghan Railway and features lots of ruins of a bygone era. It passes Anna Creek cattle station which is apparently the largest in the world.

It is characterised by vast sand and gibber plains as well as areas of sand dune country where the dominant features are dunes and flat areas (swales). It is not a place to be after rain where you can get stuck for days! There are salt lakes like Lake William and without a doubt the greatest of them, Kati Thanda- Lake Eyre.

Our first stop on the track was Farina - 55kms south of Maree.

Farina was first settled in 1878 by some optimistic farmers who believed that rain follows the plough! At its peak in the late 19th century, Farina had a population of about 600 with two hotels, an underground bakery, a bank, two breweries, one general store, one church, five blacksmiths, a school and a brothel! The town has not been inhabited since 1967, however since 2008 there has been a very active group of volunteers working to restore the remaining buildings.

Every year from May to July the volunteers run the bakery (in the below ground bakery and using traditional bread making/cooking methods) and carry out the restoration work. The goods produced at the bakery are sold to the passing tourists who are far greater in number compared to when we were there.

It was just us and a large kangaroo sheltering in one of the old buildings. We think he was a large old male who had been in a few bingles, he had large chunks missing from his ears.

Back on the track and on to Maree - home on the Lake Eyre Yacht Club where Pete dropped in to the shop that has everything and had a chat with the local chef about the condition of the Track… he assured us all was good ... no problem to keep going (the forecast rain wouldn't happen as they were in a drought and the road was "pretty good") … so we did!

Next stop was the lookout at Lake Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre). The large expanse of white salt was whiter than white where it was hard to look at for too long, the temperature was also now in the high 30s so, it seemed very logical to continue on Coward Springs.

Coward Springs is a former station of the Central Australian Railway that now has a great campground, history museum and a spa on the edge of wetlands. The tiny natural spring has a water temperature of 29 degrees! With the temperature now hitting 40 it was very nice to get in and have a soak. It is a very quirky little place but with so much history.

We passed through William Creek as we wanted to get to Algebuckina Bridge for the night. It is 55kms south-east of Oodnadatta.

The Algebuckina bridge was opened in January 1892 as part of the Central Australian Railway. Until 2014 it held the title of the longest bridge in South Australia. The bridge is 587m long consists of 19 spans of 30m length which are of a lattice wrought iron construction sitting on cast iron cylinder pillars. It did get strengthened in 1926 to take heavier trains.

Built by a team of around 350 men (largely unemployed and using wheel barrows, axes and shovels) the bridge crosses the flood plain of the Neales River. After a severe flood in 1974 the water almost reached the bridge decks. The bridge was closed in 1981.

It is hard to imagine how the construction teams could work in such a harsh environment, several lives were lost, some of the workers are buried nearby. It was pretty weird camping at the foot of the bridge as the rustle of the wind made it sound like a train was coming as it whistled and rattled parts of the bridge.

We setup camp for the night in the shade of the bridge, the temperature dropped a bit, but it was a pretty warm old night.  We think that it didn't get below 30 degress all night.

Doing the Oodnadatta Track and camping beside Algebuckina Bridge has been on Pete’s bucket list for a while so it was a great location for us to celebrate his birthday … good thing the champagne was in the fridge!

Next morning we headed to Oodnadatta to refuel and grab a coffee.  As expected, diesel wasn’t cheap at $2.99/litre! Good timing for us, as the local cop was also in having a coffee so we were able to ask about track conditions. We had decided to go through the Painted Desert to Coober Pedy approximately 194kms.

Oodnadatta has reported 50.7 degrees in the past (Feb1983) ... we had a cool day - it was only 40!

The section from Algebuckina to Oodnadatta (about 50kms) then out through the Painted Desert (for about another 70kms) is stunning ... reasonably open and slightly undulating in parts with oranges, reds, splashes of white, black and greenery (lots of washaways and floodways) - the Painted Desert is defintely a place that we would come back again to ... and would be stunning to see at sunset.

Apart from some rough patches for the first 10kms out of Oodnadatta the cop said the road was good - so off we went.

We had done about 70kms when we had to do a creek crossing, not much water (about 18-24 inches deep and across the entire road - there was no other way around it ... so we had to go through) ... all good ... we got through with a bit of mud and some minor loss of traction .... until we got through to the other side .... suddenly prolonged beeping from the tyre monitor ... rear left tyre ... is this another false alarm (which we had had on the Great Central Road) or is it real ????

Must have been something very sharp in that little bit of water (a clean cut straight through the centre of the tread about 3cms across),. We had done a tyre. You could hear the air hissing out!  39 degrees is not ideal tyre changing weather, but Pete got it all sorted, and we continued on to Coober Pedy. 

We think we’ve done very well as this was the first trye lost after about 6000 kilometers of dirt. Unfortunately, the trye could not be repaired. We only saw one other vehicle through this entire section - just before we did the tyre. Not seeing another vehicle and the temperature hitting 41 degrees gives you have a real sense of how isolated and deserted it really is ... no reception and nobody and nothing as far as you can see and you still have another 130kms to the next town!

Fortunately we were able to get a new trye fitted in Coober Pedy that afternoon (4pm on a Friday afternoon at that!). So quite unexpectedly we had our second night in Coober Pedy this trip. We did find a good pizza restaurant across the road from our accommodation that did a very good pizza and had GF options.

Next morining we decided to head south to try and escape the forecast heat (forecast 38-41 degreees), and the expected rain (big numbers 35-50mm). which appears to cover most of Australia. We are also mindful that much of Australia is in the middle of the greatest heat wave in the past 42 years!

Tonight we are in Roxby Downs. (We have back tracked south from Coober Pedy). It is raining and has been for much of the day - which is most unusual for this area as the annual rainfall is a mere 148mm per year!

The Olympic Dam Mine at Roxby Downs (which is a purpose built town to support the mine and was opened in 1988) is the largest single uranium deposit in the world and the 4th largest copper deposit in the world ... but the copper contributes 70% of the mine income; uranium 25% and the remaining is gold and silver. About 4,500 people work at the mine. It is a BHP town (as compared to some towns such as Newman which is a Rio Tinto town).

This afternoon we went out to Andamooka (612kms north of Adelaide) which is near Lake Torrens to the east. It is an opal mining town that lies within the boundaries of Andamooka Station.

The station was established in 1872 with the township starting in 1933 following the discovery of opal by some boundary riders in 1930. The town has a rich and colourful history, rich cultural mix and a very resilient population. The town still has a few historical cottages that we were able to wander round ... hard to believe that up until the end of the 1980’s people were still living in these cottages.

The town layout of Andamooka is very different to any of the other opal mining areas we have seen - the others are all amongst seemingly piles of disused equipment seem to have some order in their street layout - Andamooka is best described as being "haphazard" in its layout! (it still has the disused equipment/old cars everywhere).

Tomorrow, we continue south. We haven't finalised the exact way home yet; daily checks of the weather apps to see what our best (cooler and minimal rain) options are!

The challenge ... avoid the rain ...