Leaving Alice we drove out at a good time (for us) with the big Finke Desert Race ready to take over the town for the long weekend. We were told that the entries fill up super quick and that they had 500 entrants and knocked back 300+ more. Huge money spinner for the town. The caravan park we stayed at was booked out as I'm sure all the others would have been too. We were also told that some 12,000 people camp along the track from Alice to Finke to watch the race unfold. We haven't heard any race details but the rain on Saturday night would have made the race more interesting I'm sure!
We stopped for petrol at Erldunda, filling up with petrol at the first pump then rolling forward to fill with gas. While Mark was filling up I saw a woman running frantically out of the fuel payment area, and thought her hubby must have driven off without her. Poor woman I thought .We haven't had any issues double fuelling to date but boy I got a blast from the woman behind the counter, who came running back in, puffing when Mark sent me in to pay. I realised it was the same woman I thought had been left behind by her hubby! She thought the car in front of us had drove off without paying for their fuel, and although relieved to find out it was our fuel, she gave me a serve for not signalling to her that we were double fuelling. Found out after further conversation that not long before we'd arrived a car had drove away after not paying for some $170.00 worth of fuel… ouch!
On to Marla roadhouse for the night then next morning got ready to tackle the Oodnadatta track. It was only just over a year ago that we were on the first section of the Oodnadatta. We went on a 2 week speed trip with our friends the Rougets up to Uluru, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs and were planning on going home on the Oodnadatta track. (We had a Windsor wind up camper back then, and thought it would be ok but after we had lost a door handle and a hub cap we high-tailed it off the track back to Coober Pedy.) So this trip was a 'take 2', we now had the off-road camper and planned to go all the way down to Leigh Creek. So back window protected and taped up and tyre pressures dropped, off we headed, excited and ready to go. Just before we made it onto the track, Emshia informed us she had a bad earache and a 'funny belly' (she also gets bad car-sickness on bumpy roads) so we were bracing ourselves for a real adventure!
On the first 208km from Marla to Oodnadatta town, we saw some 60 kangaroos, 20 Wedge tailed eagles, 1 dead camel and 3 emus. More wildlife in one area than we have seen in 5 months! Emshia was doing a great job of distracting herself from the bumps and was a real trooper spotting wildlife along the track. Oodnadatta itself was our lunch stop and what a quaint town it is. The Pink Roadhouse (which is actually pink, hence the name!) is the main hub of the town and we managed to fill up, get a loaf of Brumby's bread here and send off a couple of postcards. We were told by a couple pulling in that the next part of the track was quite rough with corrugations and stones but there was no turning back for us, we knew it would be rough and this time we were ready (but hey they were in a Jeep…)
We made it past the spot where we made the decision last time to turn back and the track actually improved a bit. This section of the Oodnadatta had lots of ruins from the heyday of the Old Ghan Railway that used to run from Adelaide, to Oodnadatta to Alice. When Diesel locomotives replaced Steam Engines back in 1954, and many water points fell into disrepair, the line was closed in 1982, and the accompanying infrastructure fell into its now ruined state. We stopped at all the ruins we could, Mount Dutton, Algebuckina, Peake Creek and 15km (on a rough and ready track) into the Peake Historic Site. These ruins were once a Pastoral Station and the Peake Telegraph Repeater Station. There were 6 ruins of varying disrepair and we had a great time exploring. We also decided to camp here for the night as it was getting late and the clouds were building, with rain expected that night. And rain it did. Mark had built a campfire and as we sat around toasting marshmallows we had to cut it short as the rain was getting heavier and we were getting wetter.
Now rain to anyone else would be a nice sound on a canvas roof but to Mark & I it brought back visions of being drenched in Tropical Cyclone Pancho back in Exmouth, and a leaking roof(and sleepless night) at every seam at Tom Price. . We had become paranoid over rain!!!! So out came the full size tarp Mark had bought back in Broome that covered nearly the entire roof of Trakkie and as the rain continued to get heavier and with the knowledge that we haven't yet fully resealed the roof, we managed to get some sleep (although I will say I shone the torch up to the roof looking for drips at least once or twice over the night!!)
We were planning on heading off the next day but the sheer amount of steady rain over the night made us stay put for another day. We thought of staying in our sleeping bags all day, reading or playing game-boys but we got up and dressed, explored the ruins and lit another warm fire. Nice day enjoying the serenity with silence that was deafening, and soup and toast for lunch to warm us from the inside out.
That night we were serenaded by choruses of spine chilling dingo howls and we set off later that morning to drive the rest of the Oodnadatta Track. The amount of water lying around amazed us, and made for some fun driving on the track. We were a bit 'ruined' out by this stage and chose to drive by rather than stop at the next ruins. We made it into William Creek about 2pm. This town has a population of about 12 and consisted of a pub, mechanic and a caravan park. As we were trying to find someone to clear the petrol pump, a Ute pulled up in front of the pub. It looked like it had been cement rendered; the mud was caked on so thick you could hardly see the windscreen. Mark got chatting to its owner and he told us it had taken him 5 hours to drive 200km from Maree, the track was so bad after the previous night's rain and there were vehicles still stuck on the road .As tempted as we were to get bogged in our attempt to finally complete the Oodnadatta track, we admitted defeat…yet again…and chose the route back…once again…to Coober Pedy. We love Coober Pedy so much it is the 3rd time we have been there in 12 months!!
So back down the Stuart Highway we are headed, feeling the excitement of going home, the anticipation of living in a house with a real roof and not having anyone else hear our rude noises in the loo… our next blog will probably be from home, once we find one!
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