Trucks, trains and a modest hero.

We had intended to revisit King's Canyon, a place we enjoyed when we went with Mildred and David some years ago. However, as we had to get Betty repaired (remember- the back door needs a new handle!) and we didn't know whether it would have to ordered from Adelaide we thought we'd better get up to Alice. As it turned out the local garage had one, so no worries.
We booked into the Swagman's Rest, an apartment we stayed in last time, and set about cleaning up Betty after the Oodnadata track. She was filthy! The red dust is so fine it gets everywhere, so everything except that which was in our sealed boxes had to come out to be cleaned. It's a full day's work, as is the washing that Anne had to do.
Of course, it had stopped raining, and the temp was back up to 40c, so that makes the cleaning process even harder. The only saving grace is that there are very few flies in Alice.

Alice is also the home of a transport museum, not only the national Road Transport Hall Of Fame, but also the Old Ghan Museum.






And not just trucks, a whole large shed was given over to vintage and veteran cars, model T Fords, old Chryslers, a huge variety of early models, as well as many classic cars such as the Mini and E Type Jag.

We were amazed at the trucks and cars here, a 
very large shed was devoted to Kenworth trucks, and included the very first truck to come off the production line in Australia in 1971, as well as the very latest models built just last year.









These trucks are huge, and include sleeping and living compartments that would not disgrace a very expensive caravan, as well as every comfort for the driver while he is working.
They draw Road Trains of course throughout Australia, often four trailers long, with maybe 92 wheels, and the driver has to be self sufficient on these journeys, including changing the massive wheels as necessary.


After lunch we went back to the Ghan museum, unfortunately we forgot the camera, but you've probably seen enough of trains etc already. However I did find out that the narrow gauge is 3'6 and the standard is 4'8 and a half, not 2'6 and 3'6 as I thought. So I happily put those details correct.




An evening out here took us to a superb restaurant, the Overlanders Steakhouse. I started with an Australian taster plate, which included a crocodile vol-a-vent, and a slice each of Kangaroo, Emu and Camel. It was all delicious, and I will have each again. We both ate too much, particularly as we had to move on to the Sounds of Starlight Theatre, where we attended a Didgeridoo show





And what a show it was. Earlier in the day I had attended a didgeridoo workshop, where I tried to master the instrument and failed miserably, so I could well appreciate the skill that the maestro showed in his virtuoso performance.
During the show pictures of the dessert and the flora and fauna were projected on a screen, and he played to haunting music in the background.



Two percussionists accompanied him, and later in the show members of the audience were invited to take part on the drums, including myself, I beat the base bongos, while others played sticks and shakers, and still others played smaller bongos.








However, last evening the weather changed, it started to pour down just after we got in, and when we got up this morning the temperature dropped to just 20c ( 68f) which is a massive change from the 40c yesterday. We even had to turn the aircon off!

Today we had intended to travel along to the West MacDonnell national park in the hope of seeing Black Footed Rock Wallabies, we gave up after 30k as it would not stop raining! We did however take a walk into Simpsons Gap, but no joy with the wallabies, they were probably sheltering from the rain which, if we had had any sense, we would have been!






But we did see the resting place of Rev John Flynn, who was responsible for setting up the Flying Doctor Service. Arriving in the centre of Australia in 1912 as a pastor with the Australian Inland Mission, he soon saw the deprivation and loneliness of the pastoralists on their stations many miles from the nearest town, and, when the Treager pedal powered radio was invented, made it his mission to see that the stations were equipped. He had already set up hospitals in remote areas that had no medical services, including Alice, so the Royal Flying Doctor service was a natural extension, which he set up in 1929.
He was also involved in setting up the School of the Air, originally using the pedal wireless to educate not only the station children, but where possible the indigenous tribal children.
He was called 'Flynn Of The Inland', his practical Christianity made him a legend in his lifetime, and earned the respect of many who would never go to church.

 

Wot - no sunshine?

We've been here before, we came some four years ago with David and Mildred, and it rained.
We had high hopes this time, we had not seen a cloud for nearly three weeks now, it has been so hot. But as we turned off the Stuart Highway towards Uluru (Ayers Rock) the clouds started to gather above us.
One of the chief attractions of The Rock is the sunsets, but for that we needed a cloud free horizon, and certainly that first evening it looked unlikely, and proved to be so.
It was still very hot, 40 deg c, so we had booked an apartment for two nights. There is only one resort here, owned by just one company, so they have a licence to print money at our expense. Hey ho - so be it!

The Rock is probably the most photographed feature in Australia, it rises from the desert floor and is lonely and impressive. It is a single rock, standing 348 mtrs above the desert floor, and 3.6 kms long. It is believed that there is twice as much beneath the sand, and is a sacred site to the Aborigines, who request that tourists do not climb to the top. But many do when the route is open, which it isn't today, as rain is expected, and the temperature is likely to exceed 38 deg.

We chose to do the base walk, some 11kms long, (7 miles), so we set out very early in the morning to avoid the heat that invariably follows later.
This walk takes us all the way round the rock, passing caves, rock paintings, sandstone folds and geological abrasions.

Around every corner we came across a different feature, the colours in the rock change according to the light, and I can see why it is so revered by the natives, white as well as  indigenous. There are overhangs with cave art, and as we went along we would come to information boards with the Aboriginal dreaming stories which use the features of the rock in the telling.

Around 35 kms west of Uluru is Kata Tjutu, The Olgas. A striking group of 36 domed rocks standing close together and forming deep valleys and steep gorges. The highest, Mt Olga, is 546 mtrs high, about 200 mtrs higher than Uluru. We chose to do the shorter walk here into Walpa Gorge, and as we were nearing the furthest point the rains came. This made walking difficult and slippy, so we had to be very careful. The rain itself didn't bother us, it was very warm still, but the flies did though. They are persistent little b****** here in Oz, no matter how often one swats them they keep on coming back in droves!!

Of the larger animals here we had never seen a camel til today. They were introduced in the 19th century by Afghan drovers as a mode of transport for the desert, and were very successful. Unfortunately many became feral, and nowadays they have to be culled regularly as they take the feed that cattle need. But there are still a few around, and we saw one at last!

Alas, it seems unlikely that we shall see the sunset tonight as it is raining again as I write, I think this place has it in for us.......
For heaven's sake - this is the bl**** desert!!!

Goodbye Oodnadata track.

Betty presented us with a bit of a disaster last evening, the door handle on the rear door broke, so we couldn't get in to get our food or our washing gear, so everything inside had to come out by the rear passenger doors while I took some of the woodwork to bits to get at the inside handle and our boxes. To make it worse it was extremely hot, around 40 deg c, ( 105f) and I was getting more frustrated by the minute. Eventually I got it open, and fixed up a jury rig to open the door from the inside by a wire. It will have to do until we get to Alice, we won't get a new part before then.
It continued to be very hot all night, we turned off the aircon because of the noise, ( we've given up camping at the moment as it is so hot), so we just stripped off and lay on top of the bed. Not a lot of sleep, and no sign of a let up.

Oodnadata is a a one street town whose shop and hotel serves quite a large area, (and not a lot there either!), but there is a small museum in the old railway station buildings.

We borrowed the key and went for a look, but were a little disappointed to find it quite neglected inside.
There were however some interesting pictures of the old town, and the Old Ghan as it passed through in those days, there were considerably more people in the town in the first half of the last century.
The Ghan closed here in the fifties when they rerouted it further east, and it was a very big blow to the town.






The 'cinema' consists of a few seats in the open air facing a screen. They show films here maybe once a week, after dark of course, and it is free. I doubt they have the latest!

 



So - our last day on the track, after all the dire warnings we have had it has proved to be a bit of an anti climax. Most of the road has been  well graded, mostly good gravel, so far it has been easy.





Today however the track is not as good.We have quite a lot of sand, rutted in places, so the front wheels tend to follow the ruts. I had to stop at a couple of places to check the tyres, but they are all ok this time. Maybe that's due to reducing the pressure. There are mixed reviews about that.

The terrain changes regularly, from bare desert to lush forest around the creeks, but very little wildlife other than the occasional kangaroo. Plenty of cattle though, we have to watch out for them running across the road.  Apart from that and wrestling with the steering it is quite boring on this section, we have left the Old Ghan, which continued north as we turned more westerly

Reaching the road we spotted this eagle feeding on roadkill, now that's something we would be unlikely to see on the track as there is virtually no traffic!
In over 600 kms we have seen just three cars and a motorbike, except in the two towns of course, so it is certainly the loneliest road we have travelled in almost 3000 miles of outback off road travel.

A report of many colours

We had decided to take a flight from William Creek to see the vastness of the desert, the painted hills and Lake Eyre. So this morning we reported to the airfield to meet our pilot- a 22 year old young lady who had been flying from here for the past four months. Our plane, a 30 year old four seater Piper, was waiting for us ready warmed up, and we took off to the north towards the painted hills.






Very soon we passed over Anna Creek Station, from the air it looked well ordered and immaculate, an oasis in the desert.

There are about 30 paddocks on Anna Creek station, and in one we passed over a large number of cattle had been mustered probably for grading and branding, and we could see clearly the men at work.
Anna Creek, the largest station in the southern hemisphere, has around 17,000 cattle running, and each of them has to be mustered twice a year for this process.

Very soon we were over the Painted hills, still on Anna Creek land. Covering an area around 360 sq, kms, we saw sandstone hills of vividly coloured ochre yellow oxide, red and deep brown, with contrasting whites and jet blacks.

The station does not allow access to this area by land, and in any case it would be impossible to see it properly from the ground, so flying is the only way to see this amazing sight.

All too soon we turned south east again towards Lake Eyre. Although I am sure that when the lake is full it will be an amazing sight, with the myriad of birds, in particular the pelicans, I was a little disappointed. Basically all it is is a very large salt bed, covering almost 9700 sq kms, and contains 400 million tons of salt. It is Australia's largest inland lake. I understand  that when it is full fish hatch from eggs laid when last full, and the desert around fills with flowers after a good rainfall. But none of this was evident to us.

This was where Donald Campbell set a world speed record of 649kmh (401mph) in 1964.

On our return to William Creek we drove on north towards our next destination, Oodnadata.
These roads are quite often closed, sometimes for days at a time, and as we had heard thunder the previous night we were a little apprehensive that our route could be closed by rain. Sand or clay roads very quickly become bogged, as do the vehicles passing over them, so the authorities take no chances.

As yesterday, we travelled alongside the Old Ghan railway track, and soon came to the Algebuckina bridge. Costing £60,000 in 1892, it spans the Neales river and is over 600 mtrs long, the largest in South Australia. Built in Glasgow and transported here in small pieces, at one point there were 350 men employed on site. Here we can see both gauges as they cross the bridge, the original rails appear to be 30 inches apart, and the outer the standard Australian gauge, 3' 6".

We can vouch for the latter- I don't know about the Tranny as we were making for the Pink Roadhouse which we had heard so much about since we had first arrived in Oz. It was Bl**** hot, and the flies are just as bad here as they were in WC.

Everything is pink, a great publicity gimmick, even their Volvo car, the garage, their camp ground, (well most of it) and a lot of the furniture inside.
The family have been there for many years, and have brought up their family there.
We learned that the owner, Adam Plate, was killed last year at 62 years old when competing in a motor rally, so the business is for sale. We wish his widow Lynnie, and her family, all the best for their future.

It's a long long way to the loo.....

The Oodnadata track, apart from being famous as a long distance outback track, has two other claims to fame. Firstly, as I have previously mentioned, for most of its length it follows the Old Ghan railway course, and there are still many remnants of the days when it was almost the only way of getting around the centre of Australia. But secondly, perhaps more importantly, it follows the track that John McDoual Stuart pioneered during his many quests to find a route to northern shores. Within ten years the overland telephone line also followed the same route.

But more of that later. We discovered last evening that Marree was recently the film set for a new movie starring Guy Pearce and Rob Pattinson called The Rover. It was described to us as a post –apocalyptic Mad Max. So we’ll look out for that.

Our first landmark having left Marree is the old dog fence, which runs for about 9600 kms, built to keep dingoes and feral dogs in the north and sheep in the south safe from predators. I’m not sure how successful it was, as maintaining a fence that long is a mammoth task in itself.

A lot of the signs by the way were erected by the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadata, probably the most famous roadhouse in Australia, and known throughout the world. 

Further along we came to Mutonia Sculpture Park, which is commonly known as ‘Planehenge’, you can see why in this picture. 

These planes were brought up from Melbourne for this display. There are many other scrap sculptures there, including a dog made from an old Ghan water tank. I’ll add a few pics at the end.

Lake Eyre is Australia’s lowest point, some 12mtrs below sea level, and is currently dry. The lake fills on average only three times each century, the last time about eight years ago, when a cyclone reached well into the hinterland of Queensland, filling the rivers which disappear into the lake, a catchment area of almost a quarter of mainland Australia.

Most of the time it is just a salt flat, and in 1964 Sir Malcolm Campbell set a new world land speed record here. We pass by South Lake Eyre, just one sixth of the size of the main lake which lies to the north of here.

The Old Ghan railway, so called because it follows the trail of the Afghan cameleers who serviced the area before this section of the railway was built in 1888, has left many relics along its path, and at Curdimurkha siding there is a section of rail and some old buildings, as well as a water tower and purifier. As the only water out here is bore water, which comes from the Great Artesian Basin below the desert here, it is full of lime, and would quickly damage the boilers of the old steam trains. So it had to be softened chemically, and the towers performed that job. Believe it or not, this is the site of the bi-annual Curdimurkha outback ball, which thousands of tail coated and evening dressed revelers attend, hundreds of miles from almost anywhere!

‘Blanche Cup’ and the ‘Bubbler’ are just two of the many mound springs along the track. They are formed by escaping water from the ‘Great Artesian Basin’ over many thousands of years and are a lush environment surrounded by vast deserts.

It was only because of these mound springs, which are dotted along here for many miles, that John Stuart was able to explore the centre and make his way north, using aboriginal trackers to show the way.

Just a little further north from there is Coward Springs, which boasts a warm spa made from old railway sleepers. A beautiful oasis, with palm trees, birdlife and wetland ponds, we had intended to camp here for the night, however within a few minutes the flies had driven us off, there were millions of them just waiting to cover every inch of exposed skin, despite the potions we liberally splashed all over ourselves!

William Creek is just a few miles further on so we decided to make that our base for the night. There is nothing here but a road house, a campsite and an airport. The flies are little better here, but at least we can get a cabin to get away from them! It is at the centre of the largest cattle station in Australia, Anna Creek (currently 24,000 Sq Kms)  and was originally part of Sydney Kidmans empire, which in 1910 stretched from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Port Augusta, a distance of 3500 kms, covering 90 stations and almost 340,000 sq kms. The family is still involved in the company, although nowadays the empire is a little smaller.

All day we have seen these little signs - it seems a long way to go to the toilet.........