A bit of a lengthy post this one, in terms of km travelled, more so than words.
Leaving the Flinders Ranges we managed to tick off another Aussie travel icon that’d been on our “To Do” list for many years now, the Oodnadatta Track. The last couple of times we were hoping to do it, the track had been closed due to bad weather and track conditions, but with a week forecast sunshine, we headed off the black stuff and onto the orange gravel.
The track was built to support the old Ghan Railway line which was established in 1878 between Port Augusta and Oodnadatta, then through to Alice Springs in 1929. However, the old Ghan Railway was narrow gauge track and was replaced by the new Ghan Railway line that runs on standard gauge and follows a more direct route from Port Augusta, through Alice Springs and now all the way to Darwin. The last train ran on the old Ghan Railway track in 1980, and towns like Marree, Oodnadatta and all the smaller siding towns, have declined since.
But I get ahead of myself, as our 1st stop, post-Flinders, was out the back of the Marree Pub, which sits on the South end of the Oodnadatta Track. Free camping here, with showers and toilets, as long as you buy a meal at the pub which we did. Jules had the trusty Beef Schnitty with chips and gravy and I had their famous Camel Burger. Both were yummy. The main downside of the pub camping is it was pretty tight and we were bounded on both sides by other vans who proceeded to run their diesel heaters in the evening, whereas we’d decided not to run ours so we wouldn’t disturb our neighbours – more fools us and we’ve learnt our lesson for next time.
Before leaving we let the tyres on the car and van down to around 30 PSI to help protect them from stone punctures, and the suspension and our vehicles from rattling apart as the track is notorious for being corrugated, rocky and bumpy.
As the track conditions and drive times were so unknown, we were loosely planning to get to William Creek for the night, about 200km up the track and pretty much halfway to Oodnadatta. Luckily for us, our planning and preparation paid off and we navigated that section relatively stress-free choosing, in the end, to bush camp in some sand dunes about 30km south of William Creek.
I chucked the drone up for a look-see and we were literally the only thing within 20 or so km, as there were no other buildings or cars for as far as the drone could see. A lovely campfire, roast lamb and veg dinner, chased by some cocktails as we watched the sunset and stars appear made for a beautiful night.
Day 2 of the Oodnadatta passed likewise, with a few stops to see the sights before arriving at our destination, Oodnadatta, around lunchtime. We had planned to camp here for a couple of nights, but being back in mobile and internet reception again, we re-checked the weather forecast which was now predicting 60% of 1-5mm in 48hrs time. With this in mind, we forwent the camping here and continued on to our next planned stop at the Arckaringa Station, which was our base to visit and view the Painted Desert.
Our drive into Arckaringa took us through the Painted Desert, but we proceeded through to drop the van off first, before heading back out the 11km to the desert so we could more easily drive around and explore it. Amazing geological landscape, exposing millennia of periods through the various rock and sediment types and colours which are now eroding away. We did a short hike through the hills, before parking our arses at a lookout as we watched the sunset over the view.
Awakening to a heavily clouded sky, we were glad we’d decided to reduce our bush camping as rain looked pretty imminent, and our decision was justified as there was a light, steady drizzle for most of the next night through until the next day. With this in mind, we hit the road again, driving the remaining 90km of dirt track, back to the Stuart Hwy, where it was a short jaunt up to Marla, a roadhouse for refuelling and lunch. It was from Marla that we agreed and locked in the next week of our trip, booking 7 nights at one of our favourite spots, the Gemtree Caravan Park, about an hour north of Alice Springs, on the end of the Plenty Hwy. However, before hitting Gemtree, we overnighted in another free roadside bush camp to give us enough time en route to stop in Alice Springs for shopping, fuel and a quick wash down for Goldy and Gwavin.
Leaving our Desert Oaks Rest Stop overnighter on Sunday morning, we were passing through Stuarts Well, about 100km south of Alice Springs when we received some news from home that caused us to rethink our travel plans. Following this we decided that rather than pushing north from Gemtree, up to Darwin to catch up with our friends and do the NT & Qld leg of our trip with them, we would head south from Gemtree, catching up with the crew in Coober Pedy for a couple of nights, as they then continue north and we head home. Our decision to head home early will allow us to help manage things, and we’ll hopefully get another opportunity to get away again prior to Christmas.
But before we wrap up this post, here’s the remainder of our pics and story from Gemtree, Coober Pedy and our trip home.
Gemtree is literally in the middle of Australia (GoogleMaps search it), however, we both love it here for different reasons. Jules likes the red dirt outback and relaxed feel of the place, whereas I love the gem fossicking, digging for hours in the dirt for Garnets and Zircons.
As it’d been some years since our last visit, we’d booked ourselves on another Gemtree Garnet fossicking tour, which was brilliant (as always). The guides provide all the gear, take you out to the fossicking grounds and show you what to do. Having done this tour and fossicking before, this was just a refresher for us, and Jules and I were soon into the full swing of processing dirt. In the 3 hours of Garnet fossicking, we came away with a good handful of stones, about half of which can be ‘cut’, meaning they are clean and clear of fractures so they can be faceted into a gem-quality stone that can be made into jewellery.
After our Monday morning Garnet tour, I then spent the next four days, digging at the Mud Tank Zircon fossicking field. Zircon is relatively common but is typically only in grain of sand sizes and is mined for a variety of uses. Gem size and quality Zircon is much rarer and the NT Mud Tank field is one of the best-known fossicking fields in the world for it. To fossick for them, you dig through and discard the upper layer of hardened clay/mud which in the area I was digging was up to 60cm thick. This exposes the shale layers of siltier sediment of an ancient riverbed system which contains many types of rock, including Zircon. You sieve this sediment layer through a 6mm sieve to separate the rocks from the dirt and mud, then you wash the rocks before inspecting them for the pretties – the Zircons. To reduce the number of stones to be inspected, you can run a large magnet over the pile to pull out the Magnetite which as per its name is magnetic, and can be discarded.
It’s hard and dirty work, but I absolutely love it. I find ‘fishing for rocks’ is cathartic and a great break from my typical day job of sitting behind a desk on a computer all day.
If you’ve been following our travel posts, you’ll recall that in this post we managed to meet up with our friends, Mel and Phil, mid-Nullarbor as they headed west and us east on our respective holidays. Well, they’re now coming to the end of their trip and are heading south, and they dropped into Gemtree for a night of laughs, wine and travel stories on their way through. It was great to catch up again with these guys.
After five days straight of fossicking my back was knackered, so we took a rest day on our last day, Saturday, spending it with Mel and Phil in the morning, and then having the fantastic Gemtree-cooked Camp Oven Dinner with our lovely neighbours, Jill and Glynn. But all good things come to an end and we were a bit sad to leave Gemtree and start to head south, towards home again.
Our next destination was Coober Pedy, but at over 800km away, we opted for an overnighter at the WikiCamps Agnes Creek, before rocking into Coober Pedy on Monday arvo. Setting up at our fantastic Tom Cat Hill campground, we settled in with a coffee and waited for the crew, Rod, P&T, Kristy and Simon to arrive.
We were fortunate to be able to spend a full day with the crew on the Tuesday before they continued north and us south. This started out with a fantastic tour of Des’, the owner of the Tom Cat Hill Campground, Opal Mine. Costing nothing, Des gave us a 2-hour tour and an explanation of his mine which was great. From there, we shot into town to have lunch and a beer at the underground pub, before doing a little Opal browsing at the many Opal shops. Then it was off to dinner at John’s Pizza Bar, a Coober Pedy icon.
With heavy hearts, we bid the crew goodbye that evening as they were planning to leave at sparrows on Wednesday morning. We followed shortly after, leaving camp at 7 am and taking the 300km gravel road shortcut through Kingoonya down to Wirrulla, where we rejoined the Eyre Hwy. We had intended to camp somewhere around Ceduna, but as I was feeling pretty good, we chose to keep driving, arriving at Nullabor Roadhouse at sunset. This sets us up for a possible two-day trip home from here.
This post will bring our “Trip 45 – The Budgie’s big Aussie jaunt” to an end. Signing off till next our next trip.