Peterborough to Yulara

September 16:

With the weather forecast indicating less than ideal conditions for today, we decided to stay in Peterborough. It's not often that the Weather Bureau gets their information right, but in this case, they were spot on. The day consisted of isolated showers with winds ranging from 35 to 50 km/h, and the gusts were even stronger.

To pass the time, we drove north to Orroroo for a lovely hot chocolate at the local café, and later I drove around looking for caches, but only found one. The rest of the day was spent inside the van reading and surfing the Internet to pass the time. At 20:00, the winds outside were still quite strong, with enough force to rock the van.

Distance today: 85 km.

September 17:

We left heading north with the winds coming from the southwest at 20 to 30 km/h, which was an improvement on yesterday. We again passed through Orroroo and continued heading north, but both the driver and navigator missed the turnoff to Craddock and Hawker. It wasn't until just before Wilmington that we realised our mistake, so we continued onto Quorn and camped at Warren Gorge.

Our site was on a rise looking down the gorge. The flies were in abundance here, and we were again thankful that we had our fly nets. Apparently, the warmer temperatures have brought them out earlier than normal.

Distance today 148 km.

 September 18: We were woken during the early hours of the morning by heavy rain, and once daylight arrived, we were surrounded by low clouds that gradually disappeared by the time we departed. We passed through Quorn as we headed north to stop at Kanyaka Ruins.

 

We stopped in Hawker to refuel and enjoy a morning tea at a local café. We then continued north for another 70 km before turning off the bitumen to head east through Brachina Gorge. Our destination was to camp at Aroona Ruins in the northern Flinders Ranges National Park. Along the way, we navigated many rocky creek crossings and passed numerous designated campsites before reaching our own.
The campground is enclosed by the ABC and Heysen Rangers, and our site overlooked Aroona Creek. Nearby are the ruins of the homestead built by John Hayward, who arrived here in 1851, discovered a perennial spring, and established Aroona Station with over 3000 sheep. In 1854, he constructed a five-room house supplied with continuous running water from the spring. Today, only the house foundations, some crumbling walls, and fruit trees planted by him remain. The view from the ruins down into Aroona Valley is stunning. As usual, we used fly nets whenever outside the van.
Distance covered today: 183 km.

 

September 19:
We woke this morning to the coldest day of our travels. It was four degrees inside the van. The weather over the past three days has been anything but ideal, but this morning we have the most magnificent sky, with not a cloud to be seen. Retracing our steps through Brachina Gorge, we again turned north on our way to Leigh Creek, where we refuelled and did some last-minute shopping before tackling the Oodnadatta Track.

Leigh Creek is a coal mining town that produces brown coal, which is shipped by train south to power stations near Port Augusta. It is also the last major town for supplies before heading into the desert areas of South Australia. We stopped in Copley for pies for lunch before continuing north. Our goal was to camp at Farina for the evening. It's been twenty-five years since we last camped here, even though we have passed by on other occasions.

Farina was established in the 1870s in the hope that grain could be cultivated in the area. The town grew to about 600 residents with consistently good seasons, but years of drought led to its closure. Today, Farina is a ghost town, but a restoration group is preserving the beautiful sandstone buildings and roads.

Distance today: 179 km kms.

 

 

 

20 September:
Much warmer this morning with thirteen degrees inside the van and another cloudless sky. The first port of call was Marree, about 50 km further on, which is the starting point for the Birdsville and Oodnadatta Tracks. We stopped so I could find another cache before heading to Lake Eyre South, which is twelve metres below sea level. We had lunch in the van to escape the ever-present flies, and later I found another cache.

 

This is our fourth trip along the Oodnadatta Track. It is a fantastic route to travel from South Australia to the Northern Territory, offering much more interest than the sealed Stuart Highway. The track follows the path of the old Overland Telegraph Line and the Great Northern Railway. Along the way, you can explore the ruins of fettlers' huts, railway sidings, and telegraph stations.

Showing the massive water softeners used to prepare water pumped from deep underground bores for the steam locomotive. Water softeners were used to remove harmful minerals from the bore water that caused heavy scaling on the boilers of the steam trains. 

There are formal camping grounds at Coward Springs, William Creek, and Oodnadatta, or you can simply pull in near one of the sidings or dry creek beds. Tonight, we had planned to camp at the Beresford railway siding beside the dam, but the water level was low and the area did not look very inviting. We continued on to William Creek for the evening, which is situated on Anna Creek Station, the largest working cattle station in the world. The corrugated iron pub dates back to the late 1800s. The last time we stayed in the campground was in 2007, when it was clean and welcoming, even though you are camped on dirt. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. The showers and toilets were in a state of disrepair, and most of the taps outside the sites were not working. The pub's interior has been altered with the removal of some of the memorabilia. Distance today 259 km.

 

September 21:
Another beautiful day with clear skies and fourteen degrees inside the van. We stopped along the way to take photos of wooden sleepers left from the Ghan Railway days. They are found all along the track, and we always take one to use as firewood, as they make the best coals for camp oven cooking.

 

 

Tonight's camp is at Algebuckina, which lies just over 50 km south-east of Oodnadatta. The Algebuckina bridge over the Neales River is probably the main highlight on the track that is just over 600 km from Marree to Marla. The railway bridge was, and still is, the longest in South Australia at 578 metres, and the river is the longest on the Oodnadatta Track. The bridge first opened in 1892 and replaced a low-level one that was continually washed away when the river flooded.

 

 

 

The river beneath the bridge usually has pools of water but was now completely dry, so we wondered how much water would be in the waterhole located several kilometres downstream. The waterhole is by far the best along the Oodnadatta Track and makes for a lovely camp in such arid surroundings. Distance covered today was 144 kilometres.

 

 

 

September 22:
We slept with all the windows and door open last night because the van's interior temperature was still twenty-eight degrees when we retired for the evening. Another beautiful morning with the van's temperature at eighteen degrees and another glorious day ahead. We ventured out for our first cup of coffee in the morning before the flies arrived in their thousands.
It was another late start this morning with just over 60 km to Oodnadatta for a fuel stop. The wind had picked up again, and we were driving into a severe headwind. The Pink Roadhouse provides services for locals and travellers, including fuel, postal facilities, meals, and repairs.

 

 

John McDouall Stuart was the first to explore this region in the 1850s. The route he used and mapped around 1860 was adopted as part of the Overland Telegraph Line. Later, this route was also used by Afghans using camel trains to supply goods to Central Australia. When the train line was built, Oodnadatta became the terminus for the railway. The line was closed in 1981, and a new one was built further west.
Instead of continuing towards Marla, we decided to travel 90 km southwest from Oodnadatta to Arckaringa Station, where we planned to spend the night. But arriving earlier than expected, and with the strong winds blowing and whipping up great dust storms, we decided to continue towards the Stuart Highway. It was more enjoyable sitting inside the ute with the air conditioning on.
 
Once we left the Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy road heading towards Arckaringa Station, the road deteriorated badly. The Painted Desert is located on Arckaringa Station, which was the reason for our detour. But to do the area justice, you would need to be here for sunrise and sunset to appreciate the full spectrum of changing colours.

  

 

 

After bypassing Arckaringa Station, we passed Copper Hill and Mt Willoughby Station. This section of track goes through hilly and rough country, providing a lovely change from the Oodnadatta Track. We stopped at Cadney Park while I pumped up the tyres for our journey up the highway towards Marla and the Northern Territory border. We refuelled at Marla before continuing to Agnes Creek, 85 km further on for the evening. We are not quite sure if we have issues with our solar regulator circuitry or with our batteries. The solar regulator shut down the system just before midnight with a message of "load off" and displayed 11.4 volts in the batteries. Distance today: 395 km.

Before stopping at Curtin Springs for lunch, I checked their diesel prices at $2.31 cpl and continued to Yulara.
We're feeling total bliss tonight! It’s been five days since we've enjoyed dinner and drinks outside the van with just a few flies around—no need for fly nets. This evening, we turned off the van's 240V power and relied solely on the 12V system. However, just before midnight, the system shut down again at 11.4V. 
Distance travelled today: 416 km.

September 24

Besides our battery issues, we woke up to another beautiful day. The van has been on 240v power since last night. We've now realised that the van batteries are unable to hold their charge overnight, even with the fridge turned off. Our batteries are just two months short of lasting five years, so we can take some comfort in that. It appears that we’ll need to obtain new batteries in either Kalgoorlie or possibly Perth. We have a Honda generator that we can use over the next fourteen days until we reach Kalgoorlie. We filled up with diesel here in Yulara at $2.22 per litre, while the man behind me was grumbling about paying $2.45 per litre for unleaded.  

Distance travelled today: 10 km.

Geocaching

We recently joined the ranks of the Geocaching community. The aim of Geocaching is to find containers called geocaches that have been hidden. You can use either a smartphone, such as an iPhone, or a dedicated GPS device, and then log your finds online. For those interested, all the information is available at: http://www.geocaching.com/

 

For example, the Oodnadatta Track, which runs from Marree to Marla in South Australia, has thirteen caches hidden along its length. As a premium member (costing $30 per year), you can create a route and download these caches to your device before searching for them while travelling. Some might wonder why bother with this; well, it gets you out of the car, exercising, and allows you to see places you wouldn’t usually visit.

Over the past week, we have found numerous caches in the towns we visited and at several rest stops along the way.

Cobar to Peterborough

September 13: Today's drive is relatively short in terms of time and distance compared to the past two days. Tonight, we are camping at the Cobar Reservoir. There are actually two reservoirs in Cobar. The first, known as the Old Res, was built in the late 1800s after copper was discovered. The other reservoir, known as the Newey or new tank, is on the outskirts of the town. It has a boat ramp and flushing toilets and is our stop for this evening. The reservoir is a great spot to camp with lots of water birds and a lovely walk around the foreshore.
Distance today: 214 km.

September 14: We stopped at MacCullouchs Range rest area for a coffee break and saw the kids waiting for the playground to open.

Continuing west on the Barrier Highway, we have decided to break our journey and stay just outside Wilcannia, which lies on the Darling River. It was once a busy river port and, during the 1880s, was the third busiest port in Australia. However, like the old wharves, the town is now in disrepair. For those interested, there is now camping available at Warrawong, which has frontage on the Darling River and is on a working property several kilometres south of Wilcannia. They offer secluded campsites along the river and billabong. http://warrawongonthedarling.com.au/index.html and this is our camp for this evening. Distance today 257 km's.

September 15: We have camped in Broken Hill on many occasions and also at Silverton, but today we are just passing through. We filled up with fuel before crossing into South Australia. We had planned to camp at Yunta, but because we had such a strong tail wind, we pressed on and are now camped at Peterborough. Distance today: 483 km.

Heading West

September 11:
After weeks of preparation, our van was fully packed and we were eager to be on the road this morning. It's just under twelve months since our last extended trip away into Northern and Western Queensland, but it feels much longer than that. We overcame the monotony of driving south down the freeway for nearly 300 km. We passed Kempsey with its wonderful new bypass road completed earlier this year, before passing Taree and using the new bypass at Bulahdelah, then turning west at Hexham to travel through Maitland and Singleton. Tonight, we are camping at Jerry's Plains Recreation Ground, where there were two other vans when we arrived. It's listed in Camps7 #201.
Distance today 463 km.

We often take the Golden Highway from Newcastle to Dubbo because it provides the most direct route across New South Wales when travelling to South Australia and beyond. Further west on the Golden Highway, we passed many coal mining facilities and then traversed lovely countryside with horse breeding studs lining the road. We drove through Merriwa, Dunedoo, and Mendooran, which has a lovely free camp on the Castlereagh River. We stopped in Warren to empty our toilet cassette and top up our water tanks before spending the evening camping at Egan Weir on the outskirts of town. It is listed in the Wiki Camps mobile app and is situated on the Macquarie River. There are no facilities. Distance today: 370 km.