Oodnadatta Track

Our three days on the Oodnadatta Track were amazing!!  It was desolate and vast but gorgeous.  We let the tyre pressure down and taped cardboard to the back window to help prevent stones bouncing back onto it. Everything travelled really well although most things are covered in red dust – it gets in everywhere no matter how well you think you have sealed thing up.  It was incredible to be so remote although it was a bit unnerving for me having no internet connection or phone coverage at all!  The track was in good condition – especially the first section.  It was much more undulating than I had imagined (or remembered as I did come along here on a school trip many years ago) and the terrain seemed to change a lot.

Not far from Marree there was a quirky sculpture park – sculptures made mainly of old cars and farming parts.  Some of them were really good and the girls loved it.

We passed the famous dog fence…..

Next stop was Lake Eyre.  We only saw the south part and although it looked enormous it is only a small portion of it.  The lake is flooded this year.  We walked down to the lakes edge which was much further than it looked.  The crust of salt on top of the soil was easily broken and the mud underneath was very squishy………let’s just say our new walking shoes didn’t quite look the same afterwards!

Then we went to Mound Springs  and were there at a perfect time to see an amazing sunset and take some great photos…..unfortunately only with the little digital cameras!!  

We camped for the night at Coward Springs  which is a gorgeous campsite in the middle of nowhere – drop toilets but really well maintained.  After setting up and cooking dinner in the dark again (getting good at this) we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows.  The girls loved it.

The next morning we packed up and then went to the natural spa before having a quick look at the Museum in the old engine drivers house.  The owners of the campsite live in the old Station Masters’ House which they have restored.  At one stage when the old Ghan Railway ran through here Coward Springs was a thriving town of 500.

Not far up the road we stopped and explored some ruins of an old pastoral settlement. This is now part of Anna Creek Station which is the largest in the world.

The road deteriorated as we got closer to Oodnadatta but was still quite easy to negotiate.  The desert is quite green as there has been a lot of rain this year.  Lots of gorgeous wildflowers too but that’s another post!

We stayed in the campground behind the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta although there was a gorgeous place to camp beside some water about half an hour before that.  It would have been a much prettier place to spend the night but we needed to get diesel and wanted to make an early start to go to the Painted Desert the next day.

The Painted Desert was amazing.  Gorgeous colours in the hills.  We walked up to a couple of lookouts and the girls were intrigued by the different coloured stones.  From here the road through to Cadney Park on the highway was really pretty – we only passed 5 cars all day!

Advertisement