A Town Called Alice
Hello.
OK, take a deep breath...
Since our last proper update, we began with a nice week in Adelaide staying with Kev's cousin Mick, where we enjoyed the comfort of having a real bed, TV, bricks and heating. While we were there we managed to get some suspension work done on the car which turned out to be a bit more serious than we'd realised, but wasn't too much of a hit on the wallet thankfully.
When all was sorted, we left to head for the Barossa Wine Valley, where a lot of Aussie wines originate. Probably the most famous would be Jacob's Creek, and so we dropped in there to have a look round their visitor centre.
We decided that we didn't need to spend too long in the wine region since we had a nice time over in New South Wales doing the same thing, so continued north and stopped in a small town called Clare, in another wine region called the Clare Valley.
The next day, we made preparations for our adventure into the bush by stocking up on food and water at Port Augusta, since that was the last big town we'd be seeing for a while. That done, we arrived in a fairly remote town called Hawker which was perfectly located for us to spend a day exploring the Flinders Ranges, a mountain range in the northern part of South Australia.
We set off expecting something like The Grampians and the backdrop was equally impressive, but it was quite different somehow. We followed a rocky track through some gorges, splashing through some creek crossings and avoiding the Emus. It was a great day and good fun driving along the rough roads.
The next day it was a few hours north to the start of the Oodnadatta track at a town called Marree. The Oodnadatta track is a road that follows the original railway link between the south and the centre of this part of Australia. Considering the fact that most of that terrain is desert, it was an amazing achievement. However, not long after the second world war the decision was made to close this line and build a new one a hundred miles further west, and so the original line and all the towns along it were left to rot.
Marree was once one of the bigger towns on the route and so has survived so far. After spending an evening chatting to some locals around the campfire, they didn't seem too optimistic about it's future either.
The track itself is about 350 miles long, and it is often closed after heavy rain because it becomes impassable, even for 4WDs. Luckily for us, the rain had stayed away and it was to our unuttered relief that as we hit the dirt road, it was in pretty good condition.
This route was chosen because it follows a series of areas where water is abundant. The first one we discovered was Mound Springs, where a pool of water sits above a small hill, and bubbles away as the water gets drawn from the Artesian basin water table that much of central Australia sits above.
Further along, we found an old ruin that is often used by campers as a refuge from the icy desert winds. It was an old siding but is still in pretty good nick, so people just chuck their bedding on the floor and make the best of it. The fireplaces are intact and obviously well used today. In one room, somebody's even written some house rules!
Later on the first day we arrived at our first stop along the track, William Creek. Consisting of a pub, a cafe and a campsite, this is one of Australias smallest towns, population: 12.
The pub is a bit of an oddity. The walls are absolutely covered with mementos from people who have ventured this far into the bush. There is everything from business cards to underpants. Somebody even sent them an X-Ray of their broken shoulder, suffered while driving on the track a few weeks ago, so that's on the wall. We had a quick beer there and retired before the cold night set in. The temperature drops down to near zero in the outback at this time of year, and if you're not wrapped up in bed it can get pretty bloody cold in a tent.
We got up with the sun the next morning, packed up and hit the road again. This part of the track still followed the old railway, and there are all sorts of messages to be seen that have been written using the old wooden sleepers. We stopped at a place called Coward Springs which was where the old railway workers had set up a small thermal pool by bringing the water up from the water table. A couple of the buildings there are still fairly intact, much moreso than our next stop on the trip at a place called Peakes Ruins.
Peakes Ruins was an overland telegraph repeater station, and is probably the biggest collection of buildings on the track, although they're half collapsed. To get there required tackling a 10 mile 4WD track, and when you haven't seen another car for several hours, it can get a little unnerving. When we got to the other end, we were happy to see a couple of people camping out there though so we felt a bit more comfortable. After lunch, we bounced our way back to the main track and eventually arrived in Oodnadatta.
There's nothing for more than a hundred miles in any direction on the track so Oodnadatta feels like a thriving city when you arrive. Well, no that's not true actually, it just feels like a town that has more than 2 buildings. The whole town seems to be built out of corrugated steel, or whatever else they could get their hands on when they were building it. It's a bit like the town built the A-Team built.
We set up, got a fire going and spent a nice evening staring at the flames with a beer, admiring the enormity of an outback night sky.
From this point we decided to change our route. A few people had advised us that the rest of the Oodnadatta track was fairly featureless since it strays from the old rail line. There was another road down to the unusual town of Coober Pedy but we'd been told it was a really rough track.
Well sod it, we went anyway.
And good job we did. The road was fine, nothing our big old 4WD couldn't handle (especially after a few tips from the locals), and we shifted along at a good pace until we arrived at a place called the Painted Desert, which is odd because it's actually a load of rocks. The rocks are multi-coloured and were quite amazing to see, although sunrise/sunset is more spectacular apparently.
Another few hours down the road we found ourselves in the Moon Plains. From horizon to horizon there is absolutely nothing but small black rocks sitting on dark sand. It's an incredible place. Not surprising that a few big films have been set there, Mad Max being one and more recently Pitch Black and The Red Planet.
We drove through this for hours before finally arriving at Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is fairly unremarkable at first; it seems like a hot, dusty and quite unorganised outback town. What you can't see is that half of the 3,500 people who live here live underground.
This area is where the majority of the world's precious opals come from and so it's full of holes where prospectors and companies have been searching for them. When soldiers came here after the first world war, they found it was bloody hot, easily getting to 50c in the summer days. So, they had the cunning idea of living in foxholes, just like in the trenches, and made their homes a few metres down.
So, you can walk around the town and not see much, but go through the doors and there are hotels, pubs and shops buried deep in the earth. There's even a campsite!
Ironically for a town that has had many problems with water supply in the past, we nearly lost our tent to a flood that night. A water mains burst in the middle of the night just a couple of metres from where our tent was pitched. The water started pouring into around the tent and we started putting into place our emergency evacuation procedures. Procedures that were made up on the spot.
We got lucky though, the pipe split further towards the road and the water started draining away, so all we suffered was a night of flashing lights, JCBs and council blokes shouting at each other.
That was about a week ago but we'll have to leave it there for now (this is one bloody big blog entry already). We'll add the next installment when we get chance...
You might be drinking these grapes soon:
The Flinders Ranges from afar:
Creek crossing in Brachina Gorge, Flinders Ranges (South Australia):
The museum at William Creek. Just to illustrate the remoteness of this place, nearby Woomera used to be a missile testing area:
The Peake ruins:
The back of the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta:
Beresford ruins, an old siding now makeshift campsite:
The sign says it all on the Moon Plains, between Oodnadatta and Coober Pedy:
Kev feels the painted desert needed a bit more yellow:
The track to Peakes ruins:
For 4 days, this was our view:
Charlotte outside a motel in Coober Pedy (the rooms are about 6 metres below our feet):
A film prop (Pitch Black?) just sitting in a car park in Coober Pedy:
The Breakaways, just outside Coober Pedy:
OK, take a deep breath...
Since our last proper update, we began with a nice week in Adelaide staying with Kev's cousin Mick, where we enjoyed the comfort of having a real bed, TV, bricks and heating. While we were there we managed to get some suspension work done on the car which turned out to be a bit more serious than we'd realised, but wasn't too much of a hit on the wallet thankfully.
When all was sorted, we left to head for the Barossa Wine Valley, where a lot of Aussie wines originate. Probably the most famous would be Jacob's Creek, and so we dropped in there to have a look round their visitor centre.
We decided that we didn't need to spend too long in the wine region since we had a nice time over in New South Wales doing the same thing, so continued north and stopped in a small town called Clare, in another wine region called the Clare Valley.
The next day, we made preparations for our adventure into the bush by stocking up on food and water at Port Augusta, since that was the last big town we'd be seeing for a while. That done, we arrived in a fairly remote town called Hawker which was perfectly located for us to spend a day exploring the Flinders Ranges, a mountain range in the northern part of South Australia.
We set off expecting something like The Grampians and the backdrop was equally impressive, but it was quite different somehow. We followed a rocky track through some gorges, splashing through some creek crossings and avoiding the Emus. It was a great day and good fun driving along the rough roads.
The next day it was a few hours north to the start of the Oodnadatta track at a town called Marree. The Oodnadatta track is a road that follows the original railway link between the south and the centre of this part of Australia. Considering the fact that most of that terrain is desert, it was an amazing achievement. However, not long after the second world war the decision was made to close this line and build a new one a hundred miles further west, and so the original line and all the towns along it were left to rot.
Marree was once one of the bigger towns on the route and so has survived so far. After spending an evening chatting to some locals around the campfire, they didn't seem too optimistic about it's future either.
The track itself is about 350 miles long, and it is often closed after heavy rain because it becomes impassable, even for 4WDs. Luckily for us, the rain had stayed away and it was to our unuttered relief that as we hit the dirt road, it was in pretty good condition.
This route was chosen because it follows a series of areas where water is abundant. The first one we discovered was Mound Springs, where a pool of water sits above a small hill, and bubbles away as the water gets drawn from the Artesian basin water table that much of central Australia sits above.
Further along, we found an old ruin that is often used by campers as a refuge from the icy desert winds. It was an old siding but is still in pretty good nick, so people just chuck their bedding on the floor and make the best of it. The fireplaces are intact and obviously well used today. In one room, somebody's even written some house rules!
Later on the first day we arrived at our first stop along the track, William Creek. Consisting of a pub, a cafe and a campsite, this is one of Australias smallest towns, population: 12.
The pub is a bit of an oddity. The walls are absolutely covered with mementos from people who have ventured this far into the bush. There is everything from business cards to underpants. Somebody even sent them an X-Ray of their broken shoulder, suffered while driving on the track a few weeks ago, so that's on the wall. We had a quick beer there and retired before the cold night set in. The temperature drops down to near zero in the outback at this time of year, and if you're not wrapped up in bed it can get pretty bloody cold in a tent.
We got up with the sun the next morning, packed up and hit the road again. This part of the track still followed the old railway, and there are all sorts of messages to be seen that have been written using the old wooden sleepers. We stopped at a place called Coward Springs which was where the old railway workers had set up a small thermal pool by bringing the water up from the water table. A couple of the buildings there are still fairly intact, much moreso than our next stop on the trip at a place called Peakes Ruins.
Peakes Ruins was an overland telegraph repeater station, and is probably the biggest collection of buildings on the track, although they're half collapsed. To get there required tackling a 10 mile 4WD track, and when you haven't seen another car for several hours, it can get a little unnerving. When we got to the other end, we were happy to see a couple of people camping out there though so we felt a bit more comfortable. After lunch, we bounced our way back to the main track and eventually arrived in Oodnadatta.
There's nothing for more than a hundred miles in any direction on the track so Oodnadatta feels like a thriving city when you arrive. Well, no that's not true actually, it just feels like a town that has more than 2 buildings. The whole town seems to be built out of corrugated steel, or whatever else they could get their hands on when they were building it. It's a bit like the town built the A-Team built.
We set up, got a fire going and spent a nice evening staring at the flames with a beer, admiring the enormity of an outback night sky.
From this point we decided to change our route. A few people had advised us that the rest of the Oodnadatta track was fairly featureless since it strays from the old rail line. There was another road down to the unusual town of Coober Pedy but we'd been told it was a really rough track.
Well sod it, we went anyway.
And good job we did. The road was fine, nothing our big old 4WD couldn't handle (especially after a few tips from the locals), and we shifted along at a good pace until we arrived at a place called the Painted Desert, which is odd because it's actually a load of rocks. The rocks are multi-coloured and were quite amazing to see, although sunrise/sunset is more spectacular apparently.
Another few hours down the road we found ourselves in the Moon Plains. From horizon to horizon there is absolutely nothing but small black rocks sitting on dark sand. It's an incredible place. Not surprising that a few big films have been set there, Mad Max being one and more recently Pitch Black and The Red Planet.
We drove through this for hours before finally arriving at Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is fairly unremarkable at first; it seems like a hot, dusty and quite unorganised outback town. What you can't see is that half of the 3,500 people who live here live underground.
This area is where the majority of the world's precious opals come from and so it's full of holes where prospectors and companies have been searching for them. When soldiers came here after the first world war, they found it was bloody hot, easily getting to 50c in the summer days. So, they had the cunning idea of living in foxholes, just like in the trenches, and made their homes a few metres down.
So, you can walk around the town and not see much, but go through the doors and there are hotels, pubs and shops buried deep in the earth. There's even a campsite!
Ironically for a town that has had many problems with water supply in the past, we nearly lost our tent to a flood that night. A water mains burst in the middle of the night just a couple of metres from where our tent was pitched. The water started pouring into around the tent and we started putting into place our emergency evacuation procedures. Procedures that were made up on the spot.
We got lucky though, the pipe split further towards the road and the water started draining away, so all we suffered was a night of flashing lights, JCBs and council blokes shouting at each other.
That was about a week ago but we'll have to leave it there for now (this is one bloody big blog entry already). We'll add the next installment when we get chance...
You might be drinking these grapes soon:
The Flinders Ranges from afar:
Creek crossing in Brachina Gorge, Flinders Ranges (South Australia):
The museum at William Creek. Just to illustrate the remoteness of this place, nearby Woomera used to be a missile testing area:
The Peake ruins:
The back of the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta:
Beresford ruins, an old siding now makeshift campsite:
The sign says it all on the Moon Plains, between Oodnadatta and Coober Pedy:
Kev feels the painted desert needed a bit more yellow:
The track to Peakes ruins:
For 4 days, this was our view:
Charlotte outside a motel in Coober Pedy (the rooms are about 6 metres below our feet):
A film prop (Pitch Black?) just sitting in a car park in Coober Pedy:
The Breakaways, just outside Coober Pedy:
posted by Kev & Charlotte at
9:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home