Maree back to Rawnsley Park Station

Friday 4^th November

After breakfast we took some photos of the pub, and had a look around town, not that there was much to see, just the pub, garage, old railway station, and a couple of houses.

Then we drove up the Oodnadatta Track for about 10 km. Again just to say that we had been on it.

We stopped to take some photos, and would you believe it, there on the side of the road right where we stopped was another big snake. 

This one was about 1½ meters long, not quite as big as our first one, but a good sized snake none the less.  It wasn’t as cooperative as the first one, and didn’t wait around for his picture to be taken.  He was soon headed for the scrub, and quickly made itself invisible in a little scrubby bush.  We weren’t going to go poking in too close to look for him as we didn’t know what type he was. We are still not sure what type it was, but that doesn’t matter. That’s two real live wild snakes now.

Then we headed back to Marree and started the long journey south back to our caravan.  It was amazing the number of animals we saw both going up and coming back.  Emus were the most popular, followed by kangaroos. Then it was a mixture of shingle back lizards, bearded dragons, and goannas, just to name the ones we could identify.  There were numerous other lizards we saw darting off into the scrub, but we didn’t get a good enough look at them to see what kind they were.

We called in at the lookout for the Leigh Creek Coal Mine and got some photos.  What a huge mine this is. 

It must cover a good 30 km alongside the road, with huge piles of overburden and stockpiled coal visible.  They had this big crane on display.  It is unique in that instead of tracks like a normal crane or digger, it walks.  It sits on its base, and two big pads (feet). To walk it raises its feet and moves them forward, then puts them down and with all its weight on its feet, raises its base and moves that forward. If you want to see one in action, google Bacyrus Erie 9W Walking Dragline.

As we were coming back out to the main road from the Coal Mine Lookout, we came across a mother Emu with 4 chicks, and then just a bit further down, on the main road, we had to stop to allow another mother with her 6 chicks to cross the road.  We must be getting a bit blasé about Emus, because we didn’t even bother to take photos of them.

Once we got south of Wilpena Pound, we took a scenic road through the Flinders Ranges, another narrow windy gravel road through amazingly harsh country, and came out about 10 km south of Rawnsley Park, arriving back at the caravan at about 2.00 o’clock.  Christel did some washing and then we all had a swim before it was beer o’clock and then time for tea. 

Tomorrow we will reluctantly leave here and head south towards Adelaide.  We have really enjoyed our stay here. Especially as at last we are getting some real Australian weather again, with lovely blue skies and temperatures ranging from 28 to 32.