The road to Adelaide

Saturday 5^th November

Rawnsley Park to Burra

From Rawnsley Park we headed south through Hawker before turning off and heading down the R.M. Williams Highway through Orroroo and Peterborough, and on to Burra where we stayed the night. 

We drove past a lot of abandoned house ruins beside the road, a reminder of days gone by. Unlike New Zealand, most of the houses were built from stone, and their remains will be there for many years to come.  

Burra is a lovely historic town beautifully nestled in a valley along the banks of the Burra Creek, which like 99% of rivers and creek, was bone dry.  Burra was founded after copper was discovered nearby which resulted in a huge mine being developed.  The miners who came to the town were mostly from Wales, England and Scotland, and the buildings all reflect their home countries.  Lots of stone cottages and row houses.  It was almost like driving through an old English or Welsh country town.  Lots of atmosphere.

Sunday 6^th November

Burra to Adelaide

You may recall before heading up into the Flinders Ranges, we visited a toy museum at Wilmington.  The lady who owned the museum told us there was going to be a big models show at Clare this weekend.  We didn’t exactly know where we would be at the time, but kept it in mind.

Clare is about 40 km south west of Burra on the way to Adelaide, so we decided to call in and have a look at the models show on our way south. What a fantastic show it was, models of everything, from radio controlled boats and planes,

to steam engines and a miniature Railway.  And what a railway, without doubt the best ride on miniature railway we have ever seen. 

There was also several vintage and old time tractors on show, including this collection of fergies that I know Dad will appreciate seeing. The scale model jeep we saw in the toy museum at Wilmington was also there being driven around. 

Before we knew it, we had spent a very quick 2 hours there, and it was time to move on.

The town of Clare is the heart of a grape growing area, and there were literally hundreds of wineries around the area.  Again the towns all had lots of old stone buildings set in very English Countryside like settings, and the whole place had a lovely feeling about it.  Without doubt some of the prettiest countryside we have driven through.

South of Clare the countryside opened out, and we were soon driving through miles and miles of rolling hills, covered in wheat.  Unlike the huge flat wheat paddocks we had driven through previously, this was quite pretty with hills of golden wheat waving in the wind as far as the eye could see.  Unfortunately the road surface was so rough we couldn’t get a decent photo of them as we drove along.

At Gawler, about 60kms north of Adelaide, we struck the motorway, and with it heaps of traffic.  Nancy came into her own and guided us through the outer suburbs of the City to our caravan park at Semaphore, right on the beach, on the north-western outskirts of the city.

We are booked in here for 6 nights while we find out what Adelaide has to offer us.

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.

Marree

Thursday 3^rd November

From Rawnsley Park we headed north through the Flinders Ranges for 70 km to the small township of Blinman. We lost count of the number of Emus we saw either just off the road or right on the side of the road.  We had to be especially careful of the ones at the side of the road, as they were likely to decide at the very last minute to dash across in front of the car. Emus have got no brains and it’s a wonder we don’t see a lot more dead ones on the side of the road.  We also saw quite a few kangaroos.

At Blinman we turned west and travelled for 32 km along a very windy and hilly gravel road through the Flinders Ranges.  Christel was driving for the day, and she coped very well with what was quite a challenging road.  

We passed some amazing rock formations, and for a time the road followed a river bed where we had to cross a couple of fords.

We came across this Shingleback lizard in the middle of the road,

and Cameron had to get out and remove him before we carried on.  He was a really healthy specimen, one of the biggest we have seen.  We also saw this family of Emus feeding in the river bed.

We finally struck the main road at a small place called Parachilna, and here we turned north and for the next 70 odd km to Leigh Creek had to contend with the usual long flat straights.  For most of the way we closely followed the route of the old Ghan railway and we could see remains of the earthworks, cuttings and bridges, beside the road.

Leigh Creek is a fairly new mining town, built about 5 km from the huge Leigh Creek Open Cast Coal Mine.  It replaces the old town of Leigh Creek which was built a lot closer to the original mine, a little too close in fact, as they discovered the coal seam went right under the  town, so they built a new town a bit further away, shifted all the workers into it, and then carried on digging.

We had lunch at Leigh Creek, and then continued on towards the next town of Lyndhurst, another 30 odd km further up the road.  We knew the tarsealed road finished at Lyndhurst, and from there the next 80 km to Marree would be all gravel.

Lyndhurst is the southern terminus for the Strzelecki Track, an old drovers’ route which winds its way north for over 470 km to Innamincka, near the New South Wales border. It is also the main access route for people wanting to travel from South Australia to Cameron Corner, a trip of about 440 km form Lyndhurst.  When we told Cameron this, he was all for abandoning our plans to go to Marree, and head for ‘his’ corner so he could visit it again.   

I had always wanted to have a look at this track, so we turned off and followed it for about 10km, just so we can say we have been on it. The name Track suggests a fairly rough road, but in fact it was more like an unsealed highway.  There were a few rough patches, but you could comfortably travel it at 80 to 90 kph. After taking a few photos we turned around and headed back to Lyndhurst.  Back in Lyndhurst, we turned north again onto the gravel road.  The surface was, like the Strzelecki, surprisingly good, and we able to maintain a steady 70 to 80 kph.

About 25 km north of Lyndhurst we came to the old township of Farina.  It was originally established as a centre for wheat growing, and was a stopover point on the Old Ghan Railway. Unfortunately the climate put paid to the wheat growing venture, and when the new Adelaide to Alice Springs railway was completed, it also put paid to the Old Ghan line. With no reason for the town to be there anymore, it soon became deserted, and today there is nothing left except the ruins of some of the buildings. 

It was quite eerie walking among the ruins with nothing but the sound of the wind blowing, as it always seems to do out in the desert.  It had obviously been quite a decent town in its day with two hotels, a Post Office, Bakery, several shops, Police Station, a school, churches, and most importantly, a brothel.  The Farina Railway Station was also nearby.

Just north of Farina we had the luxury of 17 km of tarseal before we were back on the gravel again, until 8 km out of Marree where we hit tarseal again. From Lyndhurst onwards we were basically travelling through desert country, flat as a pancake, with very sparse scrubby growth, and no sign of any life except the occasional Emu and to a lesser extent, kangaroos. Very desolate country.

We arrived at Marree at about 3.30, and quickly established ourselves in the bar for a nice cold one or two.  We had been looking forward to spending the night in an old fashioned, two storied, outback hotel, but unfortunately, even though we had booked ahead, there were no rooms available in the hotel itself, and instead we were shown to a cabin type unit adjacent to the hotel.

Marree really is on the edge of the outback, and is literally surrounded by desert.  We had already travelled just on 80 km of gravel roads to get here, and from here on, all roads are classified as tracks.  Marree is the southern terminus of the famous Birdsville Track which runs north for 514 km up to Birdsville, which is just over the border in Queensland.  Like the Strzelecki, the Birdsville was also a Drovers route, for bringing cattle down from the huge Queensland Cattle properties, to the markets at Adelaide and Melbourne.  Nowadays it is a popular tourist route for those wanting a taste of the outback.

Marree is also the southern end of the Oodnadatta Track, which runs north west for over 600 km through Oodnadatta and on out to the Stuart Highway, which is the main road north from Adelaide to Alice Springs. For a long time it was also the northern terminus for the Ghan Railway, so strategically in the old days, Marree was a fairly important town.  

Unfortunately, in this day and age of fast 4WDs and relatively good roads, it is now just a stopover for thirsty travellers, and the bus loads of outback tourists that we seem to meet everywhere.

After a couple of refreshing drinks, we checked into our room, and then decided to fill in the time before dinner by having a look at the Birdsville track.

Ever since we had been back on gravel roads, Cameron had been hinting that he wouldn’t mind having another drive.  Remember he had driven a considerable distance on our way out from Cameron Corner.  So once we had got on to the Birdsville Track, we stopped at the side of the road and Cameron took over.  After carefully going through his well rehearsed  ‘cockpit drill’, (seat belt on, seat in right position, everybody belted up, gear lever in park, hand brake on, etc, etc), he carefully pulled out onto the ‘track’, and off we went.

The Birdsville Track, like the Strzelecki Track, isn’t a track at all, but a two to three lane gravel highway. We were soon barrelling along at a steady 70 to 80 kph, with Cameron having no problems with driving. 

Everywhere you go in the outback, station boundaries, and in some cases, their paddocks, are petitioned off on the roads by cattle stops, or grids, as they are called over here. They are well sign posted as you approach them, and the road always narrows down when you cross the grid.  As a result, deep ruts usually form in the wheel tracks with a sharp bump up onto the grid which is usually made from cut down railway rails. 

For this reason I always slow down when we get to a grid, and make a point of trying to keep to one side or the other of the wheel tracks where the bump up isn’t so severe. This of course brings you fairly close to the barriers on either side of the grid, so extra caution is needed.  When Cameron approached his first grid, he did exactly as I do and aimed for the high ground between the ruts, Now, you are all wondering where this is leading, don’t you?

Here we are, $45,000 of Mitsubishi Pajero, hundreds of miles from the nearest garage, inexperienced nine year old boy at the wheel, metal road, narrow grid, wheel ruts, no room for error, recipe for disaster, right?   He slowed down and drove across no problem at all.  Fooled you all, didn’t I?  Nobody said anything, and he just carried on driving, repeating the performance each time he came to a grid.

After about 20 km, we told him to stop and turn around as we had gone far enough.  He pulled off to the left and, after checking that the road was clear tried to turn around. Unfortunately the gravel at the side of the road was very soft and the wheels just spun. Again without us saying anything, he engaged 4WD and drove off.  After turning around we stopped and took some photos.   I climbed a bit of a mound beside the road to take some photos, and when I looked at countryside around me, it really bought home just how insignificant we are in this huge place called the outback of Australia.

Cameron drove us back, stopping just outside Marree, where I took over. On the way back he gave me a lecture about how you should approach grids keeping out of the wheel ruts to avoid the bump up.  I must let him drive more often, I’m sure I’ll learn heaps.

Back at the Marree Hotel we had a quick swim in their pool before going in for dinner.  It was a smorgasbord meal, and one of the meats on offer was pork.  As there was no steak, Cameron decided he would try the pork, and five helpings later declared he ‘quite liked it’.  Apparently driving gives you an appetite.

The Dining Room at the hotel seats about 120, and there were about 80 of us for dinner. Apart from ourselves, just about everyone else was connected to a tour of some sort.  Like I said earlier, Marree is now a stopover for tourists.

After dinner we retired to the bar for a couple of more drinks, before heading off to bed.