Day 67 – Adelaide to Melbourne

The day started early as I got up to have an early breakfast at 5, then went back to bed. I rose at 6:40 and packed ARTIE with the tent gear, which I had put out to drain and dry. Then at 7:40 we left. The run out of Adelaide was good, just a bit slow because it was the morning peak. On the run up the hills, there were reduced speed limits because of the previous heavy rain. Once out on the plains the other side, the weather improved and there was little evidence of water damage. We stopped in Coonalpyn, Nhill (for the papers), Horsham (for lunch) and Beaufort. By 5:20 we were back in Hoppers Crossing and I filled ARTIE with diesel and I noted all numbers and signed off on the trip. Around the corner I dropped Lynn off and unloaded her gear and then I went home. I only took what I needed out of ARTIE and then went in to get ready for bed and slip back into normal home life.

Day 66 – Adelaide

Shopping and catching up with a friend.

Day 65 – Adelaide

Very briefly – attended my grandnephew Alex’s second birthday party. A very enjoyable evening.

Day 64 – Parachilna to Adelaide

I woke at 6 and got up at 6:30. I showered (yes, as the advert said, the water was hot, but the taps were up high and I could JUST reach them) and dressed, then had breakfast over in the kitchen – Lynn had just finished hers. The site is the old school and we had the classroom as our kitchen. When I returned, I made the judgement that with the heavy rain and the previous road closures (and possibly more today), we would truncate the trip and head down to Adelaide. So we packed up (packing the gear in rubbish bags as it was wet) and headed down south. Through Hawker, then Quorn, and we called in at Wilmington to see the Puppet Museum. I can thoroughly recommend it as an interest and as a way to spend about an hour at least. I got some hand puppets for the children and then we headed off to Port Augusta for lunch. After lunch we headed down the main road to Adelaide with dark clouds and heavy rain on the horizon. It was a reasonable run down with showers and heavy rain, with only a few periods of dry weather. We arrived in Adelaide around 4:10 and called into Fran’s, where we will stay for a day or two. My grandnephew here (Alex) turns two tomorrow so it turned out circumstances were fortuitous – I have quite a few things for him from travelling. I wonder if he will recognise me as my hair is long and my beard is extremely bushy. We went out to tea at the local pub (cheap schnitzel night) for tea and then came home for an early night in bed.

Day 63 – William Creek to Parachilna

I woke to the alarm at 5:30 only to find the mobile had switched itself to Melbourne time, so it was still only 5. I went back to sleep and then got up at 5:40, woke Lynn and then went to shower and dress. I had a drink and biscuits for breakfast (no camp kitchen with kettle) and soon Lynn was ready too. We drove down to the airport and were ready for 6:45. The other plane was ready and went just before 7, but our other passengers were standing around at the hotel chatting. Finally the pilot got them and we were away by 7:10. I got the co-pilot’s seat again. We headed east, then north-east, going over the south coast and a bay at the southern end of North Lake Eyre. According to the pilot, the deepest point at the moment is about 1.5 metres and the southern end is too salty for any bird life. Apparently the pelicans have started to fly home, even those from Papua New Guinea! We saw ripples in the lake bed, waves on the surface, the current maximum level (marked by vegetation) and the old shoreline when Lake Eyre was permanent and fresh (black staining on rocks). By 8:10 we were in the car back to the campground. Lynn got the washing in, we packed and then we headed off around 8:30 (which now seems a normal time no matter what). We bade William Creek goodbye and headed off roughly east to Marree. The road was very chopped up where water had pooled in some floodways, but everything was passable. We met a lot of vehicles coming the other way. There were many remnants of the old Ghan line, but by now only the bridges were of interest to me. About 30 kilometres out of Marree was “Planehenge”, but the main purpose seemed to be to publicise the local community’s anger at the uranium mining at Roxby Downs. They asked for a donation from visitors; I donated but I didn’t see too many who did. Lynn stayed in the car. We headed on into Marree, where the board proclaimed that the road to William Creek was closed. It didn’t seem that too many people took any notice of it. We had lunch in the café there, looked around town (and even visited the MCG) and then headed down south. A number of times we ran into the lady and her friend who had judged dressage up in the N.T. Parts of the road were sealed to Lyndhurst, but the story was the same – parts of the road badly cut up and some floodways just passable. At Lyndhurst I refuelled with discount diesel (146.9 c/L) and confirmed that the turn-off from Copley was the best way to visit Arkaroola. However, once there, the board proclaimed that the road was closed. I decided to head south, but the weather was becoming overcast, so we stopped in at Parachilna and set up camp there. Very homely, but the showers looked okay and the water was hot AND they had a camp kitchen with a kettle. I had some cups of tea, transferred the photos and wrote up my blog while sitting on real chairs. We got a call from the manager – our tent was blown partially down – on the windward side. The extendable legs collapsed on that side. Just pulling it up cured the problem but I extended the cords on the corners and staked them in. Then the rain started. We had an early night. The rain continued between light, heavy and quite heavy.

Day 62 – Marla to William Creek

I woke to the alarm call of the native wildlife and went for a shower and to dress. I had breakfast, but with no camp kitchen with kettle, I used my little Jetboil to make my cups of tea. Lynn rose and got ready, then we broke camp and were off on the road at about 8:30. The local sign said the road to Oodnadatta was open, but that the road to William Creek and Marree was closed. I set off with a number of options in mind. The road to Oodnadatta was quite good considering the rain it had, but in some places there was still water covering most of the road. However none of those provided any real problem. At Oodnadatta the sign said, “Road Open”! We had an early lunch at the Pink Roadhouse and bought some souvenirs. Surprisingly there was an Optus signal but no Telstra, so I sent out texts on our progress and rang Jason. I tried to ring Barry, but got no answer. We had a look over the Railway Museum, which was comprehensive and informative – it’s locked, but you can get the key from the pub or the roadhouse. On the road to William Creek there was a lot more water, more difficult crossings and a few short detours. There were a lot of reminders of the old Ghan, so I took pictures of some of the remaining bridges. At one of these, there were many mosquitoes, so even though I killed about a hundred or so, many more accompanied me back to the car. Then, at Altebinga, the track to visit the bridge cut through a creek tributary and I had to go into low range and go back and forth a few times to get through. Further along the track we ran into a woman cyclist from Brisbane, doing the track on her own. We spoke to her through the window, driving along beside her for a short time. The roadside scenery varied from flat to undulating, with vegetated hills to “painted” hills, and the cover varied from continuous to sporadic. At some places the ground was covered in gibbers. In many places the rains had washed sand, gravel and small rocks into the floodways, so it was a case of having to decide at each point what path to take and how fast to go through. With just sand, one or more wheels of ARTIE would slow and his direction would alter. With gravel, it was like driving into a blancmange. With rocks, sharp edges could be pointing up, so it was a case of choosing a path carefully. Also, some washaways were quite deep and so the first one was a very rough surprise – but after that I was ready. We got to William Creek about 4:20 – if we chose to go on, we wouldn’t get to Marree until after 7, plus I wouldn’t have a good view of the road. The decision was to take a donga for the night, which was rented out from the pub. The campground had no grass. I unpacked some things, Lynn did the washing and I spoke to a fellow from Geelong, here because the rain had altered his plans. Then we had a light tea (finishing off lunch) and went to bed early.

Day 61 – Yulara to Marla

Well, there were no interruptions to sleep overnight. I awoke at 6 and got up before 6:30 and showered and dressed before 7. I had breakfast and Lynn came down before I finished. I packed ARTIE up and then returned the keys. We were off by about 8:30. I put 50 L of diesel in at the slightly discounted price at Shell. Then we went through Ayers Rock (to see where the company was who picked SUZI up and then couldn’t find SUZI after the accident) and out to the airport. Then we headed east on Lasseter Highway. We stopped at Mt Ebenezer roadhouse and got some souvenirs, then went into Erldunda. Here we had lunch. We then headed south down the Stuart Highway and called into Kulgera. Lynn wasn’t able to get the stubby holder she wanted with the stockman and dog on it, but they had run out. We spent a little time at the border and then went on towards Marla. We booked in at the caravan park – green lawn and a restaurant with reasonably-priced food. We put the tent up and set everything up, then went around for tea – schnitzel for me and mixed grill for Lynn (too much for me). Then we went back and went off to bed. All was well until a school group came in and were very noisy at the same time as I was going to the toilet, so I spoke to some of them. They seemed to settle down after. Throughout the night it was busy at first as many vans pulled in late, and then road trains pulled up for a rest. It was cool overnight.