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.