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.