2016 Tour – Part 2 – Renmark to Marla

Crossing the SA border from Victoria means that you end up with no fruit and veg. None, Zero, Zilch. So we spend some time in the morning stocking up on all the healthy items that we were missing and set off for SA’s northern region. Our first stop was lunch in the very picturesque town of Burra. That evening we stayed at a little town called Carrieton. This is an ideal spot for travellers to spend a night. A very small town of about 100 people but a fabulous pub and the locals are very friendly. We had a wonderful dinner and evening in the pub and then the following morning we decided to do some exploring on our way north. There are many ruins in the northern regions of SA resulting from a time when a few good seasons made people think that it was a good area to farm. However severe droughts brought many of those people to their knees with the farms being abandoned. Sometimes this extended to whole towns. So we headed due west about 20 km to the abandoned town of Johnburgh. Well when I say abandoned there are a few people who for their own reason want to stay off the grid but mostly the town is made of ruins.

From Johnburgh we headed north for 40 km to get back onto the Hawker Orrorroo Road. Taking this route was not only interesting from the point of view of the ruins that were along the way but the countryside was stunning, being further enhanced by recent rains.

Ten km short of Hawker at the “T” junction with the “Hawker – Stirling North” Rd we headed a few Km South to visit the amazing Kanyaka Ruins. Kanyaka was a truly huge undertaking for a sheep station.  The construction was all done with local stone and the bonding agent (cement) was made from fired and ground local limestone on the property. The property supported something like 35 families at its peak. However the place was abandoned after a number of severe droughts in the late 19th century.

After a quick lunch at Kanyaka we headed for Hawker for a fuel stop and then headed north on the Parachilna Road and were keen to start looking for a place to camp for the night. Eventually we settled on Merna Mora Station which offers bush camping and self registration. Long drop dunny.

After leaving Merna Mora around 9:30 am we continued north looking top up supplies in Leigh Creek. On the way we took a short cut through the old historic town of Beltana. While Beltana does have a few residents, again except, I guess for people who prefer to be a little “hermit like” in there lifestyle and preferring to stay out of the mainstream hustle and bustle, it is basically a ghost town. What the few residents do for income is anybodies guess.

Beltana township beginnings were based on copper mining in the area in the 1870’s and later as a key link for the Transcontinental Railway and the Overland Telegraph. The final straw for the town was the realignment of the highway away from the town in 1983.  While it was interesting to visit Old Beltana itself taking the old Beltana Road away from the main highway is a wonderful drive. See Map below.

Next stop Leigh Creek which all indications show will be a ghost town before long as the Leigh Creek coal fields have now ceased operation and the Pt Augusta power station has been closed.

Hoping to get some supplies in Leigh Creek was a failure due to the fact that it was Sunday and everything was closed. We wandered over to Copley, 6 km up the road and topped up with fuel before heading North, intent on dropping into the historic town of Farina with the likelihood of camping there for the night.

Farina was a sizable town in its day. It has now been put back on the map by a very enthusiastic bunch of volunteers who work diligently to restore and maintain many of the ruins in the town to ensure that history is not lost. Most significantly they have restored and now operate the below ground bakery oven. Fresh bread can be purchased during the tourist season. After buying some of there not too bad re-labelled wine and a loaf of bread (for Harold and Di) we set up camp in the camp ground.

We were soon to discover that this decision was none too soon, as before long there was a procession of campers looking for an overnight stay at Farina. One of our highlights at Farina camp ground were the White Breasted Wood Swallows that seemed to cuddle together in the early morning to keep warm.

 

The following morning we continued our trek North arriving in Marree mid morning. Harold and Di organised themselves a flight over Lake Eyre while Chris and I undertook to do the washing. On their return from the Lake Eyre flight we had a quick lunch and once again headed north. Unfortunately recent rains prevented us from Camping at Muloorina station as the road was closed. Muloorina was the staging place for Donald Campbell’s land speed record in the 1960’s.

So we had no other option other than to head up the Oodnadatta Track. I had in mind that if it was not too crowded a night at Coward Springs would be a pleasant place to camp for the night as this is one of the most unique outback camp grounds in Australia.

En-Route it is very difficult to not take a group selfie at Plane Henge.

Arriving at Coward Springs we found ourselves a secluded camp site and set up camp. Our hosts Prue and Greg have created a fabulous oasis in the desert at one of the Sidings of the old Ghan railway line. They live (for 6 months of the year) in the completely renovated Station Masters house and have also restored the Train Drivers Cabin and converted it into a museum. The camp ground facilities including shower and toilets (not to mention the artesian warm spa), have been lovingly crafted from old railway sleepers. The place is a credit to there creativity and hard work over a number of years.

The next morning we again headed north after a wonderful overnight stay at Coward Springs. A brief stop at William Creek that was packed with tourists all clamoring for a flight over Lake Eyre. It was unbelievable the number of people that were crowded into that small town. With little further ado we set off for Oodnadatta hoping that some good weather will allow us to head directly north through Hamilton, Dalhousie and Mount Dare, and then travel up the Old Andado Track to Alice Springs. Arriving in Oodnadatta mid afternoon we once again checked the road conditions to Mount Dare and were delighted to find that the roads were now open to 4WD only. But at the same time there was a serious weather report that the area was due for another large dump of rain the following day. So talking to the owner of the Pink Roadhouse his very  firm advice was to continue up the Oodnadatta Track and hit the Stuart Hwy at Marla. That’s of course unless we wanted to ruin our holiday.

So with the strong advice of a local we headed towards Marla leaving Oodndatta at about 20 min to 4:00 with the intention of camping about an hour up the track. We were only on the road about 20 min when it started to spit. No problems we thought, if it gets no heavier than this, after all the weather report was that the heaviest rain would be the following day. It was not long before the light rain developed into a heavy downpour as the sky opened up. The road quickly turned from a damp solid road with a few wash-outs to a slippery ooze of mud and slush. Keeping our rigs on the road was a challenge and to make matters worse it was getting dark. The decision, wisely was to push on to Marla as we crawled along the road at about 40 km/hr. After what appeared to be unusual drag on my vehicle, we stopped to discover my Stone Stomper (a skirt that extends form the rear of my vehicle to my camper to prevent stone damage) was laden with 200 kilos or so of mud, dragging along the ground between my car and camper. To boot, the stomper had dragged my Anderson Plug connection out if it’s socket and I had a bare cable bumping along the road.

We arrived in Marla very wet and sodden at about 7:30 and found a camp spot in the dark, grabbed a quick dinner in the “Restuarant???” that was about to close for the night and then hit the sack. Our rigs caked in layers of mud and the simple job of setting up camp resulted in mud getting into everything. To top it off it was still drizzling and during the night it once again poured down.

The following morning after installing a new Anderson plug to quickly add some power to my completely flat camper batteries, we did a little cleaning up and headed for Alice Springs, unusually thankfull to be on bitumen.

Sorry no photos of the disastrous night, it was not a situation that I or anyone  was in a mood for taking photos or getting mud all over our cameras.

Map of the journey so far here  http://blog.picsaustralia.net/wp/?page_id=9829

Till next post, cheers for now.