Oodnadatta Track

On the Road to Nowhere

We headed out of the Flinders Rangers and continued north up through Leigh Creek and Marree and onto the Oodnadatta Track. There was not a lot to see for the majority of this journey except flat desolate plains. In fact at one stage as far as we could see in all directions there was nothing but flat ground with low grass or shrubs. You wouldn’t want to be stranded out here and we really didn’t know how anything could live here.

Somewhere along the Oodnadatta Track

One of the great things about going along the Oodnadatta Track is that you come right alongside the southern part of Lake Eyre. Lake Eyre is an incredible place with some pretty amazing facts. The facts that impressed us were: Lake Eyre is part of the Lake Eyre Basin which is one of the largest draining systems in the world, covering 22% of the Australian Continent. Lake Eyre is at the heart of this basin and is approximately 10,000 sq kms in size. While standing at Lake Eyre we were 15m below sea level and therefore, not surprisingly, is the lowest point in Australia.

Southern Lake Eyre

The Lake Eyre Basin lies above the Great Artisan Basin which is the largest and deepest underground reservoir in the world. The Artisan Basin is 130,000 times the size of Sydney Harbour and it is believed that it takes 2 million years for the water which falls in Queensland and goes underground into the Basin to come out at the other end in springs at the bottom of SA.

We could obviously only see a very small portion of Lake Eyre and the part we could see has now dried up again to be a salt lake, we heard there is still water up in the very northern part of Lake Eyre but it is drying up also.

We finished our days drive at William Creek which is at the turn off to Coober Pedy on the Oodnadatta Track. William Creek was also interesting as it is situated on Anna Creek Station which is the largest cattle station in the world. Anna Creek was one of the many properties owned by Sydney Kidman and is now owned by the Kidman Company and is 5,873,000 acres which is about the size of Wales or Israel!

Flinders Rangers

Aidan and Cody at one of the lookouts in Flinders Rangers

After leaving Huck and Kel in Port Augusta we headed up into the stunning Flinders Rangers. Although a lot of people come and spend a great deal of time camping in this area, we felt we got enough from having a whole day driving through the National Park and stopping and checking out the impressive views from the lookouts. For anyone who is familiar with Hans Heysen paintings, you can see where he got most of his inspiration while driving through the Flinders Rangers, everywhere we looked was another one of his paintings! We also saw a lot of Emu's with their young walking all around the Flinders Rangers.

Emu with some of her young

We found a really nice place to camp just out of the National Park on the edge of river and had a relaxing afternoon and morning there before we were to start our journey along the Oodnadatta Track next day.

Leaving next morning from our Campsite in Flinders Rangers

Victor Harbor, Mouth of the Murray & Port Augusta

On our second day in Adelaide we drove down south through stunning scenery to Victor Harbor. This was a beautiful beach area and we would have happily spent more time enjoying it but it was overcast with a bit of drizzle and the wind was cold. So we had a quick look and continued our drive around through Port Elliot where we discovered the delights of their great Bakery and onto Goolwa. From here we drove out onto Hindmarsh Island so that we could see the Mouth of the Murray River. Not a very exciting place but it is good to say we have seen the mouth of the biggest river in Australia.

Looking out to the Mouth of the Murray River

Then we enjoyed another lovely drive back to Adelaide through the vineyards and lush countryside, the views coming down the Adelaide Hills looking over the coastline were magic.

Cody and Aidan having some fun with Chris and Mel's kids Chloe and Oscar

We had a great couple of nights with Chris and Mel and their kids and would have loved to have stayed longer and explored more areas around Adelaide but we got a phone call from our friends Huck and Kel who have been travelling Australia as well for the last few months, since we stayed with them on the Sunshine Coast and they had just arrived at Port Augusta.

We really wanted to catch up with Huck and Kel so we headed up to Port Augusta where we had a great couple of nights with them and their girls hearing all about each other’s travels to date. Although we could have continued back down around the Adelaide area we agreed it would be better to come and enjoy this area in more detail another time when the weather was warmer so from here we will head north.

Jaime and the boys enjoying time with Huck, Kel, Kaitlin and Alice

Parham to Adelaide

After leaving Whyalla we headed around towards Adelaide stopping for a night to camp on the beach at Parham where Aidan and Cody made the most of the wind by pulling their kite out for a couple of hours.

Enjoying some fun with the kite at Parham

The next day we headed into Adelaide where we plan to stay with Jaime’s cousin Chris and Mel and their two kids Oscar and Chloe for a couple of nights. On the way there we dropped the boat trailer off at the Adelaide office of the Company Shell works for so that we can travel up through the centre of Australia and back home again without the trailer. The staff members from Adelaide and Victoria offices have kindly agreed to help us out with getting the trailer home towards Orange.

In the beautiful town of Hahndorf

While waiting for Chris and Mel to get home we decided to head out to the beautiful little German town of Hahndorf to have lunch. It was a beautiful little town and we enjoyed a feast in the German pub on the “Taste of German Platter”. The easiest way to describe it was a PIG feast. It consisted of various German sausages, the thickest pork chop we have ever seen and big pickled Pork Shank (or something) all on a bed of sauerkraut and creamy potatoes and a couple of big pretzels. It was very nice but we all felt a bit sick by the end of it. Mind you Jaime and the boys still managed to fit in an ice cream from the ice creamery down the road afterwards as well as a bar of fudge! We also had to drag Aidan and Cody out of every lolly shop we passed!

The Taste of Germany Platter we shared in the German Pub - Hahndorf

Whyalla

With the car fixed we headed off again and drove to Whyalla. Jaime has wanted to go fishing for the giant snapper off Whyalla for most of his life. So we decided to book Jaime on a fishing charter for the next morning. The idea was that he could get a great days fishing and learn how and where they go to catch the snapper so that we could take our boat out the next day. It didn’t quite go to plan. Firstly the fishing charter was taking them from reef to reef, all of which were showing great fish on the sounder but none wanted to bite on anything. So if an experienced fisherman from the area couldn’t catch a fish there was not much chance of us finding one on our own! Plus while Jaime was out there they guy told him how he has a Great White Shark jump into his boat on two occasions while he was pulling fish in – and he had a BIG boat – so there is no way we are taking our boat out there and fishing!!

The one good thing Jaime learnt while out on the boat was about the dolphins that live in the marina at Whyalla. These dolphins have taken up home in the marina and follow every boat in hoping to get a feed. We went down to one of the wharfs with some fish and we all got to hold up fish for the dolphin to jump up and take from us, Shell even fed a fish to the dolphin while holding it in her mouth! It was the best dolphin encounter we have had by far!

Aidan feeding the dolphin

Cody feeding the dolphin

Shell feeding the dolphin

Streaky Bay

We headed into Streaky Bay late in the afternoon after coming off the Nullarbor, very tired and sick of driving. Our plan at first was to free camp out on the point but the weather had come in and therefore we decided to go back into the main part of Streaky Bay and camp in the caravan park. The big benefit being that we could cook in their camp kitchen and therefore be out of the drizzle, plus of course we could have a hot shower!

Streaky Bay is a really nice place to stay in good weather, you could see it would be a pretty little bay, and the van park is in a fantastic location right on the beach. But it was overcast with light drizzle while we were there and the forecast was for a lot more rain and wind over the next week all the way down the Eyre Peninsula   We decided there was no point travelling down south in this weather so we decided we would simple pack up in the morning and head to finer weather around Whyalla.

Aidan launching himself off the swings at Streaky Bay caravan park

Cody doing the same

Our plans got destroyed 2 kms out of Streaky Bay, when we discovered we had done a CV joint. We hobbled back into town and to a mechanics – who of course had to order parts in from another town and couldn’t get and fix anything until the next day so we decided to treat ourselves to a night’s accommodation in a Motel/Villa. Aidan and Cody had a great time here as they had an indoor pool and spa with a games room. So the unfortunate situation at least gave us relief from the miserable weather in some nice accommodation and we all had a day of relaxation and fun and games.

Cody and Aidan playing in the games room at the Motel in Streaky Bay

The Nullarbor

Aidan and Cody sum up the Nullarbor as LONG and BORING!

From Norseman WA to Ceduna SA was over 1200kms of nothing. To try and make the trip interesting we had a competition with a prize for the first person to spot a camel. We didn’t think this would be too hard as we saw a road kill camel not long after starting the journey and there were lots of road side signs warning about Camels, Emus and Kangaroos and camels are so big they should be easy to spot in the open country! Well after about 350kms the competition changed to the first person to spot a live animal!  In all those kms we only spotted one snake and a couple of birds, even the road kills were few and far between. The Nullarbor is not classified as a desert but we think it should be.

The Nullarbor

We only had two nights on the Nullarbor, one on the WA side and one on the SA side. They were therefore big days of driving and we were going a bit stir crazy in the car a few times so we would stop, light a fire and boil the billy for a cuppa and quick break which did wonders to reenergise us to continue on. 

Going stir crazy on the Nullarbor - at a rest area where we stopped for lunch on the second day

We did have a bit of amusement on our journey –firstly there was the “Speeding Granny”, we passed a little old lady being booked by the police early into our journey on the first day but it would only have been 15 minutes later and she came flying past us in her little Hyundai!  She obviously needed to stop for breaks more often than us and for the rest of the trip across the Nullarbor, the “Speeding Granny” kept flying past us. The little lead foot lady looked so out of place she had us in hysterics every time she overtook us and obviously a speeding fine wasn’t going to get her to slow down.

We also met a young man on the side of the road, who is walking from Perth to Sydney raising money for the Starlight Foundation. He hopes to raise $50,000 and is already half way there. We donated some money to his cause but he was actually more impressed with the mixed bag of lollies that Aidan and Cody made up for him out of their lolly supply, to help him on his journey!

Aidan and Cody with the guy walking from Perth to Sydney

As monotonous as the drive across the Nullarbor was, it was certainly worth it when we reached the SA side where there are spectacular coastlines in the Great Australia Bight, we even camped our second night on top of these huge cliff faces.

At the Border Crossing

Which way should we go?

The Great Australian Bight coastline

Our campsite on the cliff tops

Once we reached the town of Ceduna we headed south to Streaky Bay.