As always we spent our last evening summing up the key stats, trip highlights and planning for the next journey. Here goes:

Distance travelled: 7,328 km – 4,454 of those on dirt roads (that’s about 69 hours of teeth chattering corrugations). Shortest distance travelled in a day – 79km, longest – 529km.

Most state borders crossed in a 5 minute interval: three (NSW, SA, QLD)

Days of sunshine: 34/35; Coldest night -2 degrees (only a little below the Melbourne daytime temperature when we arrived home)

The most consecutive days without a shower: 5 (thank goodness for baby wipes)

Winners of the fly-eating competition in order of consumption: Jatz (prize fly-catcher); David (inadvertent swallower); Andrew (snout inhaler)

Funniest moments: There were many but two clear winners. 1) Naomi mistaking a child sqatting in the distance for Jatz having a poo – and calling loudly for Andrew to get a poo bag (gotta love the blind brain assumptions), and 2) Someone who prefers to remain nameless inadvertently locking another poor camper in the shower cubicle (damn those slippery slide bolts) – we did let them out when we heard their cries for help from across the campground.

Most iconic moment: travelling alongside the ruins of the Old Ghan Railway for the full length of the Oodnadatta Track.

Best view; There were many good ones, but by far the best was the Painted Desert.

Best camp site: Bourke & Wills Dig Tree – nothing quite beats sleeping with ghosts. But the isolation of Haddon’s corner made a close second

And of course…..

Best feed (other than our own camp cooking of course): the roast pork dinner and birthday cake at the Beetoota Hotel.

Leaving Quorn felt like heading home for real. We steeled ourselves for the journey with coffee from ‘The Scruffy Fella’’ – a recent addition to Quorn it sells an interesting mix of coffee, snacks and various manscaping products. The absolute best coffee in our whole trip, and perhaps a bit before that.

Inevitably we had to hit the road. At every turn we have resisted the urge to turn around and go back out to the never never.

We plotted a homeward route that aimed to stay ‘north’ for as long as possible -trying to soak up every last bit of warmth we can. So it’s Mildura, Echuca and then home. First sight of the Murray was at Morgan where house boats were in full force

Stopped for a big feed on all our fresh fruit and vegies before crossing the border. No errant oranges this time.

Luck was with us this morning as we had no sooner got Dora into her box than the heavens descended. Complete with thunder and lightning.

Decided that rather than go home with wet canvas we would spend our last night in a motel (a bit of a cop out I know). However it didn’t take long for us to appreciate the finer things in life -that is flushing toilets and a shower.

Home tomorrow – EEEK

Left our little roadside camp around 9.30 this morning heading for Quorn- a relatively short 160km drive.
Quorn is a gorgeous s little historic town – very Maldon-ish complete with historic buildings and an old (still working) steam railway- cutely named Pitchie Richie railway.

Quorn is at the gateway to the Fllinders ranges. It was quite surreal to drive through windy green hills after so many weeks in arrid red-earth flatlands where anything over 150m is called a mountain.

Arrived in Quorn in time for a late last lunch and were set up and doing a mandatory visit to the Flinders Gin Distillery by 3.

We are staying at the Quorn caravan park which is much quieter than the last time David and I were here. I have just had the best shower since Birdsville with shampoo that actually lathers (it’s the simple things in life isn’t it?). We have booked dinner at the Transcontnental pub. Feels very decadent.

Had just settled in for a good nights sleep last night- at our usual embarrassingly early hour (we are such party animals) when gale force winds rolled in. I woke to the sound of our chairs, bucket, washing and ready-lad-out breakfast things heading west (note to self – never leave anything unsecured even if weather is perfect). After waking sleeping beauty and retrieving all of the above we unzipped all our windows to reduce wind resistance and hunkered down under the doona with wind whistling over us, canvas flapping and tent poles clinking. Dora stood up to it well and in the morning fitted nicely back into her box (thank goodness). We woke up a little sleep deprived with hairstyles straight out of the 1980s but otherwise fine. We now see the wisdom on dug out living in these parts.

After pack up we did a quick tour of some of the key sights including visiting one of the four incredible underground churches and the inevitable opal shop before hitting the road.

As we head down the Sturt Highway we are starting to feel the ‘real world’ creep back in. Landscapes are still barren but getting greener and the days of getting excited to see another car are well and truly over.

Tonight we are stealth camped in a treed clearing about 100km north of Port Augusta. We are about 100m from the road but the steady flow of road trains is a stark reminder of how much we rely on these monsters to get food on our plates. Have dusted off the woolly hats, puffa jackets and earplugs for our re-entry to the ‘south’

We camped overnight at a free camp about 60km out of Oodnadatta. We’ve become quite attached to these free camps, most are on dry creek beds with lovely shade trees- mind you, they’d be a different cup of tea in the wet season. We stayed on the banks of Kathleen Creek- very pretty and had some water still that was attracting bird life from all around- even a family of ducks. Not sure what they were diving for but they were spending most of their time with bottoms up- probably yabbies given the amount of mud.

These free camps are just fabulous- so quiet

left there round 9 am to complete the last leg of the Oodnadatta track. This is probably the roughest section of the track – I guess the graders haven’t got this far yet.- but still relatively smooth.
Hit the tarmac (for the first time in 3 weeks) round lunchtime. Pausing only for pictures at the end of the Oodnadatta.

From Marla began our journey south to Coober Pedy. We knew we were getting close when we saw the sea of mining mounds.

A quick trip up to the Big Winch look out before heading to our camp at Riba’s underground campground. Needless to say the ‘underground’ bit is for those in tents and swags- we remain well and truly above ground.

Coward Springs is the sort of place you could stop for days – but with work barking at the door we stuck to the plan and headed west. Again amazing landscapes on every crest.
Our first stop was at Strangeways Springs – on Arabana land and named after Henry Strangeways in the late 1850s who established the first Adelaide to Darwin telegraph. This small village (now in ruins) sits on top of a mound spring – with beautiful wildflowers among the old stone faces.

We stopped for lunch at the William Creek Hotel- yet another quirky outback pub in a tiny town of little else serving all things meat and chips. David had the veggie burger, clearly not their mainstream fare.

After a quick re-fuel (most expensive yet at $3.17/l ) we moved on keen to do a side trip to the Painted Desert (90km off the track just before Oodnadatta). 

The Painted Desert is a series of rocky outcrops rising out of dead flat plains. Not sure of trhir geology but the layers of different rock/sandstone/salt etc give them the appearance of a water colour. Absolutely mesmerising and should be up there on everyone’s bucket list. Like Ularu the rocks have different appearances with different light. We did a sunset viewing and had intended to go back for sunrise, but after a close encounter of the cattle kind (thankfully only enough for an adrenaline rush) we were put off driving back in the dark.

Spent the night on  Arckaringa Station- we had the whole place to ourselves. Gorgeous night around the camp fire (probably our latest bed time yet at 10pm!).

Cows were a bit curious as to who had invaded their territory and came to check us out- nothing like having a massive bovine snuffling through your rubbish bags and sniffing at your underwear on the line!

Arrived in Oodnadatta round lunchtime. Everything is pink down to the petrol bowsers and rubbish bins. We are now set up in the Pink Roadhouse tucking into a huge feast – coffee is great

First (short) leg of the Oodnadatta Track today. Like the Birdsville it’s recently graded so not too many corrugations, but a much more interesting route. A mix of historic and quirky points of interest (I’ll let the photos below speak for themselves).


By far the most spectacular part of the day was our stop at the Lake Eyre look out. Hard to describe the sheer beauty of the vast expanse of the salt pans  with the water behind. We walked as far as we could towards the edge. Initially quite crunchy we were able to walk out across the pan- but the further we walked the further away the water seemed. Eventually the salt crust thinned and we found ourselves sinking into the murky black mud below so we had to retreat. We were passed by one optimist who had bought a stone with him to throw into the lake- not sure if he retreated it or if ‘his ghost will be heard as you pass by that billabong…..’

Complete with political statements

We finished our day at Coward Springs-where we will spend the next 2 nights. This gorgeous oasis is on a working date farm which also hosts an artesian bore. The small ‘cafe van serves great coffee and all things date including date scones (2 down xxx to go). The showers are heated by a wood burner which you need to fire up in advance. This place should definitely be on everyone’s must visit outback list.  Loving the short rest from the road and not having to pack up/down for a couple of nights.

Mound Springs

David 2 in Coward Springs did a quick drive from our camp spot to Mound Springs-these mounds are formed when layers of salt and sediment bubble up from the artesian basin, making for spectacular landscape.

We were pretty much the last ones to roll out this morning. Nice to have a leisurely breakfast and hot shower. Hit the road round 9.30 aiming for Marree or thereabouts. 

This second part of the track was more interesting than the first. It travelled parallel to the sand dunes between the Strzlecki and Tirari deserts. 

The Birdsville track follows the old mail route from Birdsville  (Qld) to Maree (SA). Originally Henry Ding delivered the mail by horse & cart along the track until the much celebrated  Tom Cruize (no, not Tom Cruise) took up the mantle driving  the route in a pick up truck (or many trucks as it seems based on the ten or so rusty old trucks on display along the route claiming to be his). As legend had it he drove the track once a fortnight drought or flood  from  1936 to 1956. Not sure why Tom is immortalised and not Henry (as surely he did it tougher by horse?) but that’s the fragile nature of fame I guess.

Highlights for this part of the track were crossing the dog fence again – this time complete with high pitched alarms to stop the dingoes crossing the cattle grate (darn near piercing the humans’ ear drums also) and a side trip  down the ‘old’ Birdsville track to Coopers creek. 

This ‘old’ route was used when Coopers Creek flooded and had a (now derelict) ferry to ferry cars across the creek in times of flood.

We passed through Maree pretty late in the day, stocked up on fuel but deciding to free- camp about 20k along the Oodnadatta  rather than stay in town. Had a fabulous little camp site nestled on the side of the old Ghan line which provided shelter from the road.

Left Birdsville round 10am to start our much anticipated journey south along the Birdsville Track. Based on its reputation we expected a really rough and narrow track – however the track was recently graded so much wider and smoother than expected. That being said the track traverses the Sturt Stony Desert which is true to name with large areas of corrugations and gibber rock , which claimed our third Anderson plug in as many days.

We had intended to spend 3 days on the track, however trees were scarce and it was near impossible to find a sheltered camp spot. Not fancying a long afternoon in the sun in the company of a trillion flies we decided to press on .

A word on flies-they’ve been particularly relentless in this neck of the woods. Fly nets are mandatory wear and we are getting used to their presence at every lunch stop and the accidental protein intake they bring to every meal. I won’t even mention the joy they bring to comfort stops. Jatz has become an expert fly catcher snapping like a little alligator at the rate of a Gatling gun.

We reached the Mungerannie Roadhouse ( the half way point) round 4pm and set up camp.

Great evening chatting to fellow travellers in the beer garden followed by some late night repairs.

Left Beetoota  round 9 this morning aiming to get to Birdsville round lunchtime so we would have time to see the sights as well as do all the things we need to do before we set off down the Birdsville track.  

Felt pretty amazing to arrive in this iconic town- a bit more slick than I had imagined it- I guess I’d expected something a bit more rustic and ‘quintessentially ‘outback’. While tiny it now services the entire region with medical services and supplies- and of course is a hub for campers coming on and off the Simpson desert and heading down the Birdsville Track.

First task was to do the washing- our clothes were almost ready to walk to the laundry on their own – absolutely full of red dust. It was a hot dry 29 degrees here today (sorry Melbourne peeps) so we left them flapping on the line and went exploring. 

No trip to Birdsville would be complete without attempting ‘Big Red’, the last and largest sand dune on the Simpson Desert (about 40km out of Birdsville).  Some (A & D) preferred the technical challenge and drove up –  I’ll spare you the very important yet eye glazing details re: diffs, gears & tyre pressures that make this possible).  Others (me) enjoyed the physical challenge and climbed up- a bit of huff and puff but the view at the top is nothing short of breathtaking.

From there we explored the track along the Diamantina River- the main waterway in south west Queensland.  It is such a beautiful oasis in this barren neck of the woods, with little secluded camp sites marked out all along the river for free camping- note for next time when we don’t have so much washing.

In the continued spirit of an outback pub crawl we finished our day at the Birdsville hotel- a beautifully maintained  historic pub with the usual quirky bar decorations and great counter meal. The best lamb shanks I’ve had in a long time!

Tomorrow we begin our journey down the Birdsville track. It spans the 600km or so from Birdsville to Maree. We are loaded up with fuel, water, food and enthusiasm and good to go.