Outback South Australia with Frankie - Birdsville and Oodnadatta Track
Very rarely do we get the opportunity to spend a week with our dads, so when Frank, my dad, asked if I was interested in exploring the outback, I jumped at it. In the course of a week, we travelled over 3,200 kms, exploring some of the most isolated and beautiful parts of South Australia, our home state.
We started our trip heading to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges, one of my favourite places in the entire world. We watched the sunset over the rangers, changing the colours of the mountains.
The next day we headed north to Maree, via the Razorback Lookout just near Wilpena Pound, giving a great vista of the cliffs and red, browns of the rangers. We stopped in Blinman for a coffee and to buy some homemade bread at the bakery. The moon like landscapes of the Gammon Rangers and Copley were next before we arrived into Farina.
Farina, located within the Lake Eyres Bason was once home over 550 people, now a ghost town.
Out home of the next two nights was Marree, we used this as a base to head up the Birdsville Track for a day before heading to Oodnadatta. Marree is a small town and its where the train ended in the day, today its home to about 60 people and offers tourists a place to stay, eat and fuel up before heading on the “Tracks”.
Birdsville Track is a rough dirt road, mainly accessible by 4wd, linking Marree to Birdsville in Queensland, over 517km away. The Birdsville Track traverses three deserts along the route, Strzelecki, Sturt Stony and Tirari Deserts. We passed the dog proof/ dingo fence, originally built in 1880 and is over 5500 km long, stretching out across middle Australia to keep the dingo’s out of the southern part of Australia.
Oodnadatta Track is another dirt road which connects Marree (north of the Flinders Rangers) to the small desert town of Oodnadatta, a distance of 614 km.
On the way there is plenty to see, the southern tip of Lake Eyre (one of the largest salt lakes in the world), old train bridges used by the famous Ghan in years gone past, William Creek Station for a place to stay or get a hot meal (or cold beer), hot springs and plenty of emus.
Coward Springs, once a little settlement on the railway, now a small museum, wetlands and of course the famous hot springs, come for a dip in the natural spa.
William Creek, is south Australians smallest town with a population of 10, however it has plenty of short stay workers during the tourist season and of course many overnight guests enjoying the Oodnadatta Track. The pub at Williams Creek serves a delicious dinner and has plenty of cold beer for those hot days. William Creek is located on Anna Creek Station, which is one of the largest single stations (farms) in the world, bigger than some small European Countries.
While at William Creek we took an early morning scenic flight with Wrights Air to the Painted Desert and large parts of Anna Creek Station. It was amazing and highly recommended, the different colours of sand and stone at the Painted Desert is unbelievable.
Oodnadatta, is the end of the track is a great place to stretch your legs and get a bite to eat. The famous Pink Roadhouse is perfect for this and is located in the town centre.
Heading back home we overnighted in Coober Pedy, the famous opal capital of the world and one of the most “frontier towns” I have visited. We overnighted in an underground hotel, building into the mountain side, you could see the machinery marks on the walls of our room where it had been dug out, very cool.
Andamooka is a very isolated and sparsely populated town on the edge of the dry salt lake, Lake Torrens.
The small town of Woomera is run by the Australian Defence Force and there is a RAAF base nearby. The main thing to do as a tourist is to visit the open air aircraft and missile Park located in the town centre, it has a range of aircraft and missiles you can walk around, touch and photograph, besides that there is not much all to do.
From Woomera we headed back home via Port Augusta.
It as a once in a lifetime experience for me to spend this quality time with my dad exploring our home state. The long days chatting in the car will stick with me forever, I am so grateful for this time with him.
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