I survived the Oodnadatta track and have the bumper sticker to prove it.
The three days we spent on the road left me with a treasure trove of great memories.
Although I must confess, I nearly turned back before I started.
The night before we departed Marree, in South Australia, I asked the locals if they had any advice for me.
“Yes,” a truck driver answered rather slowly.
“Turn around and go home.”
“The Oodnadatta track is a graveyard for tyres,” his mate added.
“So make sure you take plenty of water to drink while you are waiting for us to rescue you.”
I waited for a belly laugh that never came.
Later in the evening, my neighbour came over to share his experience.
“Look out for the rocks,” he said solemnly.
“They stick out the ground like axe heads.
“I blew two tyres just getting here.”
The road out of town quickly turns from bitumen to broken rocks. We were down to 17km/h within a few hundred metres.
“Okay,” I asked my passengers.
“Let me know when you want to give up.”
Fortunately, the Oodnadatta track changes every 30km.
Broken rocks give way to baked clay. In some parts, it is covered in fine gravel, making driving in a straight line challenging.
We arrived in William Creek at 2.30pm, which meant it took us five hours to drive the first 200km.
Oodnadatta is a small town on the edge of the Simpson Desert. It has a population of 102.
The Pink RoadHouse is the heart of the community, where you can buy everything from a cold beer to a postage stamp. Diesel will set you back $3.30 a litre.
This holiday has given me some great stories to share at dinner parties.
A hundred kilometres from Coober Pedy, we stopped for lunch in a dry creek bed under the shade of a Coolibah tree.
As we took in the emptiness of the desert, a mother emu wandered past with her seven chicks in tow. They made a show of being completely disinterested in us.
We spent two nights at the Tom Cat Mine caravan park at Coober Pedy. The road circles a large hill and rises to a level camping ground carved from rock.
At dusk, we sat by the ledge and watched as the dust on the horizon turned from pink to red and finally to a deep violet.
Soon, the first star appeared and, within the hour, the Milky Way filled the night sky.
On the road, every conversation ends with “We shoulda done this years ago’’.
Now that I have seen it for myself, I find myself in complete agreement.
30°C