Hawker - Smithsdownunder

Details: Category: Melbourne to Perth

Australia

From Gowgol the route took us north with an overnight stop in Burra before arriving in the Flinders Ranges and an overnight stop at Hawker. It's good to be back in the Flinders, the countryside here is stunning; a very rugged and arid landscape. We climbed up to some caves to view some aboriginal rock art.
		These are made by the local Adnyamathanha people.
The towns are getting smaller as we move north. We drove through a small town called Lyndhurst which had about 10 houses and a pub. No need for a bypass here! The bitumen road ended at Lyndhurst and we had 680km of the Oodnadatta desert track ahead of us.
		We camped overnight at a small town called Marla (population 90). It was an interesting little town and was quite busy with people visiting Lake Eyre. Marla is the home of the Lake Eyre Yacht Club. This place is in the middle of a desert and Lake Eyre is some 60km away and only fills with water every 11 years or so!!
The old Ghan railway used to run through here and they were having trouble getting one of the old engines started so I gave it a tow.
		From here we started driving on the Oodnadatta track. This sign reminded us of what was ahead.
Further along the track we came across this van which had a blowout the day before. It was carrying supplies to Marla including packets of ice. These were still frozen the next day as we passed by. It's very cool here at night. The driver was OK and the campsite will be offering scrambled eggs for the next few weeks.
		We passed close to Lake Eyre and could see the water from a lookout.
We camped at a place called Coward Springs which had a hot tub fed from the hot bore water. That got some of the dust cleaned off.
	Close by the campsite there were some Mound Springs. These were mounds about 5mtrs high with a bubbling pool in the top.
And then we saw this!