At William Creek water in the showers is salty- 9.43am and no flies yet - they pop out at ten.
Spoke to a local & the population is 3, they are even registered on the electoral roll. While we chatted a number of scenic flights took off: to see Lake Eyre She said, “A bit of water in the lake and lots of pelicans and other birds to see” At $700 a flight I’m prepared to take her word for it!
The suns up well & truly, there’s a buzz of excitement in the air - there’s a queu at the bowser and the travellers have all packed a sense of adventure
A steady stream of off-road bikes are on the road - some have been across the Simpson desert and some at a big off-road motorbike race called the Fink race.
I wonder if other people have issues with smashed windscreens as some speedy oncoming vehicles spray up a meteorite shower as they go past
It was worth all the corrugations and rough 4WD Track to witness the history of Australia’s most remote telegraph station - the Old Peake Telegraph Station of 1870
Turning off the highway a sign warned us to tak safety equipment- 4WD only and enough food in case we became stranded
The quartzite plains giving way to more undulating red rockiness eventually affording us the soft green wetland. 3 m high reeds opening to a series of ruinsbehind big fluffy palms
A well marked walk took us on an historic journey through a place of toil and expectation from the entrepreneurs and explorers in our grandparents day
A pastoral lease, then another, then the hope of a profitable mine- much investment and the eventual realisation of failure
Remote beauty - fresh water and free flies
Back on the highway the roadworks graded the bright orange mud into a flat swamp which rebounded to the underside of our vehicle with a gurgling sound
Pleased to be away from that with the thought of an Oodnadatta burger ahead
40kms along the Track & No burger yet, there’s a bridge to see
Algebuckina with its gnarled old sleepers and rusting girders reaches across a span of dried river bed and delicate gum leaves from the tree tops below. The longest bridge we’ve seen so far and a feat of engineering in its day to cover the deep and wide floodwaters that occur
It feels like miles and miles of bikes have passed us zooming out of the bull dust with headlights blazing as the road cuts across a terrain resembling Mars w it’s the occasional rusting railway water tower or windmill
Lots of bull dust and red rocks with a few speed hero’s - race is over mate! And the Fink Track is further north
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