This morning, Wednesday, it was farewell to the little tiny village of William Creek. Our destination for today was to be Oodnadatta. It is another little town that has managed to survive after the demise of the Ghan Railway. There is quite a large aboriginal population although we only saw a few who were waiting for the Hotel to open.
The distance was 203 kilometres of dirt and gravel or gibber road. It was quite corrugated in a number of places which forced me to drop the speed to even as slow as 10 kilometres per hour for generally short distances. Then the road would improve to really good then it would fall apart suddenly.
On advice from experts, I have reduced my tyre pressures to 28 psi on the drive and Karavan tyres. The steering is still the same which forces me to slow as the vibration starts. The benefit, so far is that the tyres are not only softer but also have a longer tread pattern. This allows the tyre to tread over stones and corrugations better. Another check point is the temperature of the shock absorbers on all vehicles. If there is too much heat, too hot to put your hand on, it will eventually fail. So far each check stop the Karavan is warm while the Bravo is cool.
On one stop, I discovered the cable that carries electrical current to the Karavan had fallen out and the plastic surround had broken away leaving just the terminal ends. Bush ingenuity had me jam the terminals into the vehicle socket with anything I could find and use zip ties and tape to hold it in place. So far all has worked.
As we have each day, we stopped to look at various relics of the Ghan Railway including the longest bridge in South Australia. It is the Algebuckina Bridge which was built in the late 1800s. It is over 500 metres long and it took over 350 people to build it. The ironwork is magnificent and was forged in Scotland then shipped to Adelaide and then onto rail to the destination. It is now heritage listed on the National Register.
Soon after, we arrived in Oodnadatta. Most of my life I have heard of this place in historical items especially to do with the Ghan Railway. It has a population of around 250 people. There is a good museum of the area and the various eras, so far. While we were at the museum, we met up with a fellow, Graham Wilkin and his wife from Coonabarabran. I knew of him years ago.
After we perused the tiny General Store and the Pink Roadhouse, we made our decision to get what we needed at the Pink Roadhouse. It is really pink and is known as that. They stock almost everything one needs. We had our lunch there with several other couples that were going up to Dalhousie Springs.
After getting our supplies, we decided not to stay in Oodnadatta. The Caravan Park was very ordinary and quite expensive. We made the decision to leave for the Painted Desert. The couples we had lunch with had just come from there and told us where to camp. So we cruised on along much better roads to this location.
On arrival in the area, we discovered the campsite. We drove on a few kilometres to take in the stunning and unbelievable sight of this amazing scene. There are white and brown colours giving the impression that someone had done an imaginary painting using these colours. You really need to see this area. No doubt we will get to see more in the early morning light.
We returned to the campsite and set up the Karavan and used the Honda generator as we wanted to catch up on charge that was missed when the connection dropped out this morning. Prue made a nice pasta dish and right now, I feel well fed! We did wash the dust down before the meal with some red and nibbles and while we had dinner we had a little more. There is no one in sight or sound of us and in fact I think no one would even know we are here.
So our sojourn along the famous Oodnadatta Track is now complete. It is to be taken with respect and carefully and we have escaped with nothing serious happening except for the broken plug that I have temporarily repaired.
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