Yesterday, before leaving and heading south, we visited the many creekside camping spots where all ten residents of Innamincka
in the 50s used to desport. Policeman’s and Ski beach; sublime places overhung with red gums and patrolled now just by Pelicans, Galahs, Corellas and the odd shag. We were reluctant to leave the cool banks, to head into the Strzelecki Desert. Taking the Old Strzelecki Track (first opened by Harry Redford the cattle duffer who drove 1000 stolen head through there in 1870 - he was caught, sent to trial with ample evidence against him, and let off by a jury so impressed by his feat of derring do they couldn’t find it in their hearts to send him down....!), we found a marvellous road with no traffic to speak of. The Telstra god shone his beam of communications for two minutes in the middle of nowhere, and our messages popped into view. We grabbed the opportunity and SMS’d as many replies as we could. Must have be
en a gas project in the vicinity- indeed, Moomba oil fields. A dust storm enveloped us so we felt cocooned and thankful to be in a small air conditioned world of our own. How those explorers kept it up year after year beggars belief. It was strange to visit Montecollina Bore, shrouded in driven grit, where water almost too hot to touch spills into a sandy dam, cooling as it goes and forming a magic wetland for birdlife in the process. These are Australian Shelduck.Heading on southwards, we turned off the Strzelecki Track that goes on to Lyndhurst, and continued south towards Lake Callabonna and then Lake Frome. L. Callabonna unfortunately can’t be accessed without a permit from the University of SA. It is where hundreds of Diprotodon and other megafauna skeletons are to be found where they had become mired in what was a great bog. Apparently there are whole skeletons sticking up out of the chalky mudflats. By 5pm we had had enough and we turned into a clearing and parked in a creek bed beside some lovely red gums. These moments when we set up for a simple meal after toasting the sun with Bowmore or a glass of decent red, are very special.
The road this morn
ing took us to Arkaroola and it was the worst corrugated stretch we have seen since the Mitchell Plateau road last year, and that is saying something. However we are settled into the place, within reach of showers and the bar, a meal is booked tonight. Another episode of “Rome” is to be seen on the laptop before we stretch out for another night under the stars, sort of.Arkaroola is a significant and famous place. Mawson (of Antarctic fame) studied the geology of this region in the early part of the last century, and developed some break through theories about geology and more particularly glaciation, that he tested and proved through his subsequent visit to Antarctica. He was involved in the development of radium that was mined and carried out by camel back in the 1920’s. He taught Reginald Sprigg at Adelaide University, who as one of his best students went on to be involved with Sir Mark Oliphant in the development of the base material for the first atomic bomb. The material for that dreadful weapon was mined, in utmost secrecy, at Arkaroola. Reginald Sprigg purchased the place when he retired, and with his wife Griselda, they developed it with eco-tourism in mind back in 1963. What forward thinkers.
Our first night’s highlight had to be the buffet meal accompanied with a bus tour of very hungry troupers. I have never seen rib eye steaks the size of those we ate. The troupers were impressed too and I had the sense that we were benefitting from their presence. I was thinking of pudding and sidled up to the buffet again, as the sticky date was brought out, in a large tray and camouflaged as mince under a blanket of mash. The nice old chap in front of me, impressed by his timing as he slipped a second rib eye onto his plate, took a step backwards, grasped the ladle firmly, and scooped a pound of pud onto his plate, beside the carrots. His companion, seeing me pouring the recently arrived cream over mine, not the gravy, nudged her fellow, pointed (politely) at my bowl and was rudely rebuffed. The drive into Arkaroola is long and arduous and after such privations he was not to be put off!
There is excitement this morning because we are going on the Ridgetop Tour this afternoon, after a short drive up a gully to have a look at the old Bollabollana copper mine and smelter. It
is hard to imagine constructing a complex series of buildings out in this remote location, but, as happened all over the bush in the 1870’s, there was activity everywhere. Water was available and must have made all the difference. Today at Arkaroola it is 20 years since the creeks were fully charged, and the 200mm rainfall still quoted as average hasn’t been seen for many years. It is 15 months since we were here last, and they have received about 35mm. Thank you very much! Hardy plants survive, though young Red Guns are stressed; Helen was excited to find a new Eremophila – see pic on left.Some of you may remember that a few years ago Mitsubishi advertised the Pajero by getting it to the top of what appears to be an impossible peak. That is at the end of a quite magical drive into the tortured and wracked rocky landscape running 20 kilometres or so from the Arkaroola HQ. That is Sillers Lookout at The Ridgetop. Eleven game grey and silver nomads (there is a difference) were strapped into the back of an open sided Land Cruiser and we were carried up rocky slopes that had us boggling. The Pajero made it yes, but the Land Cruiser is amazing. Porsche tried to get their Cayenne up there to impress the glitterati but apparently the LC had to tow it up the last climb! Geoff, my faith is shaken!
The customers, a little sore but doing stretches between exclamations at the splendour of the place, were fed tea and lamingtons to the complete satisfaction of everyone. The $99/head cost had us pulling faces when we paid for the tickets, but there can be no doubt, it is worth every cent.
With our duties at Arkaroola now complete, and a blog to be posted, we left on 13 August as early as caravan park conversations would allow (three quarters of an hour later than should have been the case) and made for Leigh Creek, where we posted our first blog last year too. There is a little village called Copley on the way, that we visited last year as well. They sell quandong pies and coffee of Carlton standard (well, we’ve been on the road a while now). Don’t miss this place! In Leigh Creek we purchased a range of meats all cryovaced for the weeks ahead. The blog took us ages as we knew it would, making it later and later for our meet with Bill & Jill Johnson of Fremantle, at Marree, 120 kilometres north. There had been about 5mm of rain to the north the previous night, and we were hearing messages over the UHF about dodgy conditions ahead. By 4:30pm we pulled up in Marree, next to our friends’ van totally covered in thick clay. I felt sure after waiting si
nce 11am they would be either very irritable or very drunk, but it was all smiles and hugs from these lovely new old friends. With no time to waste we high tailed it north towards Muloorina Station, near the shores of Lake Eyre, where we set up beside a fine lagoon with pelicans patrolling and the sound of great merriment as we started the job of catching up.Our expectations for being able to do regular blog posts are dashed I’m afraid. I am writing this a day short of Winton in central Queensland in the hope we might get some NextG coverage there - the first since Leigh Creek. There is much blog to catch up on but we’ll make sure we have at least this much up tomorrow, after we have inspected the dinosaurs.
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