Day 16 – 18 Aug

And so the adventure tapers off to its bitter-sweet end and each of us take away something personal from the experience. No doubt some food for thought which will be drawn upon in quiet times of rumination. And as the immediacy of our adventure fades in its vividness and becomes a blur as time passes, there will remain certain moments, feelings and experiences that will crystallize and help to shape our thinking and emotions and become part of who we are forever. I have taken away from the experience a new respect and appreciation for this land and its people. I have been amazed by its ruggedness but also its beauty, serenity and nurturing qualities. You have to respect this land out here because we can be walking on the precipice of disaster and it should never be taken for granted. And so, to my new found friends and fellow journeymen, I say ‘Good bye and Farewell, may our paths soon cross again’. Thanks for sharing the experience, it’s been real……..

Day 15 – 17 Aug

The Marree School went well and we bid adieu to our new friends and headed off to Leigh Creek about 120km away. We arrived on time at 12:30 with nothing much of interest in between apart from a lovely rest stop at Copley where indulged in a real coffee and a really nice meat pie. We completed the work at 3:30pm and then were back on the road. This time though we headed into the Flinders ranges and the landscape changed quite significantly to rocky mountain sides, trees (green, live ones) and a beautiful winding mountain road. Suddenly there were kangaroos, wallabies and emus everywhere! After taking a few hundred (exaggerationJ) shots of these I said to George that he had organized everything well in terms of the wildlife except that I hadn’t seen an Echidna yet. About a minute later as we rounded a bend there was an Echidna obliviously making its way across the track. We pulled over immediately and spent the next 20 minutes doing a photo shoot .The Echidna was very cooperative. We continued on through the mountains, dodging the odd kangaroo with a death-wish and arrived at Hawker around dinner time. The local served up a beautiful scotch fillet and the rest of the boys decided on the local surf-and-turf variant. The last night on the road for us and I am looking forward to getting back to civilization, a shave, shower, and some fresh seafood.

Day 14 – 16 Aug

We made it in adequate time last night to beat the storm which finally rolled into
Marree at about 10:30pm. David and George decided to bunk early and Bren and I
waited up for the deluge. We had to share the 3 drops that fell between us but the
lightening was spectacular.
We've had a quiet day today as we're all missing home and loved ones I think. The temparature
had dropped quite a bit today and the wind was up. We drove around Marree (3 times) and
drove out onto the Birdsville Track for about 300m. The town is now , like most of the towns
on the track, very quiet and feels almost abandoned. There are a couple of old engines sitting
on unused railway sidings but not much else. The other thing that Marree is famous for
of course is the Marree Man (google it) but this can only be seen from the air. Tomorrow
morning its back to work and we have a big day tomorrow as we complete Marree in the
morning then head 120km south to Leigh creek. Thats the last of the schools for us.

Day 13 – 15 Aug

William creek also happens to be quite a significant centre for flight tours
over lake Eyre and we were surprised by the number of small planes on the airfield
and the amount of tourists that go through here. Back on the Oodnadatta track again
today and still no sign of wildlife. I'm beginning to think that there's more
kangaroos in Canberra than there are out here in the outback. We visited Anna Creek Station
which is the largest cattle station in Australia and had a quick look around before getting back onto the track.
As I've mentioned before the landscape is very dry, dusty and flat as far as the eye can see. But, surprisingly,
there are a couple of spots with natural springs that come up from the artesian basin.
We stopped to have a look at the spa at Cooper Springs and had a quick dip (as you do) and
the water was quite warm although very minerally (I think thats a word). We also had a look
at mound springs which is where the water bubbles up through the desert and over the
milinnia forms a mound of silicate type rock and sand which has its own ecology. Its
described as an island water in a sea of desert. We stopped at a lookout to Lake Eyre but
of course there was no water here and the last time it had water was sometime in late 1980's.
The beautiful sunset though was worth seeing and the clouds looked a bit stormy.
Our intention today was to take a slow trip and camp under the stars somewhere along the
track. We picked a spot about 80km from Marree
and proceeded to dissassemble a couple of dead trees for fire wood. Much to our
disappointment though the clouds in the distance seemed to travel quite fast in our
direction with a few lightening streaks thrown in for good measure. Sanity (and dedication
to duty) prevailing, we decided not to risk staying out in the open on rather soft
desert sand and made a hasty exit and headed post-haste to Marree.

Day 12 – 14 Aug

We were kinda glad to get out of the house at Oodnadatta this morning as we're all convinced
that something has died in the water tank. Needless to say there was no drinking or bathing
happening here (fortunately we don't have to visit any schools today)! Anyway, alls good
in the wilderness and its just another experience. Did not see much wildlife on the track
today just the odd kestrel and a few cows. About 70 km into the trip we heard a huge bang
and discovered the rear window of the Landcruiser had shattered. We must have caught a
rock from one of the 'Bush Bash' cars that sped past us in the other direction. It was time
again for Bren to play bush mechanic and two rolls of duct tape later we were ready to role.
We stopped at a place called Agebuckina bridge which was part of the old Ghan that used
to run parrallel to the Oodnadatta track. A wreck of Fred's old FB holden is still there
where Fred tried to cross the tracks when the creek was flooded and didn't make it very far
before being cleaned up by a train. We arrived at William Creak, a small 'town' with a pub
and caravan park. We set the swags up under the roof of the BBQ area and headed over to the
pub for dinner. We met a couple of young blokes up from Roxby Downs for the weekend (miners)
and luckily for use one of them could sing and play the guitar and we were treated to a
private show (Think Jack Black of the bush). Tomorrow we continue on the Oodnadatta track
out to Marree.

Day 11 – 13 Aug

We woke up this morning to find that we had lost a dust cap on one of the trailer wheels probably coming through the rough part of the track out from Kenmore Park. We couldn’t proceed until we got a new one as the trailer wheel will seize up once the dust gets in there. Our choices were to try and buy one from the local servo, find one at the wreckers or…… play Bush Mechanics. Mr ingenuity, Bren, decided to have a go and managed to fashion a reasonable dust cap out of the bottom of a water bottle, duct tape and zip ties. Not a bad effort really! Been wandering what happens to all those burned out car wrecks (and we’ve seen probably in excess of 200), we spotted this 3 trailer truck just before leaving Marla. Seems that someone does actually collect them every now and then. On our way to the other side of the Stuart Hwy to Oodnadatta now. The landscape is decidedly different with a lot more of a desert look. Very dry pale instead of red sand. We got the keys to the local govt house here in Oodnadatta and so everyone has their own room (and bed) again. I have really gotten used to the swag and opted for that instead. Oodnadatta is very deserted. The old Ghan used to run through here in its heyday but now its just dry and dusty with a few old railway carriages lying around. There are not many street lights out here and no moon tonight which makes for an exceptional night sky. Tomorrow is a travel day for us as we need to make our way out to Marree which is about 400km from here. We will probably take an easy trip with a few stops in between and may yet spend our first night sleeping under the stars.

Day 10 – 12 Aug

You never know when you may need a helping hand out here… I didn’t quite get the departure checklist right at Murputja and left one of our laptops at the school. Kenmore park is about 400km from Murputja and getting the laptop back meant that we would need to back track (an 800km round trip) and this would cause significant slippage in the schedule (PM speak). I decided to press my luck and call the cops out at Murputja to see if they were heading our way. Fortunately, Rob, the duty Sergeant, was scheduled to run a court session out at Ernabella, which was only 35km from where we were and he kindly offered to bring the laptop out for me. The work at Kenmore Park went well. All of the community (including the kids) was at a funeral and Sorry Camp down in Yatala and so the school was empty except for the teachers. We finished up at Kenmore Park and headed east for 300km and out of the APY lands and back onto the Stuart Hwy to Marla. We got accommodation at the Marla road house as we did several days ago and had a nice relaxing wind down. Back to civilization of sorts with a bit of TV and a public phone. The 3G even works here…