Day 10, Saturday 30/06/2012, Coober Pedy to Lake Eyre

Breakfast was included in our rate. Make it yourself in the kitchen. Col emptied our water tank as the water tastes funny from Ceduna. He filled it from the motel. Everyone else went down the road to a public filling station where they put 20 cents in the machine and topped up their water with the best artesian water in Australia. After topping up with fuel we went to Umoona Opal Mine and Museum at mum’s recommendation.

 

It was a great museum, movie and house and mine tour. Good one mum, and so close and handy. I bought a $40 opal and Jordan bought a $14 one.  Jamie is so excited about the opal her mum bought her. Bruce seems to have ‘the runs’, looks like gastrostop might be the go.

Australia now supplies 90% of the world’s opals at the highest of quality. It only costs $65.50 to get a permit to stake out a piece of land 50x100m, awesome! I know where I can get cheap land one day if I need to. Also, out of 100 mines, about 10 find opals and one makes it rich. Better than most other odds (LOTTO anyway).

The road to William Creek is graded. Driving through ‘digs’ looks like the old Coober Pedy would have. It’s such a busy little town now.

Then you’re hit by the nothingness. Flat scrubland. No hills or trees as far as the eye can see. I can definitely picture this as an ancient seabed.

It’s a fast run at 80km/hr on William Creek Rd. Which I’m sure would be a different story if there had been any rain. Stuart needed to stop and let some air out of his tyres. They were inflated in the cold, and now running in warm weather the pressure has gone too high. These ‘tyre dogs’ come in handy.

Rude buggers! Just drove past without waving! Just not kosher in the Outback. Have to stick together out here. 14km west of William Creek we passed a turn off to Anna Creek Station, the world’s largest cattle station. Had literally a few drops of rain here.

William Creek Hotel was a wonderful stop. Finally an Outback hotel that’s not abandoned. It certainly is an iconic pub, full of character. We helped to cover the walls with our business cards then ordered our lunch, just in the nick of time. We arrived at 1.30pm and the kitchen closes at 2pm. We enjoyed a beer or wine in the pub and then sat down for the best burgers ever.

For those with some money a sightseeing flight over Lake Eyre is on offer here, but too expensive for our family of 4. We’ll walk on it instead.

At the turn off to Haligan Bay you can self register and pay $9 for a permit, but it is included in our SA desert Parks Pass. The road in to Lake Eyre was pretty good, although a bit bumpy, plenty of small corrugations, dips and washaways. Some parts were sandy, others rocky. Those not used to corrugations (eg Gunbarrel) thought they were terrible.

It was a flat scrubby landscape with the occasional herd of cattle. There was a curious dingo that stopped to look at us, sniffing into the air and a couple of wedgies.

The landscape then abruptly changes and you feel as if you have landed on the moon. A black, grey and white valley of mesas with Lake Eyre glowing white in the background.

Lake Eyre is awesome! I particularly love the patterns that the salt makes. There was no water to be seen, but soft parts where you crack through the salt crust and sink into the soft, muddy silt beneath. Most of us played on the lake until sunset.

Again such a beautiful remote place has been ruined for camping with poles and wires confining you to a tiny gavel car park area to camp in. You can’t even see the lake from where we were camped, and looking at poles and a toilet block just weren’t what we imagined. I guess for those that like amenities it would suit, but not my ‘cup of tea’. Also fires were not allowed. With the freezing wind biting into you, this can be a major problem. We all decided to have our 2 night stay elsewhere, having enjoyed the sunset and tomorrow the sunrise on Lake Eyre, we were satisfied.
Poor Lisa and Stuart. Their fridge froze. With that plus the corrugations, they had a can of soft drink explode spurting a slushy everywhere.

The older kids, Jordan, Jessica, Jack, Madison and Michael, were a bit mental tonight, spinning, chasing, falling over and getting fits of the giggles.

Bruce came running back to camp excited that the lake was glowing from the moon light, so we went over for a few night shots. Lisa and I like this one, although it is slightly blurry.

I think there are a few rattled nerves in our group at the moment. It is normal to have a few meltdowns halfway through a trip. It can be quite a shock to the system, especially with such tight time schedules. It’s a shame we have to get back to work so soon.