Oodnadatta and Strzelecki tracks
Leaving Uluru and heading down the road to join up with the Stuart hwy again we find a Thorny Devil on the road, another fast pull up with car and caravan , good job the road is empty of traffic. We do not want to run over him , we want photos and to look at him. He/ she is quite happy to hang around a little while for photos . We do see more and some dragons but they don't hang around for photos. It rained a little last night and there seems to be more things out and about this morning.
The night is spent in an off road camp and as we pull out in the morning there is a dingo just causally walking down the road and we do pull up in time to take photos.

We stop for fuel at a roadhouse and head down the Stuart hwy to the border with South Australia, here we stop for the night .

 
On tuesday – Melbourne cup day , there is a big storm here and we pull in at Marla to find out they lost all their communications right when the race was on. We are to stay the night here as this is were we start the Oodnadatta track and with the storm perts of the track are closed, we have to wait. The power is back on and we have mobile reception for the day, they also have a swimming pool we use to cool off as the temperature is rising again after the storm.
The track is a go in the morning through to Oodnadatta township, but still closed through to William creek and then to Marree. 
 
 So we take a couple of days to get to Oodnadatta , the track is not too bad ,some water still across the road and sloppy bits, not too bad on corrugations though. It does mean we have to stop a couple of days in Oodnadatta as the water and creeks are still flowing further down the track. It is a hot slow time with nothing to do waiting in Oodnadatta, after we had walked around there rail museum and town . 

The idea was to go out without the van to Dalhousie springs and stay the night. This is a big artesian spring made into a large swimming area water temperature of 37deg when it comes out of the ground. This national park is 3 hours away from Oodnadatta town so it would be overnight camp , but the road is closed, so its stay here.

 
Population here is 180 with a large proportion of aboriginals and lots of night barking dogs. Town has a school for 40 students primary and secondary with 6 teachers, Historic Ghan railway museum , the Pink roadhouse, pub, general store a police station and hospital you have to ring a number to get some one there. The whole town is run on a LPG town generator.

We get the go ahead the track is open and the weather report says hot dry for next week so we head off .5km out of town is are first obstacle a long strip of water over the road still flowing and up to knee deep with deep ruts where people have driven through. This and the next one kept a station owner couple in Oodnadatta for a couple of days straight after the storm. It is down lots but we have the van in tow, we make it with no trouble slowly moving forward. We don't go too far for the day for a couple of reasons , one it will give more time for the track to dry a bit more and we have to travel slowly , then there are a few places of interest to see on this track.


 
We stop for the night at Algebuckina old Ghan rail bridge over a waterhole, after stopping to see ruins of places used by Ghan workers and latter train stops for travellers. I had taken a photo in the museum of the old Ghan travelling over this bridge.
 
We would have liked to see the Peake ruins, old copper mine and artesian springs but these are 15km off the Oodnadatta track and this dirt road is still under water in places . The next night is spent alone at Old woman creek.
 

On the road again early and stop and visit William creek, we have stayed here when Lake Eyre had water in it and we took flight over it back in 2010. It has not changed much apart from the owner is putting in more cabins as they get very busy when there is water in the lake.
Took some photos of the bar area again, talked with the owner and got some track information then we headed out again.
We did come across a beautiful marked perentie crossing the road.
 
 
We head to Strangeways ruins and mound springs. This was established in 1862 as a sheep, cattle grazing station around the many mound springs which are formed by the great artesian basin.
Strangeways offered hospitality to travellers in a small settlement after the telegraph station started
in 1872 , as part of the overland telegraph from Adelaide to Darwin following the old Ghan railway.
A wool wash was also set up here on the pastoral station using water from one of the natural springs. This made the wool lighter, cheaper to transport which made for better pricing for clean wool.
Mound springs are natural outlets off water from the Great Artesian basin where pressure forces water to the surface . Most of these are on the margin of the basin which takes in far north of SA to north west of NSW and south west of Qld. Dalhousie springs north of Oodnadatta has the biggest output of water. Thats where we wanted to go but the road was closed.
Some of these have stopped flowing because, over the years of them being of great importance for water for settlers and their stock, too many wells were put down taking the pressure away that is needed to push the water to the surface. Quite a few of the early bores have now been capped to try and save some of the natural springs still left flowing.
The night is spent beside a very large dam on a spring used by the station for their stock. There are also ruins here of another early site used by the Ghan, and in here we find a pair of Australian kestrels nesting in the roof of one of the buildings and plenty of swallows nesting here too. 

We head further down the Oodnadatta track and Coward springs for a couple of days. Here where they tried capping a bore and did not succeed is a sort of container over the flow . About 4-6 people can stand in it up to their necks in warm to hot mineral water and take turns with your back up to the inflow as a massage. 
 
 The water then flows out into an area making a swamp area for birds and wildlife. We go in this a couple of times a day. The car was unhooked from the van so we could drive in to the area a few kilometres away of mound springs . Some of these have been named like the Bubbler. It is flowing pretty good making its own waterfall and its bubbles are where the water brings up fine and heavy sand looking like a little volcano. It stops for a few minutes builds up pressure and then bubbles again for a few minutes.

The next one is named Blanch and has a clear cold water pool and a spring flowing well too. We are not allowed to get into any of these so its back to Coward springs and its little soaking area.
The temperature here is around the 40 c mark so standing in the little tank thing is good, it does cool you down a bit and the minerals relax you , you do feel a little cold for a little while when you get out.
The next place we stop at is the Lake Eyre south at the lookout . There isn't any water in this section of Lake Eyre at the moment, all you see is this great expanse of the white salt bottom of the Lake.

We flew over this full of water in 2010, a bit different now. You are not allowed to camp here anymore so the night is spent at Screech Owl creek that has lots of native hens running around the little bits of water thats here.
We are only 64 km away from Marree and the end of the Oodnadatta track and the end of the Birdsville track. From here its another 56km to the old settlement of Farina, we stopped here 2 years ago after coming down the Birdsville track. We are the only ones camping here again and get to walk around mostly by ourselves with the birds and a daddy emu with his chicks. 
 
 There are some day visitors but they mostly walk around the ruins. There are also frogs in all the toilets so have to check before you go and flush , don't want to hurt them . Think they are naked tree frogs.

Farina was a town back in 1878 and named from the Latin name for flour, because it was thought this would be a good grain growing area with its underground water. This water proved too salty for he grain crops and in fact too salty for the stock, The last resident left here in 1975. At the height of the town it had 300 residents a police station, hotel and its own bakery back when the Ghan stopped here.
It was time for us to head further south and find a supermarket for our trip up the Strzelecki track from Lyndhurst. We are still on dirt roads with no mobile coverage even in Lyndhurst where we leave the caravan. There has been no food shops just a roadhouse selling frozen bread and a few other things so we have to go to Leigh creek 30 something klm and back for a small Foodland supermarket. Because part of this road is sealed we have to put air in the tyres so we do not have to do the same with the van and then have to let them down again we stay the night at Lyndhust so we can leave the van to go shopping. The supermarket does have a bigger variety than we remember from last time but very expensive but we have to have food for the next 2-3 weeks. We do not know how long it will take us to travel along the Strzelecki track and into the corner of NSW, QLD , SA. As it is all still 4 wheel drive dirt roads. Wouldn't you know it the truck from Adelaide comes with fresh suppliers on a wednesday and its a monday and nearly $300 latter we have at least survival food and a couple of treats of dried fruit and cheese. The next supermarket will not be until we reach Broken Hill in NSW.
I don't know what is going to happen here as the coal mine closes down the day we are there and puts a lot of people living there out of work. This is where the largest train comes at night and picks up coal for the smelter and steel works , so even more people will be out of work in South Australia.
While we are in Leigh Creek we drive to Coona dam a water supply dam for the area . We can not swim which is a shame there is so much water but there is a picnic area and toilets. We find a couple of skinks and a gecko in the toilet building. The gecko I was not quick enough to get a photo as I was there for other reasons and it was gone when I got back with the camera. I think it was a variegated tree dtella , have only seen one other one so we look all around and find the skinks and nothing else.
We head out early the next morning along the Stzelecki track it starts with loose gravel and stones with larger rocks, good job we have not got the tyres pumped up high as these would soon puncture them. 
 
 We do come across sealed road sections of 8 and 7 klm long in the 240klm we travel the first day. Yes we went that far in a day, it took 5 hours though as we did not get over 50klm per hour speed. Its not worth the risk of breaking the van or car on these roads and there was no where to stop for the night. We did stop for a couple of alive central bearded dragons , the first would not get off the track so as a truck approached I picked him up to take him off the track and save him, and he wiggled and I got his neck spikes poked into my hand . I thought I had him gently and correctly but as he suddenly came to life he got me , but at least he was alive not like some we had seen on the track. 
 
 There are trucks / road trains from the Moomba oil/gas fields up and down this road, they can not stop quickly even if they wanted to, most are not going very fast though. The next dragon we find does get off the road when we approach, they are out warming up early in the morning collecting the heat from the track and are still a bit slow.
We finally get to our camping area at Montecollina Bore and artesian bore that runs into a sort of waterhole made by the sand dunes with the overflow making a swamp area.


Some people have dug run off sit in areas to the side of the in flow as the water is hot, so I thought if they do this we could swim in it maybe. So very slowly I got in, it had cold spots and warm and hot spots and deep not far from the edge. Larry did join me latter on my second swim. We were init when 2 workers of the gas and oil plant were checking the under pressure pipes to Port Augusta that pass here called in . They said they had not seen anybody swim in it just sit on the side bits as it usually is very much smelling of sulphur. It was a bit and a bit salty but it comes from the same place as all the other springs – the artesian basin. Anyhow the birds drink it so do all the other animals in the area. We are still alive and well too.
The next leg of the trip is also a big one another 260km into Innaminka with a stop at the lookout at the Moomba gas and oil field. 
 
 Most of the area on this bit of the track is keep off no public allowed so we have no choice but to drive another 5 hour stint. There is another new area being put together do not know whether its gas or oil or both again. After paying our desert parks pass and camping fees we drive out 16 km to Minkie waterhole. 

 We are to be here a few of days and the day we drove the 260km and for a few days the temperature in the shade was 50c so we are so glad there was still a good amount of water in this waterhole which is on the Cooper creek. No wonder the birds are all in the shade and have their mouths open , its hot. We spend quite a bit of time swimming up and down and across this waterhole to recoup after our long hot drive. We do not do much apart from one night we have to pack up and move the van a few metres as as it gets dark we find we have a swam of large ants under and around the caravan , we think we might be camped over part of their unseen underground nest and they do not like it. We would not have known only I went outside to bring in the dry swimwear and towels and found hundreds crawling up my legs in just 4 steps from the door.
Innamincka has a hotel/ motel , trading post sort of general store that is also information centre and park fee collector,public toilet-shower-laundryand a ranger station and thats it apart from a couple of homesteads of stock stations and a few workers. The trading post shop has just one worker at the moment and open only 9-4pm but after summer the tourists arrive and it takes another 3-4 people to serve everybody, I do not know how many work in the pub/hotel/. We are the only people here at the moment and they say they only see couple of people a day now apart from some of the trucks that come through using the Strzelecki track as short cut from South Australia to Queensland, and trucks going to any of the mines or gas fields.


We had not completely made up our minds which way we were going to get back to Victoria, we could go from here in SA into QLD then down into NSW all roads are dirt and we are told the shorter road is a very rocky road so would have to go about 380km into Qld then down to NSW to get to the same place. Or we could double back down the Strzelecki for just over 100km and take another dirt road for another 200 or so kilometres to Cameron corner at the corner between QLD, SA and NSW. This is what we decide to do its windy and still very hot and this road is like a roller coaster in places up and down the dunes.
 
   We see more Central bearded dragons and a sand or Gould’s monitor out early in the morning. The drive is long and hot and we pull up on a little bit of compacted ground that is used by road workers ,for the night ,and continue to Cameron corner in the morning.
You drive in on the dirt road in South Australia cross a grid and you are in Queensland and Cameron corner and when we leave the next day you cross back over the grid and then through a gate into New south whales. Its also the place the Dog/ dingo fence crosses the borders.
We camp over the sand dunes a short distance away and walk back to pay and buy some fruit if they have some to spare as they have nobody staying there in the hotel at the moment . Same story not many people around just the couple who own this place and a few hundred hectares of land, but during tourist time can have 7 workers on full time. They have oranges we buy and pay for the camping , we could have stayed at the back of the hotel they have a caravan parking area with power and the usual but want $35 for this so we stay in camp site for $10, we are getting tight with our money preferring to do or see things instead. Any way $5 of the money goes to the Flying doctor service but the catch is you have to stick it to the ceiling without standing on any thing. So a tack is put through the $5 note and a 20cent piece is placed to hold the pin there and then the note is twisted to hod all and giving a tail to hang on to. You then have to stand and throw it up to the ceiling , it took me 4 goes to make it stick , the trick is stand don't look up just toss up. 
 
 
Our walk was into all 3 states as we are in the corner country. Step one way and you are in SA step again and you are in NSW step again its QLD and the dog/ dingo fence runs through here . All places have different time zones and its 1 hour or half hour difference, we are eating now on NSW time as thats where we are heading.
 
 
When we got back to the caravan from our walk we find we had a visitor, part of my washing I had put to soak in a couple of buckets were on the sand. The culprit was no where to be found just some hoof prints , yes horses, and they had been drinking the soaking water but I don't think they liked my laundry powder in it.
Larry went looking for them while I did the washing and still no sign of them. It was dark and we got a knock at the door , our visitor was back , you can just make her out on the photo , she stayed around most of the night before she must have gone to rejoin the rest of them that live here.

We are still on dirt roads and have not got mobile coverage , the stock stations and roadhouse use microwave antennas have phones and they of course have UHF radios. If we had an emergensie we of course could use phones and we have UHF.
So even though I am typing this it will not be on the internet until we reach Broken Hill.