The Road to Innaminka
The first thing to mention about the drive to Innaminka, is that we had to take a detour, and that gave us the opportunity to visit the site of the Burke and Wills Dig Tree. This is a site of great historical significance in Australia. I won’t go into the history here, but if you’d like to take a detour yourself, follow this link. http://www.thedigtree.com.au/the-history/ It’s a good place to start.
So, where exactly is the Dig Tree? Buried deep within the heart of Australia the Dig Tree is located on the Nappa Merrie Station, (a meager 720,000ha). This is a very remote, harsh, and unforgiving part of the country. There are minimal facilities, in short, if you don’t take it with you, you’re not going to have it, but it is teeming with birdlife and hauntingly beautiful. History buff or not, this should be on your “Must See” list.
More importantly this was the site of our first creek crossing and sadly the loss of our blue box; my bad. ☹
Ok, we like to keep things organized while travelling, you know, a place for everything and everything in its place. So, we had a blue box which contained everything, and I mean everything, needed to set up the awning. Including a washing line with peg holder that Peter made. Hammer, tie downs, pegs, anti-flap thingies, guy ropes, you name it, it was in the blue box.
We drove to the banks of Cooper Creek and saw that it was flowing fast and looked deep. Peter decided to walk the creek to see if it was passable. He asked me to get his wet shoes from the boot of the van, to do this I had to take out the blue box, to get to the orange crate, to get his shoes. You with me so far? He put his shoes on then walked the creek, when he didn’t get washed off his feet, we figured it was safe.
We were excited about the creek crossing so we jumped into Big-ears and off we went.
It’s about 60 kilometers from the creek to Innaminka, remembering we took a detour through the station, I’m not sure how far it actually was, and most of it was on dirt. When we arrived at Innaminka and I hopped out of the car, my heart skipped a beat when I saw that the boot door on the van was flapping in the wind. I knew I’d get in trouble for that, so I quickly closed it, and thought what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. But then I realised that I had left the blue box sitting on the grass on the banks of Cooper Creek, so I had to come clean.
Our visit to Innaminka was short but sweet, thanks to the blue box. We wanted to do a mach run back over the creek to see if it was still there. Sadly it was not. The hotel and the trading post were well worth the visit and it is a great base camp to explore Cooper Creek and Cameron’s Corner. We will be back.
