Oodnadatta to Dalhousie Springs

We may not have been able to do the Birdsville or Strzelecki Tracks but were able to experience the Oodnadatta Track. The Oodnadatta runs from Marree through Oodnadatta to Marla and is, without doubt, the worst road we have travelled anywhere to date. It has dips and crests and creek crossings, and corrugations that would shake your fillings out. Seriously – these are not your normal corrugations, they average 100mm deep… and that’s being conservative!

We travelled slowly, 50 – 60 kph, both the car and the van coped quite well…sort of. We have a couple of new stone chips on the windscreen, courtesy of our fellow drivers who don’t slow down when they pass. The range hood went berserk (emitting a high-pitched noise that wouldn’t’ stop, no matter how hard I pressed the power button) in the end Peter ripped out the mother board. A bit of dust and some unwanted movement in the cupboards and drawers.

The first day out of William Creek was fun. I did a bit of cattle rustling, and Peter found a hill to climb, and we saw a small clump of Sturts Desert Pea so of course we had to stop to take a photo. Such a unique and pretty flower.

Trying to find an escape from the corrugations Peter became quite competent at weaving his way back and forth and driving on the wrong side of the track. His dad would have called this ‘a good hunting road,’ because you’re constantly hunting for the smoothest part.  

We’d had enough by early afternoon, we pulled off the road at Algebuckina and found a camp site with water views. We were close to a bridge that was part of the Old Ghan railway; we stayed there for two nights.

The next day we made it to Oodnadatta without incident and stopped for a spot of lunch at the Pink Roadhouse. The burgers had been recommended to us, so we thought…why not? I have to say, they weren’t bad. I gobbled mine down with a bottle of pear cider and thoroughly enjoyed both even though the pink décor was a bit distracting.

60k north of Oodnadatta we turned off the track and continued north towards Hamilton Station, heading for Dalhousie Springs. We had hoped this road would be a smoother drive but we were disappointed (the fact that this track doesn’t even seem to have a name should have given us a clue). We were soon wishing for the familiar corrugations of the Oodnadatta Track. Who’d have thought that corrugations could get this big? Never being one to exaggerate, Peter reckons he needed four-wheel drive just to climb each one.

I think it’s safe to say that we were pushing it on this stretch. Chunky Bum is classed as a semi off-road van but the road we turned onto is more suited to full off-road vehicles. Any four-wheel drive vehicle would find it easy, but one towing a three-ton van behind; not so much. Our speedy 50 – 60 kph soon dropped to 30 – 40 kph and often to a slow walk.

The images below (all roads) were taken on the section of road between the turnoff from the Oodnadatta Track and the road to Dalhousie, about 50k. It is intriguing how quickly the roads and landscape changed over such a short distance.

It’s also interesting how long it can take to cover fifty kilometres. We camped that night just off the side of the road and went to bed looking forward to another day’s drive. 😊

The next day’s travel was interesting to say the least. We saw something moving on the road ahead of us. At first we thought it might be a wallaby, then maybe a small pig. A dingo? As we got closer, we saw it was an old red cattle dog. He was almost deaf and fully blind, but clearly well fed, so we knew he had come from somewhere not too far.

He may not have known much, but he knew he needed help, and he was not going to be left behind. Wrapping himself around our legs, constantly barking, in short making sure we knew he was there. After we’d given him a big drink, we tried to figure out where he was from. He didn’t have a collar on, so no tags to id him or his owners, so I got onto our Oricom two-way radio and did a call out to any stations in the area.

It worked. As it turned out he was only a kilometre from home, but I doubt he would have found his way back. It took a bit of effort to wrangle him into the back of the cab, he couldn’t jump up, and he became upset when we tried to lift him in, but Peter braved the kicks and the headbutts and did a fine job of getting the dog in the car.

Apparently, Taz the thirteen-year-old cattle dog, had been blind for three years, but always managed to find his way home by following the sound/vibrations of the generator. The station had recently upgraded to solar, so…no more genny to lead Taz home. The station manager was very grateful that we brought Taz home. He thanked us, then further showed his appreciation by gifting us some of his home-grown beef steak. Can’t wait to try that.

As we inched our way toward Dalhousie Springs, the road continued to get worse. Suddenly, the “Your door is open!” alarm went off. Sure enough, the gull wing door on the driver’s side of the canopy was wide open. We screeched to a halt – from 20kph to 0 in three minutes (to avoid shredding our tyres on the rocks) and got out to take a look. Peter saw that the locking mechanism on the door had rattled loose. Now if we had lost the locking mechanism, that would have been fun. Not! We found an area where we could get off the road and Peter did what he does best. He solved our problem.

We stopped to explore the Dalhousie Homestead Ruins, one of many ruins scattered around SA. It was only quick stop as we could see rain falling in the distance.

 

I said to Peter, “I’ll tell you something, if it rains while we’re on these roads, we won’t be going very far.”

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!