To The Oodnadatta Track and Lake Eyre-12th Dec

Or Vast Expanses, Billions of Flies and Intense Heat You Wouldn't Believe.

It had been a warm night in the gorge with a strong breeze that though warm made sleeping difficult. Up at 6 the sun soon started to hit the side of the gorge, beautiful again and the temperature just right. We continued the rest of the way through Brachina gorge stopping to see some approximately 500 million year old fossils then up to a lookout.

Out of the Flinders, back to the highway and up to Leigh Creek to refuel, then leaving the highway to continue North on the Oodnadatta track, one of the famous 4WD tracks running though the central region and following the path of the old Ghan. We made a brief stop at Farina, an old abandoned township where life sounded to have been really hard- when the railway was re-routed it was gradually abandoned.

The scenery is flat, the ground covered in dust and coarse, sparse, low vegetation-mostly clumps of spiniflex grass. Maree our lunch stop is another ex-Ghan town, with railway line and a few old engines still remaining.


At Lake Eyre South in early afternoon it is intensely hot, 40 odd degrees in the shade, except there us no shade  reallyexcept 1 small shelter of an information board that we park next to. We walk down towards the lake, the salt crust shimmering in the heat. My skin feels like it's frying despite the sunscreen, the heat radiating from all directions, bouncing and glaring. It's spectacular, yet deadly. We think about the pioneers. People who crossed this region on foot or on camel, facing the heat with none of our modern equipment and comforts.

Named for John Edward Eyre, the first European to see this lake, Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia, 15m below sea level and when it fills as it partially did in 2009 and 2010, the largest lake in Australia.


Past Lake Eyre and we bush camp at Anna Creek now the largest cattle station in the world with 6 million acres or 24 000 square kms. It's a beautiful setting but alas the flies! From day 1 the flies proved themselves a nuisance and we were grateful for the head nets, today is the worst and it's only as the light goes that we have relief. Australian flies are far more obnoxious than elsewhere, not content to land on you they're only happy when they're attempting to enter eyes or nose, ears or mouth. Dinner is cooked by fire tonight (we stopped and collected some old railway sleepers earlier!), kangaroo steak on a hotplate and potatoes and vegetables baked in the embers. The sun sets and millions of stars grace the skies.