William Creek

William Creek is basically the pub and the campground. WC's a bit of a rip off at $115 for a room in a shipping container, and camp toilets. Lucky we forgot to fill up, so scraped it in to Coober Pedy with a few dozen k's to spare maybe, and spent $105 on fueling up again.

Big roads, big trucks; not much dressing up would be needed for a part in Mad Max for this one.

We met two German bikers with stickers from all over the place. They'd shipped their bikes, and flown in. The bikes had German euro number plates.

They'd covered 50,000kms in 2 months, and had a month left to get to Melbourne. They only do 2 or 300kms per day, and stay a few days here and there.

Lake Eyre North

Don't drive on the lake!

A plant growing in the lake.

Rubbing and tasting the salt 

Good for your soles?

It's a bit glary there

Lake Eyre North. The road was a horror show, took an hour and a half to go 60kms. We collected salt, and used it that night in the cooking. It was delicious. The wind was blowing, and the flies were too outrageous. So we pressed on to William Creek.

 The edges have more dirt and sand than salt

Dab on that

Blanche Cup and the Bubbler

We got to Blanche Cup and the Bubbler. The way that anyone could travel through here, first nations or colonists, was by discovering the water sources dotted through here. They're very fragile and have duck walks up there now to protect them. The bushes covered with salt are incredible.

Blanche Cup

Amazing bushes covered with salt

The Bubbler

The area of lush green near the Bubbler

The road has a few trucks, mainly convoys of gray nomads. When a truck came, we stopped, as you can't even see through the dust.

We stayed at Coward Springs on the 22nd. It is a tiny little cubbie hole of a spring, wooden planks surrounding and a weird spa blaster that is unpleasant to sit next to. Space is tight. Once we jumped in, the other three people left. Later that night, we got positively eaten by mosquitoes. That answered the question of whether we'd stay another night. The incense in the toilets is really impressive though. Zero insects in there. The trees and green vegetation is quite a surprise after all the kilometres of desert shrubs and sand. Our first nations people used these springs in order to travel through the area. Turns out the European colonists followed the same original path to get through the desert also.

We ran into this cyclist, Koun, from Antwerp Belgium on the following day the 23rd.

He has been riding for a year this time around. He sticks to the right to avoid all dust. The truckies, he said, were really nice. We stopped to offer him water. He took about 2 litres. Not sure what the plan is if he doesn't get some lucky water! He uses about 6 per day, in winter.

Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre South

Lake Eyre south - the boys can't see the point of walking down. Then 15 minutes later the thongs are off, and they're up to their shins in mud, racing around shouting with delight.

Lake Eyre Dragon.

These guys rode to Innamincka for work. Australia's too big for bike riding? Only with today's sedentary no risk taking lumps.

Marree

In Marree, we stayed in a beautiful pub for two nights. The second day going for a run, there are some impressive diesel engines in the town, the railway station, and a grid of streets with some houses. Marree is a good little town.

Random artwork on the road after.

Farina

Farina is a ghost town that is slowly being restored, or stabilised at least. The underground bakery is fired up every so often for a mini festival. The plan was to have this as the centre of wheat growing. When the railway was still running here, it was an important town, popular with sheep shearers, supplies etc.

Farina had a full walkable grid.

Sand on the track.  The old Ghan track seemed a bit optomistic.

Farina is ruins, once was an important rail town and agricultural centre.

Farina is being stabilised.

A new building that looks old. Louis and Owen, who we met back in Arkaroola, are in the fire place.

On the way into Marree, it rained so much, we were worried that the dirt road would become a slushy mess making driving impossible. It stayed quite solid though.

Me and Marie made it to Marree!

Leigh Creek

Leigh Creek is a typical mining town. The entry is marked by two super huge tyres from coal hauling trucks (normally like 250 odd tonnes per load). After hundreds of kilometres of towns that consist of one general store, it's a vital stop to load right up.







It looks like any modern suburb, wiggly streets to lower car speeds, but expecting that everyone will drive, and new houses, all air conditioned no doubt. The pub is also the hotel. It is a new looking fancy shed.







Posters of the mine, a power shovel, long coal trains, and aerial shots of the mine and town line the walls.








Even the fridge has a proud diagram of the role of coal in electricity production.

 At the front desk, we ask if there's a tour of the coal mine. She said, it's shut down. 480 people out of a job. They've dismantled and removed all the equipment. The town used to have about 8,000 people. It now has about 100 people. Most of the houses are actually empty. It's been shut for about 4 years already. After the mine lease stopped, the government has reverted to ownership. They have no plans and have made no decisions. Those who are left are just hanging on, relying on tourists. It's important to have this town, we say, as tourists need to shop for fruit and veg etc, plus have a night off in a hotel. Without this town we would have run right out of food. The whole reason we stopped is for the supermarket. She agrees. Some people in Innaminka order fruit and veg, then get it delivered on the mail plane. People from all around rely on the town. It's clear from the very large but dead quiet supermarket that it won't be staying like this without intervention.

Proposals include turning it into an artist colony, university outpost for geology students, retirement village. There must be a 100 ways to do it! There's only 100 people left, so that means most homes in town are now empty. Tell that to the homeless.

The exits to the pub have coloured height indicators from the police. I suppose this is so you can get your description, and get the height of the criminal as they're leaving? Were they here in Leigh Creek during the good times?

 The following day, we pile the trolley so high that we need two trolleys after the checkout to get it to the car. We spend like $480.

A box of mild cartons goes on the floor between the kids seats in the back of the car. We pile everything into the draws, two boxes and two more shopping bags. We look a bit ridiculous packing for an hour in the car park. Somehow it fits all in. The boys play with Owen and Molly again. We bump into the another pair of couples from the Arkaroola campground, (and also in William Creek).