Early in the morning I heard a noise, it sounded like either a corroboree or wild dogs. When I got up to stoke the fire, I worked out that it was frogs and owls.
Just before 6:00 I heard a noise that sounded like vehicles driving in, which turned out to be rumbling thunder in the distance. I was just getting up to get ready when Warren said we might be in for a storm, so we got up and by 7:15 we were on our way.
Brad left before us to see if the road was open, he'd meet us on the road coming back if we had to go another way due to road closures. We only heard him a few times, and didn't catch him until Cowards Springs.
The track out was very interesting, over every rise was interesting hills and rock formations. Warren soon left us behind, we only caught up occasionally when he'd stop to take pictures. I figured there was no point pushing and breaking something, so we took it easy and enjoyed it.
It was slowing going from the camp, a few little water crossings, some towers with microwave antenna dishes that are apparently radio repeaters, a work site of some sort, before we eventually got to the road to Copley. This was a lot better, though many "floodway" signs marking places where water would cross the road. We had to slow down, they could be easy, but were usually rough and sometimes muddy. A little later the road was quite greasy and you could see the ruts from people driving through when it was muddy.
We got to Copley, it seemed almost deserted, before going South to Leigh Creek to go shopping and fill up. Got a new headlight globe plus a spare, talked to two couples in a Navara who were interesting in going to Arkaroola. It turned out they'd not long spoken to Warren. He was just leaving the shops when we got there. We also ran into a couple with an "A" van from Woollamia, on their way home. The service station had a sign saying that the water and air were only for people buying fuel, the air compressor wasn't working though. Back up the road to Copley where fortunately the people let us use their compressor and the pub was open for me to get a few boxes of beer.
The road to Marree was sealed in some places, often followed the old Ghan Line, but also had some greasy sections, rutted where people had driven through when the road was mud. Interestingly the Southbound side seemed a lot better and we spent some time on the wrong side of the road.
We didn't stop at Marree, we'd get fuel later and figured the others would be waiting. Apparently they waited here for us for about 25 minutes. We then turned towards Oodnadatta with Coward Springs being our destination.
Some interesting old structures, what looked like a water tank for a steam train, at Alberrie Creek was some interesting old planes standing on their tails with other interesting metal art around as well. There was also a geocache nearby.
We got to Coward Springs around 15:00, the kids playing in the natural spa while we setup and unpacked. You have to light a fire under the water heater "rocket" to have a hot shower. I didn't get a chance but Katrina was quite happy to get a few days grime off.
We'll have more time to explore tomorrow as we plan to stay two nights here before heading to Mount Dare.
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